Forsyth Technical Community College – Stokes County Campus

The Stokes County Campus building is the first permanent classroom facility to be constructed at the rural county’s educational complex in Walnut Cove, North Carolina. Added to a largely undeveloped site at the foothills of the Sauratown Mountain Range, the two-story brick structure sits at the top of a sprawling site that offers unobstructed view corridors to local landmarks such as Moore’s Knob and Hanging Rock State Park. The site’s natural beauty, its connection to the region’s agricultural past, and its location in a growing education node helped inform the building’s design.

Cues from the site were combined with the community’s stated goals, shared in a series of town hall and stakeholder meetings, to develop the final design. The building’s most noticeable attribute is a folded roof plane that captures the mountain view, collects and discharges water without the use of downspouts, and honors the community’s request for a gabled roof. A large white oak sunscreen shades the distinctive vertical entry. Water freefalls from folds in the roof line, recalling the numerous waterfalls found in the region.