Located in Houston’s mid-century Westbury neighborhood, Parker Elementary School houses HISD’s original music magnet program. The building design and site incorporates the school’s focus on music and influence within the community integrating music, students, and neighborhood into one development. This includes a large entry plaza for performances as well as outdoor spaces for teaching and student art. The north-south direction of the building separates bus and car drop-off areas while removing most vehicular circulation from the street. The main entry is pulled back from the street creating the community plaza with a covered stage for public performances.
Teaching occurs not just within the classrooms and special rooms, but rather throughout the school by activating hallways as teaching spaces. Classrooms are placed in learning neighborhoods that extend from the core, each with a unique identifying color scheme. Surrounding the core’s performance space are additional music practice rooms specifically tailored to string instruments.