Our proposal for this competition, a pre-K through eighth grade school with more than 100,000 square feet of program, focused on the elaboration of two primary concepts.  First, the physical relationship of the school to the urban context was of great concern due to its importance within the community.  Our design provided strong civic connections by creating spaces which could function as gathering spaces for community events at multiple scales, and by respecting the scale of neighboring buildings in the community.  Second, we proposed three “schools within schools” nested inside the overall building that help bridge the distance between the individual child and the school as a whole.  Together, these concepts promote a dynamic and inclusive learning environment for all the school’s children.