The entire 25-meter-square concrete ceiling was poured in place in a single session on &ldquo;a very cold day&rdquo; in the middle of winter, Ecker says. The architects originally considered other materials&mdash;wood and metal among them&mdash;but eventually Ecker suggested concrete. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s kind of the way our office works,&rdquo; Piotrowski says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m constantly involved in the really fine details of what we&rsquo;re doing, and Dea comes and shakes things up and will think about things a little differently.&rdquo; The walls of the structure are also formed from concrete?its high flyash content gives it the white color?and the floors are terrazzo, so even though the tones are very light, they can take the wear and tear of hundreds of high schoolers. &ldquo;We find that if you use true materials, and you leave them exposed, there&rsquo;s not really much that can happen to them that you cannot remove,&rdquo; Ecker says. The benches in the main assembly hall are also made from concrete, and were cast with formwork from Max Frank.