WILSON SECONDARY SCHOOL -

ARLINGTON

Located in a dense urban context along Arlington’s urban Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor, the school is designed across multiple levels in order to maintain open green space for recreation. 

BIG’s design seeks to maintain the feeling of a one-story school building while still having a vertical organization and the efficiencies afforded by it. The building is designed as a series of classroom bars rotated along a single hinge point. 

The rotation creates cascading green terraces leading from the educational spaces of the school to the athletic field. Beneath the rotated classroom bars is a pair of large public levels with varying ceiling heights. The large and public functions of the building, including auditorium and gymnasium, are placed on these levels and accessible from the main street front, Wilson Boulevard. 

Photo credits: Bjarke Ingels Group.