) ■ HOW TO BUILD SCHOOL HOUSES; WITH SYSTEMS OF Heating, Lighting, AND VENTILATION. BY G. P. RANDALL, Architect, Chicago, III. CHICAGO : GEO. K. HAZLITT & CO., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, 1882. Below I give the reader a list of some of the prominent build- ings for educational purposes designed by me, but this list only comprises a small part of what we call public school buildings that I have designed: Worthwestern University, ETanston, III. ETanston Collese for Iiadies, Evanston, III. liadies College of Madison University, Madison, "Wis. Mercer University, Macon, G&. Academy of the Sacred Heart, St. lioais. Mo. St. Mary's Academy, lieavenivortli, Kan. Jefferson liiberal Institute, Jefferson, "Wis. State STormal University, IVormal, 111. State Xormal School, l¥inona, Minn. State Kormal School, WhitcTrater, IVis. State Xormal School, Plattville, ^Vis. High School, Marshall, Mich. High School, Clinton, lU. High School, Atchinson, Kan. High School, Denver, Col. High School, Madison, l¥is. High School, Kankakee, 111. High School, VTinona, Minn. High School, Berlin, Tl^is. High School, L.itchfleld, 111. High School, Olney, 111. High School, Gralesburg, 111. High School, Red Wing, Minn. High School, Aurora, 111. High School, liaporte, Ind. High School, Plymouth, Ind. High School, Menomeuee, Mich. High School, Marinette, W^is. High School, Dodgeville, Wis. High School, Omaha, Xeb. High School, St. Paul, Minn. And several hundred Ward School buildings scattered over the country, South to the Gulf States, East as far as Pennsylvania and Vermont, West to Colorado, North to Minnesota, and within a radius of five hundred miles of this city a " fearful heap " of them. 3221 5 y 1 HOW TO BUILD SCHOOL HOUSES; WITH SYSTEMS OF Heating, Lighting, AND s VENTILATION. BY GfP. RANDALL, Architect, Chicago, III. CHICAGO : GEO. K. HAZLITT & CO., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, 1882. -4— tendance with the addition of the necessary traveling expenses. The want of proper superintendence often results in notori- ous imposition on the part of the builder, and great injury to the building, and generally ends in law-suits. In the thirty years I have been in this business, there has never but once — a single instance — been a law-suit growing out of differences that I could not amicably settle between the contractor and my client; but I can recall scores of instances where disastrous suits have come to my clients for no other reason than because they intrusted the management of the work to mechanics, themselves, or other in- experienced persons. It don't pay. My commission will be on the entire cost of the huilding, mclndmg heating apparatus, extras, if any, etc., and will be made known on application. The plans will include all necessary scale and detail draw- ings, and if an important building, sometimes two or more copies have to be provided, and with these full and complete specifica- tions of all the work. The specifications will generally be printed. I invite any and all persons into whose hands this may fall, to give me early notice of buildings of every kind, to be erected, in their vicinity, and the address of persons interested; and if it results in benefit to myself, the party first giving me such infor- mation will be suitably rewarded. REFERENCES. My acquaintance throughout the northwest, within a radius of five or six hundred miles of this city, with the business men, and especially the mechanics and builders of the country, is ex- tensive, and for the reason that buildings of my designing may be found in almost every town and hamlet; but if not sufficiently known where such services may be wanted, I may safely refer to the business men generally of Chicago, where I have lived now over twenty-five 3'ears, or those outside of Chicago, with whom I have made business acquaintances during that period of time; and wha of all these, at home or abroad, can point to a single act of my life — 5— that will not square with the strictest principles of integrity? or in building construction, with the soundest principles of the con- structive art? I have built a great many COURT HOUSES, COLLEGES, universities, churches, railway and other heavy and important structures, and have never had to endure the mortification of see- ing them fall down, settle, or crack, for want of proper construc- tion; and while it may sound a little egotistic for me to say this, I challenge any man in the profession to show a cleaner record. BIOGRAPHICAL. I am now nearly sixty-one years old. I was born and raised a mechanic — my father having been a practical builder and mill- wright before me, which business I followed till twenty -five years old. After this I was engaged five years in the construc- tion of several of the important railways in my native (Green Mountain) state and elsewhere; and since thirty, have made the business of an architect my chief livelihood, with scientific studies interspersed as a kind of recreation,-, for I have in fact seldom had any other during all these long years. Some half a dozen years since I became so much engrossed in my scientific studies that I partially retired from active business as an archi- tect, having turned the chief management of my business over to a partner; but I soon found that a business, and that, to, one of the largest ever attained by any practitioner in this country, would soon go to naught when that individuality which had built it up, was eliminated from it. I therefore, some two or three years since, again buckled on my armor as of yore, and am now fast gaining my prestige of some twelve or fifteen years ago, when I employed twelve to fifteen of the