Crosstown High School

1365 Tower Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104 United States

Building Area (sf): 67,627

Completion: August 2018

Architect of Record:

ANF Architects

Rebecca Conrad, AIA, Partner In Charge; Amanda Whitaker, AIA, Project Architect; Leigh Barker, NCIDQ, Interior Design; Liz Engel, NCIDQ, Interior Design

• Owner/Client:
• General Contractor: Grinder, Taber & Grinder
• Electrical:
• Engineering:
  SSR, Inc.: Structural, Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical Engineering
• Other:
  Wonder By Design, Educational Design Consultant
• Photography:
  Photo 1, 2, 3, 4: Ryan Rhea
  Photo 5: Joe Luther
  

Reimagine high school by rethinking the conventional classroom, eschewing locker-lined corridors, and creating a collaborative, energetic, flexible environment that supports an evolution in education.

Nested in the heart of a former Sears distribution warehouse in Memphis, TN, this innovative 500 student high school is an integral component within a newly transformed vertical urban village. This one million sf warehouse lay vacant for nearly two decades before its rebirth as a vibrant hub for education, wellness, and the arts.

Uniquely situated on the first, fourth, and fifth floors of the east tower of this iconic Art Deco building, this public high school provides students with multi-generational mentoring and exposure to medical professionals, artists, scientists, community leaders, other educators, and community partners who live and work within the concourse and surrounding community.

Conceived in response to the XQ Super School call to rethink the American high school, this school, at its foundation, is a learning lab. Students, educators, and community leaders were partners throughout the collaborative design process exploring the future of high school education. Fundamental to this process, was a series of exploratory workshops with these partners that generated words and images descriptive of what the ideal high school could be. The following: energetic, innovative, fun, bright, futuristic, and inspiring…became the project’s design drivers.