From blank to bright
Photo by Photo by Marissa Drake
Students walk through the hallways of murals with signatures of past seniors. Kelly Bush, Senior, sudjects that if the school gives students prodjects to decorate a certain area of the school, this could show representation and liven up the walls of the school.
Plain colorless walls, LED lights beaming down on students seven hours a day, the basic color scheme, all of this contributes to the lack of design and dislike of Lake Zurich High School Halls.
Many classrooms in LZHS have little to absolutely no windows, filling rooms with mind numbing artificial light. According to Kelly Bush, 2019 graduate, this can give a class room “depressing” vibes, Windows can help enhance studying and motivation, Bush said.
“I feel like some classrooms are kinda depressing with the lack of windows,” Bush said. “I know my with my government classroom there isn’t any windows at all and sometimes it just got a little sad. I really like classrooms that have windows, I feel like I’m able to focus but also take break if I need to.”
Along with full artificial light trapping students in, while some of the walls of the school have decoration, the blank white walls of the D and E hallways encourage foggy thoughts and a lack of focus. According to an article from www. webspm.com, Bonnie Krims, architectural color consultant with Bonnie Krims Color Studio in Concord, Mass, comments on how basic white walls, like the ones in LZ, can lead to under stimulation.
“For budget reasons, a lot of schools don’t seek out good information on color,” Krims said. “In a lot of cases, color choices are left up to administrators, teachers or the maintenance departments. As a result, a lot of walls just end up white, which can lead to understimulation.”
Krims recommends finding a ‘balance’ between colors in the classrooms and hallways so that they don’t over or under stimulate students. She also recommends using warmer colors to ‘invite students into learning’. Along with this, Bush subjects to give service projects to clubs in the school not only to liven up the walls but to also show representation and school spirit.
“I think a good way to fix this is to get the art clubs or the art classes involved and give them a project [such as painting a wall], we could also ask clubs if they would want to have a specific wall in the school to be credited to their club,” Bush said. “They would decorate and keep the wall updated so that it’s not just one groups problem to decorate the whole school, it’s really split up amongst the students.”
This is Marissa's first year on staff and second year in the journalism program. As a sophomore, Marissa likes to take long walks to the fridge and spends...
Jessica Baum • May 31, 2019 at 1:29 pm
I’m an LZ Alum currently teaching in another school district. The high school I’m currently in has students (I’m assuming art students) paint some of the ceiling tiles. Every three or four are painted with different images. Most of the time the images relate to the subject that is taught in the classrooms in that particular hallway. One of the things that’s great about using the ceiling tiles is that it can brighten up hallways whose walls are almost entirely covered by lockers.