The first time we visited Dream Lake Elementary, we were blown away by the energy and passion of both the staff and their students. A K-5 school in Apopka, Florida, Dream Lake was designated as a School of Innovation for introducing a new learning structure and creating a student “house” system that encompasses Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art and Math (STREAM). Dream Lake is also a Center for Special Needs Children and offers many educational after-school programs for the community. Its classrooms are decked out with elaborate themes, and its hallways are covered with colorful murals. 

We were invited to tour Dream Lake and collaborate on how to create a functional, more holistic campus. Dr. Martin, the school’s principal, expressed that she wanted the school’s outdoor areas to act as an extension of the inside, creating spaces designed for learning, fun and inspiration. Her dream was music to our ears. Helping children experience the outdoors and learn to love nature? We were completely on board.

Building Blocks for Success

After touring the school, we worked with Dream Lake’s leaders to create a vision plan that established a framework for campus improvements and provided guidelines for achieving several goals:

• Beautifying the campus

• Providing shade

• Installing a memorial garden

• Creating an outdoor stage and/or classroom space

• And adding seating areas

Using our 6D design process, we developed the vision plan in collaboration with both staff and students, giving them insight into the field of landscape architecture and challenging them to think about outdoor spaces in new ways. 

Dream: After a kickoff meeting with the team, we hosted an initial brainstorming session and created a scavenger hunt activity to gauge student interest in potential programming for the campus space. After reviewing the results from the scavenger hunt, we held a virtual “dream” charrette for them to share their visions for the campus and vote on their favorite elements.

Discover: During this phase, students learned to look at their campus like designers. We walked them through a campus mapping activity, where student groups took inventory of the existing campus conditions.

Design: Now that we had a clear idea of the desired functionality and programming for the space, we began “truthing” out our ideas and envisioning physical spaces. The scholars learned to put their ideas to paper during a “design” charrette at Dream Lake Elementary.

Document/Deliver: Through our internal design process, we created a vision book and campus vision plan to review with the students, faculty, school board members and city commissioners. After hearing their feedback, we worked to incorporate their changes and finalize the plan.

Discuss: We collaborated with staff and students throughout the entire process, integrating their ideas with ours to create a final plan that truly met their wants and needs. 

We loved working with Dream Lake Elementary so much that we even threw in a few “extracurricular” activities. With support from Cherrylake, we held a tree-planting day and planted three live oak trees with the students. We also held a school supply drive ahead of the fall semester, as well as a food drive during the holidays for the school pantry.

A Straight-A Report Card

As designers, we love being creative and collaborating on new ideas. But even more than that, the best part about our profession is the positive impact it can have on our community. Teachers and students alike shared what this project—and our partnership—meant to them.

“The gold standard for project-based learning is when we have the unique opportunity to engage the children in real-world, authentic learning experiences. This gold standard is exactly what Dix.Hite has provided for our students.”
– Kayla Blankenship, teacher

“One thing I learned is that … I actually have a say in what happens with the school. You don’t have to be an adult, staff member, or principal to help the school be better. I also learned that when you are working with others, a lot of things can happen.”
– Ashton, student

“I liked marking on the blueprints where we would put trees and shade. And I learned that if you’re working together with someone, you can really make a difference at the school.” – Jake, student

“Working with Dix.Hite has inspired me to start researching and liking architecture. [It] really helped a lot of students learn how to map stuff out on the blueprint, which inspires them to do [landscape] architecture because they can make a difference anywhere across the world.” – Landon, student

Even the school board members and city commissioners were excited about bridging the gap between education and professionals. 

“This partnership between [Dix.Hite] and our local school, Dream Lake Elementary, was just a beautiful example of what collaboration really can look like when the community is engaged with our local schools.” – Melissa Byrd, Vice Chair

As much as we were able to teach Dream Lake Elementary about landscape architecture, we learned lessons from them along the way as well. And as we went through the process, we fell even more in love with the school and its mission.