Thought Leadership: School Safety & Security - Hollis+Miller
The right security solution for your students
Flexible classrooms, visibility; daylight, secure spaces; student empowerment, safety; traffic flow, maximizing square footage; privacy, inclusion – when designing a learning environment, there are a lot of priorities to consider.
Everyone comes to the table with experience and expertise that benefits students; however, oftentimes those priorities conflict. Our Hollis + Miller team sees ourselves as more than your designer, we’re also your mediator and advisor, helping you, your stakeholders and community find the right solution that empowers your students to innovate and explore while also keeping them safe.
Working with more than 75 communities in the last five years to design safe and secure learning environments, has given us experience finding tailored solutions for each educational partner. We bring these lessons learned to every design conversation, working with key stakeholders to strike the balance between innovation and security.
Exercising best practices for student safety
Each educational partner we work with approaches safety and security differently, so we tailor our solutions.
At a high school focused entirely on project-based learning, there are no traditional classrooms, which means there are far less walls and doors. A secure entry at the school’s entrance and at each wing provides that second level of security.
Another district decided to install security glass in every exterior, and many interior, windows at every school, elementary, middle and high. As we incorporate these increased security measures into renovations and additions, we’re creating a seamless integration.
Other districts want to relocate administrative offices to create secure entries. In older buildings, the offices where visitors would check in were located deep into the school, rather than at the entrance. Relocating offices to classroom spaces, converting entry spaces into attendance and visitor check in offices and designing additions to the entrance for secure entries are projects that we have done hundreds of times.