Aquilla J. Morgan High School is a state-of-the-art, 359,000-square-foot, three-story campus situated on an 87-acre site in southern Hillsborough County and designed to serve nearly 3,500 students. The campus welcomed students in August 2025, featuring a two-story media center, culinary and automotive labs, theater and auditorium with orchestra pit, cosmetology spaces, esports facilities, and a two-story gymnasium with indoor walking track. The broader site will ultimately include an elementary and middle school, forming a comprehensive educational hub for the community.

The project incorporates a wide variety of flooring types and systems, including carpet tile, walk-off tile, ceramic tile, luxury vinyl tile (LVT), and sheet vinyl, requiring extensive coordination across multiple manufacturers. Products from Daltile, Patcraft, Shaw Contract, Tarkett, and Johnsonite were utilized throughout the campus, with Johnsonite providing all wall base and transitions. The diverse product mix supported the functional, aesthetic, and performance needs of each space while maintaining consistency across this large, multi-building facility.

Flooring Challenge: Best Flooring Solution
One of the most critical design considerations on modern K–12 projects is life-safety planning for active shooter scenarios, including the incorporation of line-of-sight zones within classrooms. These zones allow doors to be locked while providing a defined visual boundary inside the room where students can shelter out of view from corridor glass panels.

The original design intent specified a three-color flooring layout within classrooms to visually communicate this line of sight. However, once installation planning began, it became clear that the line indicated on the drawings did not align with true sightline geometry and would have placed the visual boundary in the wrong location in over 300 rooms, potentially compromising the effectiveness of the safety strategy.

The Solution
Certified Finishes’ project management team proactively partnered with Beck and the design team to re-evaluate sightlines in the field, studying door swing, glazing position, corridor perspective, and classroom geometry. Rather than following the drawings as issued, the team collaborated on a re-engineered line-of-sight location that accurately reflected where visual concealment was truly achieved.

Once the correct boundary was identified, Certified Finishes adjusted the flooring layout patterns within each affected classroom so that the color transitions aligned precisely with the new safety line. This required:
– Custom layout coordination across hundreds of rooms
– Precise sequencing of multiple flooring colors and products
– Field verification and ongoing communication with construction and design partners
– All modifications were implemented without delaying the schedule and while maintaining the original design aesthetic.

Result
The finished installation delivers a highly functional, code-conscious, and safety-forward flooring solution that transforms flooring from a passive finish into an active life-safety communication tool. Students and staff can intuitively understand where to shelter during a lockdown, while the design intent of the space remains intact.

This project demonstrates how thoughtful flooring coordination, field-driven problem solving, and close collaboration can elevate flooring beyond material installation into a critical operational system within a modern educational facility.

Most Creative Flooring Design:
The flooring design at Aquilla J. Morgan High School was envisioned as both a visual storytelling element and a functional wayfinding system that supports safety, durability, and aesthetics across a large, multi-building campus.
Beyond creating a cohesive and contemporary look, the design team sought to use flooring as a visual language that communicates spatial purpose and, critically, enhances life-safety.

Creative Concept: Safety Embedded in Design

A defining creative feature of this project is the integration of the active-shooter line-of-sight concept directly into classroom flooring patterns. Rather than relying on signage or wall markings, the design uses three coordinated flooring colors within classrooms to subtly define:
– Instructional zones
– Circulation zones
– Shelter-in-place zones aligned with true sightlines

When the originally drawn sightline proved inaccurate, Certified Finishes worked hand-in-hand with Beck and the designers to reinterpret the design in the field, shifting the color transitions to match the correct visual boundary. The result is a flooring composition where color, pattern, and placement quietly communicate safety information while still reading as a cohesive, intentional design.

Layered Product Strategy
Creativity is also expressed through strategic product transitions across the campus. Multiple product types were selected to create a layered aesthetic that balances warmth, performance, and clarity of movement throughout the school.

Result
The flooring at Aquilla J. Morgan High School is more than decorative. It is a quietly powerful design tool that merges creativity with purpose. By embedding life-safety logic into the visual composition of the floors, the project showcases how thoughtful design and expert installation can produce spaces that are beautiful, intuitive, durable, and fundamentally safer.

This integration of aesthetics and function represents a truly creative approach to flooring design in modern educational environments.