Amarr 3552 Aluminum Full View Doors Help Create Dynamic Learning Environment

The Amarr 3552 commercial aluminum full view door is a popular overhead door for automobile shops, fire stations, sports complexes and restaurants but what about schools?  Aluminum full view doors are known for letting natural light indoors from the outside, but with this architect-driven project, Amarr 3552 doors also helped to create much-needed flexibility and space in an educational environment.

Amarr 3552 doors add flexibility and space to an innovative learning environment.

Student enrollment at Elysian K-8 School in Billings, Montana doubled in two years, causing the need for a remodel and expansion.  Plans called for an innovative educational environment, unlike any other in the region, with a design that complemented nearby single-family housing developments.  Two architect firms were brought in to achieve this vision.

The aluminum full view doors needed to “break down the barriers of a traditional classroom approach, encourage collaboration among teachers and increase the flexibility of space,” according to Lucas Larson, the school superintendent during the renovation project.  Let’s take a quick look at how the Amarr 3552 doors meet these three needs:

The aluminum full view garage doors met the challenges of the school’s new design.

Break Down Traditional Barriers
The Amarr 3552 aluminum full view doors allow for so much more than the typical classroom-box school design.  With doors located in hallways, in the library, and in classrooms, more natural light is able to filter in and workspaces are dynamic, facilitating learning.  Students can even write and draw on the glass panels in the door with colorful dry-erase markers!

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Encourage Collaboration
When at least one door is open, classroom space is larger and students are able to collaborate together on projects, especially across different disciplines and subjects.  This helps students learn to work together in cross-functional groups.  Teachers can also work together and teach the children in groups.

With the garage doors open, classroom space becomes collaborative for students and teachers alike.

Increase Flexibility of Space
In the school’s Yellowstone Room, art and science are taught separately, but children from up to three different classrooms combine when the Amarr 3552 garage door is open.  The various combinations of open and shut doors create a flexible and exciting environment for teachers and pupils alike.

To learn more about the use of Amarr 3552 aluminum full view garage doors in the Elysian K-8 School, including BIM software usage, safety challenges, and more ways the garage doors were able to meet the facility’s challenges, download the complete architectural case study here.