With the war over and resources being again available for civilian use, the United States went through an amazing boom during the 50s and 60s. There was a need for everything: new cars, new planes, new clothes, new appliances, new homes and of course new schools.
During 1950 new educational campuses popped up all over the United states. All of them had this new, modern architecture as a glimpse of a great future. The schools were now moving to the suburbs in large one story, mostly L shaped buildings. Those new schools were spacious, buitl around the needs of the teacher and student. The classrooms are square or even rounded, often walled with glass blocks that were letting the natural light in. The schools were now an active part of the community, a place for adults young and mature to see movies, hear lectures and dance.
Blythe Park School is made of three separate buildings connected by glassed-in corridors. The 3 buildings were: a multifunctional hall (gymnasium, theater, library), main classrooms (this school only goes through 5th grade) and the kidergarden.
Second graders playing "white elephant" in the new gym of the Blythe Park School.
Children relaxing at the kindergaden of the Blythe Park School.
The Blythe Park elementary was built and finished in 1950 in Riverside, Ill. The architects, Perkins and Will of Chicago, conceived it as a low, friendly building, broken into three connected units. In one of the classroom unites, the kindergarden children have a room with a fireplace and an entrace of its own so the older children will not bother them.
In the second building, each classroom has separate toilets and its own workroom for experiments and special projects. Each room is lighted with natural daylight on two sides and decorated in cheerful colors.
The third building is designed to be used by the whole community. In it are a music room, a library, a gymnasium and a theater, all served by a separate entrance, and open to all the citizens of Riverside.
The entire campus is surrounded by a 5 acre public park.
This electrically operated bell at Blythe Park rings twice a day.
Community show at the Blythe Park theater, a space that was also used for school movies projections.
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Play areas of Carmel Woods School, Carmel, Ca, open off classrooms which are shielded from direct sun by roof overhang, have two window walls and are lighted in center by window strip in roof.
Classrooms of Carmel Woods School have child-sized chairs and tables with removable legs so their height can be changed. The outdoor feeling of the big window is enhanced by plants growing inside and out.
School garden, used to study the growth of plants, is tended by fourth graders in their play area at Carmel Woods School. Whole building is best suited to a mild climate, would be impractical in colder places.
Sunshaded school at Corpus Cristi, Texas, has trick windows to admit light and keep out sky glare.
Rounded classrooms at Overlook School, Abington, Pa, eliminate useless corners. Children love the resulting flexibility of shape and move their furniture around in new arrangement every day.
The finger plan, one of te best and most popular of the modern school designs, has a series of square classrooms set at an angle to the corridor. This is the new Ridge Road School at North Haven, Conn.
The new Booker T. Washington highschool in Shreveport, La it's focused on teaching the students the basics for industrial jobs: printing, ceramic tiles, auto repair, bricklaying etc.
This new 250-man dormitory building building at M.I.T. was designed in functionalist style by finnish architect Alvar Alto, with a front like a curving W to give a view of Charles River to most of its rooms and a huge outside staircase to break up a blank side.
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