Discovering Partnerships Session | LearningSCAPES 2024 Conference

Call to Action:

Contemplate and outline a list of potential partnerships for your school district.
Consider STEM programming and how it correlates to other entities in your community.
Curate design ideas to discuss with your facilities team and other collaborative partners.

Abstract: This presentation will showcase the complex trajectory leading toward the successful opening of the Tulsa Public School’s Stem Center within the Discovery Lab Museum in Tulsa, OK. Creative partnerships are often critical to create successful and long-term solutions for our community’s most needed commodity, public school children. We will showcase how the design team spearheaded the unique collaboration between the Museum and the District, bringing together two clients to accomplish their independent vision and missions in a symbiotic facility, amid other challenges of designing within a highly intricate public-private park (and during a pandemic). We will address some of the challenges involved in the project design, including a condo agreement, financing, and programming, as well as some of the lessons learned along the way.

Learning Objectives:

Learn about integrating and managing a project within a complex partnership of public, private and consulting partners to create an integrated project team.
Understand the challenges of providing a collaborative structure for STEM Programming through a non-profit organizational structure.
Learn ways to provide community engagement to a diverse stakeholder group with a combination of public and private funds.
Explore how to think about providing equitable in STEM Programming across a school district.

Sarah Gould, AIA

Owner, President and CEO, KKT Architects, Inc.

Sarah is the President and CEO of KKT Architects. Education and community are her passions, and she works closely with most school districts in the region. Sarah is Past-President of Oklahoma A4LE and serves on the board of the Foundation for Tulsa Schools. She earned her Master of Architecture from the University of Texas, Austin and her Master of Architectural Urban Studies from the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa.

Jim Boulware, AIA

Principal and Lead Design Architect, KKT Architects, Inc.

Jim demonstrates inspiration, passion, dedication, and leadership in every project. He approaches the design process by listening to clients, helping them prioritize their requirements and goals, then developing possible solutions with them to best determine how the architecture can exceed their expectations. This client input-based problem-solving process drives each project’s aesthetic and ensures the finished building communicates its client’s identity. Jim’s design talents have earned acclaim for himself and KKT. He has a portfolio and slate of awards to substantiate his unique gifts for creating beautiful, and functional architecture. Jim is a graduate of Oklahoma State University.

Core Competency

Educational Visioning
Exhibits an understanding of best and next practices related to educational leadership, programming, teaching, learning, planning and facility design. Establishes credibility with educators, community members and design professionals while conceiving and leading a community-based visioning process. Demonstrates the ability to articulate the impact of learning environments on teaching and learning and uses that ability to facilitate a dialogue that uncovers the unique needs and long-range goals of an educational institution and its stakeholders – translating that into an actionable written/graphic program of requirements for the design practitioner.