Elevating Learning Through Design: The Aaron Milken Center at WISE

The Aaron Milken Center (AMC) at Stephen Wise Temple creates an environment for the youngest learners to grow through exploration, play, and meaningful interaction with their surroundings. Taking inspiration from the hillside views, SALT Landscape Architects (SALT) and Perkins & Will (PW) created a state-of-the-art campus that seamlessly integrates architecture with nature to cultivate an inspiring and engaging educational experience.

The AMC campus draws its identity from the natural landscape. The campus blends indoor and outdoor spaces to encourage hands-on learning and continuous discovery, allowing movement between classrooms, gardens, and landscapes to feel seamless. By blending the natural environment into every element of the campus, AMC promotes ecological awareness and curiosity, helping children uncover their innate connection to the environment. Native and drought-tolerant planting reinforces sustainability and reflects the regional plant ecology. Sensory elements, including water features and subtle acoustic components, introduce opportunities for observation and interaction, enriching the learning environment through sound, movement, and texture. Shaded outdoor classrooms extend learning into planted settings, allowing children to engage with natural systems in a direct and immersive way. This integrated approach also extends beyond learning, creating a setting that supports connection and collaboration among students, families, and the broader community.

Together, these strategies create an environment where architecture and landscape operate as an integrated whole, supporting exploration, connection, and a strong sense of place. The campus not only meets the needs of its current learners but also establishes a lasting framework that encourages growth, community, and engagement for generations to come.

Indoor & Outdoor Learning Environments

Each classroom at the AMC opens directly to the outdoors so children can move fluidly between interior learning spaces and exterior rooms as part of their daily experience.
• Sensory Gardens promote experiential learning by engaging sound, sight, touch, and movement.
• A dedicated Teaching Kitchen and food garden help children understand where food comes from and the care it takes to grow and prepare it, building early appreciation for food, nutrition, and shared preparation.
• Flexible Classrooms adapt to a range of teaching styles and group configurations, supporting both collaborative and independent learning throughout the day.
• Floor to ceiling windows allow Natural Light inside, strengthening the connection to the outdoors.

Site Terracing

The terraced campus enhances the harmony between built space and the natural landscape, making full use of the hillside while establishing a connected “village” of classrooms and shared spaces.
• Terracing the buildings geometry allowed for retention of the land’s natural contours and maintained continuity with the topography.
• Three Distinct Roof Gardens serve as spaces for play, exploration, and gathering.
• Multi-Level Shading Elements range from custom canopy structures and perforated metal screens to shade sails, trees, and overhangs. These shade elements work together to regulate light and temperature, creating comfortable microclimates and diffused daylight across classrooms, terraces, and landscape areas.

Details and Architectural Elements

The architectural features of AMC support learning, creativity, and community engagement.
• Façade materials and textures blend with the landscape’s vibrant hues and existing campus building materials.
• Specialized Learning Spaces
o An Art Studio with natural light and outdoor access to inspire creativity.
o A Music Room is acoustically optimized for learning and performance.
o The Beit Midrash, a dedicated space for spiritual and cultural education.
• The Community Centered Design of the campus supports educational activities during the day and community gatherings into evenings and weekends. The terraces, especially, serve as flexible hubs for social, educational, and religious events, fostering connection across the Stephen Wise community year-round.

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