best draughtsmen and assistants that I could find east or west. ]Sr. B. — It is my purpose at no distant day to issue a pamphlet similar to this one, on the subject of Church Db- siaNiNG, another on Jail Constettotion, of which I have de- -4— tendance with the addition of the necessary traveling expenses. The want of proper superintendence often results in notori- ous imposition on the part of the builder, and great injury to the building, and generally ends in law-suits. In the thirty years I have been in this business, there has never but once — a single instance — been a law-suit growing out of differences that I could not amicably settle between the contractor and my client; but I can recall scores of instances where disastrous suits have come to my clients for no other reason than because they intrusted the management of the work to mechanics, themselves, or other in- experienced persons. It don't pay. My commission will be on the entire cost of the huilding-, mclnding heating apparatus, extras, if any, etc., and will be made known on application. The plans will include all necessary scale and detail draw- ings, and if an important building, sometimes two or more copies have to be provided, and with these full and complete specifica- tions of all the work. The specifications will generally be printed. I invite any and all persons into whose hands this may fall, to give me early notice of buildings of every kind, to be erected, in their vicinity, and the address of persons interested; and if it results in benefit to myself, the party first giving me such infor- mation will be suitably rewarded. REFERENCES. My acquaintance throughout the northwest, within a radius of five or six hundred miles of this city, with the business men, and especially the mechanics and builders of the country, is ex- tensive, and for the reason that buildings of my designing may be found in almostevery town and hamlet; but if not sufficiently known where such services may be wanted, I may safely refer to the business men generally of Chicago, where I have lived now over twenty-five j'ears, or those outside of Chicago, with whom I have made business acquaintances during that period of time; and wha of all these, at home or abroad, can point to a single act of my life — 5— that will not square with the strictest principles of integrity? or in building construction, with the soundest principles of the con- structive art? I have built a great many COURT HOUSES, COLLEGES, universities, churches, railway and other heavy and important structures, and have never had to endure the mortification of see- ing them fall down, settle, or crack, for want of proper construc- tion; and while it may sound a little egotistic for me to say this, I challenge any man in the profession to show a cleaner record. BIOGRAPHICAL. I am now nearly sixty-one years old. I was born and raised a mechanic — my liather having been a practical builder and mill- wright before me, which business I followed till twenty-five years old. After this I was engaged five years in the construc- tion of several of the important railways in my native (Green Mountain) state and elsewhere; and since thirty, have made the business of an architect my chief livelihood, with scientific studies interspersed as a kind of recreation,-, for I have in fact seldom had any other during all these long years. Some half a dozen years since I became so much engrossed in my scientific studies that I partially retired from active business as an archi- tect, having turned the chief management of my business over to a partner; but I soon found that a business, and that, to, one of the largest ever attained by any practitioner in this country, would soon go to naught when that individuality which had built it up, was eliminated from it. I therefore, some two or three years since, again buckled on my armor as of yore, and am now fast gaining my j)restige of some twelve or fifteen years ago, when I employed twelve to fifteen of the best draughtsmen and assistants that I could find east or west. N. B. — It is my purpose at no distant day to issue a pamphlet similar to this one, on the subject of Chukcii De- signing, another on Jail Construction, of which I have de- — 8- ticable, because in facing the teacher the pupils would face a glaring light. In making these designs I have aimed at the most rigid SECOND FLOOR.— Four Boom School House. Reference. — A, B, School Rooms. D, D, Wardrobes. economy in everything consistent with a good building. The rooms are a paralleogram, generally about 25 feet wide, which FIRST FLOOR. A Four Room School House at Prophetstown, III. (now building.) require 26 feet joist for the second floors, and to get longer joist is to increase the expense very considerably, owing to the greater expense of procuring such heavy timbers. PROPHETSTOWN SCHOOL HOUSE. Then I make the room from 33 to 36 or 38 feet long, accord- ing to circumstances and the number of pupils to be seated in each. A room 25 feet wide will give space for six rows of single desks, and 33 to 35 long will provide for ten tiers of seats the other way. N. B. Persons ordering plans should always give the num- —10— ber of sittings in each room, and leave the architect to determine its size. Suggestions as to size, however, are always in order. I would never, except in a crowded city, advise that a house be built more than two stories high above the basement or cellar, which should have good concrete floors, so that they may be kept clean and tidy, and besides being fuel and furnace rooms, they can be used by the children for exercise in foul weather, or in some eases may be fitted up for lunch rooms. In designing