Design and Construction
The design and construction of the school was at the time considered to be very advanced. With a concrete superstructure and wood roof and supporting beams, the school resembles a ski lodge. The groups of beams put together on the front side of the school, resembling trees some say, help with stability and support during an earthquake. Also the lights in the many of the classrooms are hung from thin cables to allow sway, again in the event of an earthquake.Technology was a key area of expenditure, with BC Tel (now Telus) and SD45 investing in hundreds of kilometres of fibreoptic cable and extensive audio-visual networking equipment provided by Dynacom. The result was the most technologically advanced school in the province – televisions in each classroom were networked with a tape room and broadcast centre which provided a morning news slide show (as well as VHS and DVD presentations in classrooms), fibreoptic cable reached each classroom, and geothermal heating and cooling regulated the building’s temperature. Today, much of the fiber optic equipment is unused, due in part to the declining application of fiber in a LAN environment in the late 1990s.
Read more about this topic: Rockridge Secondary School
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