The Captain Albert W. Stevens School in Belfast is a two-story 54,514 SF elementary school designed for 330 students. This bright, welcoming K-grade 5 school replaced three small, older schools. A key objective was to maintain the close-knit feel of the previous schools while serving a larger student population. This was achieved, in part, through a cross-shaped design, connecting classroom wings with shared spaces.
Two-story classroom wings comprise two legs of the cross. Grades K and 1 are on the first floor; grades 2 through 5 are on the second floor. The other two legs consist of the school’s gymnasium and cafeteria. A two-story library connects the classroom wings, and a two-story lobby entrance with central stair bridging the upper classroom wings completes the center cross.
Themed color schemes for each grade level are used to aid wayfinding and enhance a student’s progression through the different grade levels of the building. The school is named in honor of Belfast native, Captain Albert William Stevens. Stevens was a U.S. Army officer, balloonist, and early aerial photographer. He took the first photograph of Earth’s curvature in 1930 and the first photographs of the Moon’s shadow on the Earth during a solar eclipse in 1932.