Hubbard Branch Elementary School

Though Belton ISD tried to activate collaborative learning on previous campuses, our design for Hubbard Branch was the first to truly meet their needs. The replacement elementary adapts a district prototype that we developed alongside staff, parents, community members, and students, who learned about architecture while influencing the look and feel of their future schools.

The layout branches grade-level neighborhoods off a core of shared spaces, including the library, cafeteria, and gym. Each neighborhood is a wide corridor, with interior classroom windows allowing teachers to passively observe student activity in a central collaboration zone.
Intentional design choices make the collaboration zone effective, including plush communal seating, flexible technology, integrated marker boards, and accent colors that provide wayfinding and identity.

Our work stayed adaptable and on schedule. Site conditions complicated the one-story prototype, so we stacked the learning neighborhoods. By preserving trees, we aligned the project with community values. And when the developer pushed the timeline for providing utilities, we reconfigured drives to make them readily available.