such a building, with four school rooms on a floor, and with special reference to the best arrangement for light, the outline of the building necessarily becomes what we call ir- regular. With architects this is not generally considered a fault, but with persons of uncultivated tastes in architecture, it is not an uncommon occurrence that tliey object to this, and want a reg- ular parallelogram in plan, with a front door in the center, and the building equally balanced on each side. This may sometimes be in good taste, but it depends on the style of finish and details , of the work. They can generally be made either way in the front, if the interior arrangements are not arbitrary, but they generally will be if the subject of light has the attention it de- serves. School directors should always make suggestions freely as to what they think they want, and if I cannot make such combina- tions as they suggest, I will do the best I can towards it. In making new designs for such buildings, the drawings will be penciled and then traced on thin paper and submitted to the inspection and approval of the Board, and in no case do I make up such drawings until the design has the approval of the Board or individual for whom I make it. WARDROBES. In the arrangement of school houses there are several ways of constructing these important adjuncts. "When I commenced to de- sign school buildings for this city (Chicago) 25 years ago, I found that in those previously built the wardrobes were rooms very nearly square, and the sexes occupied them together. I made these in the new buildings long and narrow, this form —11— giving the greatest amount of wall surface on which to hang clothing. About 15 or 16 years ago, in building the State Nor- mal school at Winona, Minn., and afterwards the City High school there, in place of these long narrow rooms, I made a suc- cession of boxes or wardrobes, each about 2x2 feet square, with doors in front and hooks on the other three sides. A half dozen scholars more or less could use each of these. They were usually built at the end of the school room opposite the teacher's dais, but more lately I have located them on each side of the teacher's dais or platform. These small wardrobes have the advantage of occupying about one half less floor space than those in the form FIRST FLOOR PJ^Al^.— High School Building, Dodgeville, Wis. Reference.— A, A, School Rooms ; C, Stairway Hall. of a parallelogram, and hence the building would be somewhat reduced in size and cost. The cut representing the floors of the Dodgeville, Wis., school house, has this arrangement of ward- robes, the boys using those on one side and the girls on the other. This arrangement has the advantage of keeping the pu- —12— pils, as they come and go, always under the eye of tlie teachers, and without leaving their dais. But I have more recently made what I consider an improve- ment on this small wardrobe arrangement. Placing the flue stack, as at Dodgeville, back of the teacher's platform, I locate the boys' and girls' wardrobes on each side, as shown in the plans for a house lately designed for Maywood, one of the suburban SECOND FLOOR PLAN. References. — B, large School Room ; E, Recitation Room ; D, Apparatus and Library; A, A, ordinary School Rooms; H, Principal's office; F, G, Cloak Rooms; C, Hall. towns of this city. These rooms are separated from the main room by a thin plank partition about seven or seven and one- half leet high, with door, and open above, so that the rooms are finely lighted from the windows that light the main room. In the splayed surfaces or sides of these rooms, next the teacher's dais, there is a small window, through which the teacher from her position, standing at her desk, can observe all the movements of the scholars while inside the rooms. One of —13- these rooms is for each of tlie sexes. This arrangement is un- doubtedly the best and most economical, while it affords what I think will be the most satisfactory solution of the problem, how best to arrange the wardrobes in a school-house. HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, DODGEVILLE, WIS. —14— Blackboards. 1 arrange blackboards on all sides of the room. That on the side back of the teacher is tlie width of the flue stack, or about seven feet, and on the other three sides they occupy all the wall space, and in height from the crayon shelf under, to the top of the door, or about five and a half feet wide. Ventilating School Building's. The subject of heating and ventilating school buildings is one of great importance; and while most school boards are ready to admit its necessity, they do not know how to go about it, nor to whom they should apply for information on this subject. There is a general supposition that if they are going to build they must of necessity have an architect, and they su^^pose that all architects are familiar with the subject of ventilation, and risrht here is their first and fatal mistake. But the first thing that a school director should learn, is to distinguish between those who are real experts in this business, and those who are simply pretenders; between those whose ideas, are based on sound scientific principles, and mere copyists. The unskillful ventilating engineer is likely to make a smoke flue too large or too small, or so unshapely as to defy all princi- ples of pneumatics and their practical application, and is sur- prised when he finds that his flue smokes at the wrong end, and naturally concludes that he has it wrong end up, though he cannot tell why it works thus. A man who can arrange all the parts of a system of ventila- tion so there shall be no want of harmony between the science