Norma Dorsey Elementary    Garland, TX

Norma Dorsey Elementary School was designed as a prototype elementary school to accomodate 800 students on a sloping, sixteen acre site.

The prototype was developed to accomodate thirty-seven feet of fall across the site, with seven feet of fall occurring within the building.

The selection of exterior materials, with varied use of colors and textures, was chosen to emulate materials in the surrounding neighborhood and to provide the opportunity to change the physical appearance of the exterior fo the building on subsequent site adaptations.

Internal zoning and circulation consists of active academic areas and administration located towards the front of the site, with passive academic areas, pods or classrooms, located towards the rear of the site. Circulation occurs through a series of secondary corridors in each of the grade level pods. The secondary corridors connect to the primary corridor and core academic areas.

This particular prototype was based on a prior educational specification and prototype developed for a flat site. The size of the prototype elementary school totals 72,200 s.f.


Work completed while associated with
Burleson Nelson Shiver
and Burleson Singleton Architects.



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