< projects | Learning Pavilion

Children playing on a wooden playground structure on a sunny day with a clear blue sky, trees, and houses in the background.

“Waiting, learning, playing”

What activities should the structure support?

Texas Society of Architects 2025 Design Award

Children playing on a wooden playground structure in a park during daytime, with trees and houses in the background.
Kids playing on a covered wooden playground with picnic tables in a park.

Elementary

The PTO of a public elementary school came to us about “a deck” after a storm felled large water oak and the deck it sheltered, leaving 5th graders without a shady waiting place. Asking the principal and teachers what they really wanted inspired us to think about everything a deck could be.

A digital architectural drawing of a building surrounded by trees, with people engaged in activities like learning, playing, and walking, each activity represented by different colored icons.

Waiting, learning, and playing

The pavilion serves as an outdoor classroom, a way-point in p.e. class, a place for picnic lunches with parents, and as the shady place for students to gather before school starts and while waiting to be picked up.

The campus is also a city park, and outside of school hours the pavilion is used for birthday parties, scout meetings, and a place to excercise; among other things.

Diagram of a construction process involving installation of a wooden pole with a metal bracket and a hanging wood beam, supported by a cylindrical concrete foundation with rebar reinforcement.

Simple

The pavilion is designed and built with two common materials - lumber from a home improvement store and standard pre-galvanized steel shapes. Simple details, repeated and replaceable parts will allow it to weather, last a lifetime, and be easily repaired whenever needed.

A wooden outdoor pavilion with picnic tables and structures for climbing or playing, situated on a grassy area with trees and buildings in the background under a clear blue sky.

Shaded

As the sun moves, the shade created by the slats, louvers, and grove of new live oaks follows activity around the pavilion.

Construction by Baudier Construction
Photography by Leonid Furmansky

“I have goosebumps!”

— E. H.

All Images

Children playing on a wooden playground structure at a park on a sunny day.
Children playing and sitting in a park under a wooden shelter with blue picnic tables and climbing structures.
Children playing on a wooden playground with slides and picnic tables in a park on a sunny day.
Children playing on a wooden climbing structure in a park during the day.
Children playing on a wooden playground structure in a park, with a clear blue sky overhead.
Children playing on a wooden playground structure outdoors.
Children playing on a wooden playground structure in a park during late afternoon.
A wooden outdoor pavilion with a slanted roof, set on a grassy lawn under a clear blue sky. The pavilion has picnic tables with blue seats underneath.

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