or theory and its practical application, has attained to a, high place in his profession, and the school director who, after having listened to the unscientific declaimer, can determine whether the man is, in reality, an expert in the business, instead of an ignorant pretender, has at least one fitting qualification for the position to which a confiding constituency have called him. —15— Several Systems of Yentilation. There are several systems of ventilation applicable to school houses, one of which is known as the upward system, or upward exhaust in contradistinction to the downward exhaust, or as it is more commonly called, the EUTTAlSr [SYSTEM. , In the construction of school buildings, 1 have generally adhered to the Ruttan system for ventilation. This Ruttan system, so called, was introduced into this part of the country some twenty years ago, by the patentee, the Hon. Henry Kuttan, of Coburg, Canada West; but has since under- gone great modifications and improvements, by and through the agency of the successors to his business, and the writer; and I will stake my reputation as a ventilating engineer and architect, that in respect to ventilation the designs I am now making have no peers in this country. This Euttan principle is to take the air out of the room at the floor; and sometimes, and as was generally his practice, down to the cellar or basement, thence to an exhaust shaft; and on this account it is sometimes spoken of or referred to as the DOWJSTWARD EXHAUST principle. There is, however, another method which is perhaps more in accord with science, of which the writer claims to have made the first application, in this city, at least, in the building known as the Union Park Congregational church ; and this, in contradistinction to the first or Ruttan method, I have called the UPWARD EXHAUST system. But I will say here, that in the application of the two systems to school houses, my preference is for the downward exhaust, or Ruttan system, and chiefly on account of certain advantages in the application of the two. I shall therefore re- serve further explanation of the upward system until I publish a pamphlet on the construction, heating, and ventilation of churches, which I hope to do at no distant day. —16— Now if the reader will agree with me, as most intelligent people do, that the Rattan system \?> par excellence the correct system for heating and ventilating a school room, I will explain somewhat more in detail the general: principles on which it is based. I have already said that the air is to be exhausted out of the room at the floor. In the upward exhaust system as applied by myself in the U. P. Church, the air is taken out at the ceiling. FIRST FLOOR VljK^.—Maywood, Sehool House, {not yet huilt.) Reference. — A, B, C, D, School Rooms; E, E, E, Cloak Rooms. Euttan took it out through the base of the room, and this method has not yet been improved upon. T am aware that some architects for whose opinions I have great respect, set registers in the floor and at difierent points in the room, I presume for the purpose of producing a change of air in these sections, but this I deem a serious error, for the reason, that around such registers in the —17— floor there must of necessity be a movement of air towards the register, and no child can sit with his or her feet within the in- fluence of these currents without having cold feet. It does not matter what may be the temperature of the air in the room, mov- ing currents will always absorb and carry off the heat from the body and produce cold, which is the absence of heat. In my own practice I have Jalways preferred Mr. Ruttan's views as to the best method of getting the air out of the room. There is another and all important reason for its passage through the base, and it is this: There are generally in every SECOND FLOOR PLAN. J Reference. — A, B, C, D, School Rooms ; F, Principal's oflace. school room two or more outside walls, or walls that are exposed to the outside cold, and these walls will be penetrated with frost, and though they may, as they always should, be furred inside and the laths nailed to the furrings, yet the effect of walls so sit- uated is to make a much colder surface inside the room than will be found on the surface of inside walls. -18— Again, the windows for lighting these rooms must necessa- rily be located in these outside walls, and this, too, will exert a powerful influence in absorbing the heat that comes in contact with the glass, if, as is generally the case, the windows are built single, in which case the air cooled by contact with the glass, and that cooled by contact with the comparatively cold wall surface, will be condensed, and its specific gravity being increased thereby, it will immediately fall to the floor. Now, if the outlet for impure and cold air be through a perforated base, it will at once pass out of the room, but if it pass out through exit regis- ters scattered around the floor, as soon as it strikes the floor it will at once glide along its surface, making a zone of cold air on the floor till it finds these registers. «« -= ^df y^ ^^^ew ===^=- ^fl^^ ^ ^m ^S= I ^M ^g'^^"^^ H^r =^ ^s ^ H H^^B m^ i n 1 '1 ' K ■1 ly gP^ ^B SSH HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, MAYWOOD, ILL. —19— It should require no further argument to enable the reader to decide which of the two methods is the preferable one. In my practice in jears past, I have generally perforated the base the entire length of the two sides of the room adjacent to the outside walls, but under some circumstances it may do to place this per- forated or exit base only under the windows. It was an idea with Mr. Kuttan that the