A school that blends the best parts of children’s museums and classrooms
Collaboration and small group spaces serve as an extension of the classroom, and teachers use pegboard systems for display. Laura Peters/CannonDesign
"At Seneca Valley’s Ehrman Crest Elementary and Middle School, K-6 students are benefiting from an unusual collaboration. School leaders, architects and the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh teamed up on the $63 million project, which opened in August 2022 after 790 construction days. With a student capacity of 1,400, the 200,000-square-foot facility takes a novel approach, forgoing the traditional school design for the playful, interactive, colorful elements of a children’s museum. Time magazine declared it one of the “Best Inventions of 2022.”
“Public schools and the Children’s Museum had the same goal, which was to educate children, but the way they were doing it and the paths they were taking were wildly different,” says Michael Corb, an architect with CannonDesign, the firm behind the project. He thought, “Why aren’t public schools going about it the way the Children’s Museum does?” - Kellie B. Gormly
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