Game Development Design School

Burleson ISD

Imagine a revolutionary school that breaks the mold of traditional education. It embraces risk-taking and views failures as stepping stones to success. The Game Development Design School offers a unique educational experience for students from grades 6 through 12. The faculty refer to it as a “classroom-free” environment designed to mimic the setting of a tech-centric workplace that supports the school’s mission of cultivating the next generation of video game creators and tech giants by focusing on game development, game design, computer science, and programming.

The educational approach is based on the Modern Classrooms Project, which involves blended learning delivered in a self-paced manner. This model allows for individualized enrichment opportunities for each student, with teachers facilitating the process through careful planning and monitoring. The school is a unique, high-tech campus that challenges teaching and learning norms to equip students for an ever-evolving future.

Client Burleson ISD
Category Prek-12
Services Site Selection, Programming, Planning, Cost Estimating, Conceptual Design, Architecture, Interior Design, FF&E, Construction Management
Project Team

Edward Rodriguez

Adaptive reuse

The school’s self-paced learning model was outgrowing their space when...

a commercial building with a state-of-the-art events venue came up for sale. After Pfluger performed a feasibility study, the district bought the property so that the facility could be renovated to meet the educational and technological needs of the school.

Everything about this school breaks the mold of traditional instruction models

And for these kids and educators, it’s working. There is no precedence for this school’s curriculum, so we had to throw out everything we thought we knew about educational architecture. We looked to industry and the kinds of environments where these students may someday work. The resultant Game Development Design School at Burleson looks like nothing that industrial age education has ever seen. Here students own their learning and are responsible for managing their schedules.

The school has high ceilings, perforated metal, and exposed cabling to create an industrial feel. Raised metal acoustical paneling, speciality flooring, ceiling baffles, soft furnishing work together to address sound attenuation, while keeping a “high-tech, cool factor”.

During standardized testing… “250-plus students in a single open space? You could hear a pin drop.”

Open concept, glass, steel, ambient lighting, and alternative seating— everything designed to bring a high-tech, industry-inspired feel to the learning setting. The former commercial space was gutted to make way for a classroom-free environment with space that meets a variety of educational delivery methods. Glass-enclosed break-out rooms can accommodate full classes, group collaboration, or individual study, and the adjacent state-of- the-art venue provides event space for district needs.

Game Development Design School Gaming Lab

System choices also enhance a healthy learning environment. RGB lighting starts out blue in the morning and gets warmer throughout the day as energy wanes.

In this new space, students own their education. They can get ahead, collaborate, or study individually. It’s their choice. Teachers accommodate more than 400 self-paced, independent learners and for this school, these teachers, and these students, it works!