air in such a room, or indeed in any well ventilated room, should move in and out of the room in Buch imperceptible currents as not to be felt by the occupants of the room. ISfothing could be more correct in principle or prac- tice. The reverse of this will produce colds as surely as the vic- tim gets within their influence. How common an occurence it is for people sitting near a window to begin to sneeze, and fre- quently they imagine that the cold currents they feel are wind .currents, entering around the sash, and begin to calculate the utility of having window strips, etc., when in fact it is the con- densation or cooling of the air in the room by contact with the cold glass by which a downward current is produced as already stated. It matters but little whereabouts in the room the warm fresh air is introduced, whether at the floor, through the ceiling, or through the wall between floor and ceiling, and whether atone or a dozen places, as regards the heating and ventilating of the room, but there may be other reasons, and important ones, that should govern the architect in his choice of position for the inlet registers. On account of security against fire, I generally set the register in the wall above the blackboards, or eight or nine feet above the floor. Now, we will suppose we have a large volume of moderately heated air coming into the room from the furnace. As soon as it is in the room it goes at once to the ceiling, and spreads out over the entire surface in a level zone, and as this process goes on there must at once commence an exit of cold or foul air (the coldest in the room) [at and through the perforated base, and very soon, or in the space of five to ten minutes, this zone of warm air will reach entirely to the floor, and will have driven the cold air out of the room^ for it should not be supposed that we can get the warm fresh air into the room unless we provide a —20— proper exit for the cold and foul air already in it. And here let me say that one and not the least of the advantages of exhaust- ing the air at the bottom of the room is that as we fill the room with warm pure air from the top down, the walls and ceiling, if cold at the start, are soon after in contact with warm air, and in a few minutes such walls will become sensibly warm, and this at once stops all down cold currents that would otherwise exist near the wall surface. This is the chief advantage that the downward has over the upward exhaust systems. In some buildings the two systems work admirably together in the same room, though to some this assertion may seem a little paradoxical. Observe, now, the advantage of having our perforated base chiefly on the cold side or sides of the room. As this is the side of exit for the cold air, the exhaust naturally draws the same zone of air above, to these sides of the room, so that what would otherwise be the coldest and most uncomfortable place in these rooms — the tier of seats next the outside walls — are in fact the warmest and best ventilated parts of the room. Having provided a way for the foul air to escape out of the room let us follow it a little farther. Mr. Ruttan's method was to gather the foul air to some convenient point under the floor and take it down to the cellar or basement and then gather it, through the agency of horizontal ducts in or under the cellar, to a large ventilating shaft, and through this it was exhausted to the open air above the roof To this exhausting air-shaft the writer added a smoke pipe in the center to which, and through which the smoke was gathered and passed from the furnaces to the open air. This pipe radiating heat in the ventilating shaft, was so great an addition to the motive power of ventilation, that it at once came into general use, and I apprehend there are but* few people who do not suppose or think that this radiating pipe is a part of the Rnttau system. The credit of the invention belongs as I think to a Connecticut architect, Mr. Stone, of New Haven, if 1 have been correctly informed. The writer found it in a Philadelphia hospital some twenty-five years ago, and realizing its great value, introduced it to and with the Ruttan system, as he thinks, with excellent results. —21— But in the course of time and after long study I have found what in my judgment is a better arrangement, one less liable to get out of repair or to be affected by wind currents, and withal a simpler and better method. By reference to one of the floor plans in the accompanying engravings it will be seen that there are several flues directly behind the teacher's dais or platform. I make a gathering or foul air chamber under this platform and between it and the top of the furnace, into which all the foul air that passes out of the room through the perforated base, finds its way by passing be- tween the joists and furrings on top of them, and from this foul air chamber the air passes into one of the flues in this adjacent stack up to the open air and out of the building. I set the fur- nace against this stack of flues and under the platform, and pass the heat directly from the furnace into the flues without inter- vening metallic pipes. This flue is cut off at the top of the large register behind the teacher's dais, and through this register the air passes from the flue into the room. In this way there can be no possible danger as there is no wood-work in contact witli or even near the register, and conse- quently no danger from flre originating around these furnaces need be apprehended. It will be seen to, that each set of two rooms has a furnace and a full complement of warm air, ventil- ating and smoke flues independent of all others and this will pre-