How to Use the Ed Specs

The Ed Specs encompass elementary, middle, and high schools.  Now that the Ed Specs has transitioned from print to a web-based resource, user-friendly website navigation was considered. There are numerous programs that overlap and interrelate within a school and the website’s wayfinding supports navigation across these various program groupings at each school level. A navigation bar at the top references each school type and provides a dropdown list to access the schools' programmatic grouping.  Page headers incorporate different colors and native plant references to identify major program areas.

With the generous assistance of the Office of Hawaiian Education, the Lei Piko wayfinding concept was adopted for a distinctly Hawaiian sense of place to ensure the design feels authentic to our location.  For those unfamiliar, a Lei Piko is a wili-style (twisted/woven) lei composed of various native plants. In this context, the school becomes the "lei"—a weaving together of distinct values and strengths to support the child. Plants were selected not just for their look, but for their function or the kaona (hidden meaning) of their names.

Website pages start with an overview or summary before the subject content. School program pages provide additional resources for design teams, including spreadsheets, diagrams, and narratives. The Space Program, Adjacency Diagrams, Master Charts, and Furniture Lists on program pages can be downloaded and printed. Typical Spaces includes downloadable floor plans and axonometric graphics.

Space Program

The Space Program is a spreadsheet that includes model programs for elementary, middle and high schools.  

This section consists of a net program breakdown per department, with model square footages, quantity of program space (QTY), net square footage (SF), both individually and total.  Classroom count, number of students, and capacity are included where applicable.  Gross area and site program are accounted for as well.  This gives the designer a target to follow when working with the DOE to keep the schools within budget and as efficient as possible for each project.

The Space Program is utilized to ensure the school can meet the educational, operational, and safety needs of the students and staff, while also providing flexibility for future growth.  It is the responsibility of the design team to incorporate the requirements outlined in this Ed Spec. 

Adjacency Diagrams and Space Descriptions:

The Adjacency Diagrams illustrate the program by showing example configurations and critical adjacencies.  These diagrams illustrate direct connections, visual connections, and close proximities. An Overall Campus Organization layout on the Campus page illustrates relationships between programmatic groupings and may suggest opportunities for vertical building concepts where stacking is possible and appropriate for a specific site. They should not be interpreted as definitive site plans and a final layout will always depend on site-specific variables.

The Adjacency Diagrams are accompanied by narratives that provide greater detail on activities, access, and specific considerations. The Campus page includes narratives for Overall Program Organization, and Site Circulation and Support Services. Individual program pages feature Space Description narratives.

The information found in these diagrams and descriptions are intended for high-level space planning and are to be used concurrently with the Master Charts and Space Program information.

Master Charts:

The Master Charts are utilized once the space planning phase is complete to give further requirements to spaces.

It is the responsibility of the design team to incorporate the requirements outlined in this section.  The spaces provided come directly from the Space Program.  Consult with HIDOE for unique program spaces that may not be reflected in the Space Program or Master Charts requirements.

The Master Charts cover six (6) categories that detail each program space:

• Openings

• Finishes

• Casework

• Fixtures & Equipment

• Plumbing & Mechanical

• Electrical

The Master Charts include three parts.  Master Charts, General Notes, and Specific Criteria Notes.  

1. Master Charts give requirements in spreadsheet form and relate directly to program spaces.  

2. General Notes provide further explanation of criteria specified in the columns and identified with an asterisk. Notes are found on separate tab "00 - General Notes - ALL"

3. Specific Criteria Notes provide further explanation for criteria assigned to specific spaces and are identified with an asterisk in the specific criteria column.  Notes are found at the bottom of individual program tabs.

Master Charts and Notes must all be accounted for or further discussed with HIDOE during the design process.  

Furniture Lists:

The Furniture Lists are provided for space planning use during conceptual design and schematic design phases. A link to the spreadsheet is provided at the bottom of each dropdown page, and the spreadsheet tabs are organized per the Space Program.

Furniture types are described generically (student chairs, conference chairs, task chairs) rather than by specific vendors and model numbers.  This is because every year the HIDOE issues a new "School and Library Furniture Price List" and the vendors and model numbers could change. In addition, vendors may not bid to provide furniture to all islands, so there may be different vendors for the same item during the same year. 

The spreadsheet provides links to the current annual Price List furniture item cut sheets, with a disclaimer that they will only be updated once a year. Designers need to be cognizant that the information may change throughout the year.