For the Children's Guild of Baltimore a newly renovated building with interior streetscape and colorful hallways reflects the school's teaching approach - to engage the senses.

Excerpt from article by Ed Gunts
Baltimore Sun 7 December 2000

Founded in 1953, the Children's Guild is one of Maryland's largest providers of special education programs. It serves 250 elementary and middle school pupils with behavioral problems and emotional disabilities on campuses in Baltimore, Annapolis and Prince George's County. 

The private, nonprofit organization teaches pupils who aren't successful in public schools. Its Baltimore program has operated since 1989 out of the former St. Thomas More Catholic School for which it has a long-term lease. 

The designers altered the two-story building to reflect the Guild's approach to teaching, called transformation education, a philosophy that uses an integrated curriculum and environments that stimulate the senses to help children learn to become successful. 

The Children's Guild of Baltimore has transformed its school in Northeast Baltimore into an innovative learning environment for pupils with special needs. 

"It's an exciting environment and very different for a school," said Andrew Ross, president of the Guild. "A lot of school buildings can be foreboding. We want to motivate students with a learning environment that touches the emotions, stimulates the intellect and engages the senses."

The centerpiece of the redesigned school is "Transformation Station," a lobby and gathering place that features an interior street-scape with a child-size art museum, animal sanctuary, newsstand, city hall and school store. 

Colorful hallways and kiosks, classroom displays, a cafe with changeable themes, a refurbished gymnasium and a new administrative office suite were also created as part of the revamped learning environment. 

Ross said the Guild is so pleased with the results that it is redesigning its other schools to incorporate some of the same concepts. 

"A lot of these ideas are applicable to public schools in general," he said. 

© 1996-2010 RM Sovich Architecture. First posted 1 November 1996      Architects in Baltimore, Maryland