Cleveland, Ohio – April 1, 2019 – LEARNING BY DESIGN announces the top winning new educational facility designs from its Spring 2019 EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES DESIGN AWARDS SHOWCASE. The release of the much-anticipated Spring 2019 edition highlights fifty of the nation’s best new education design and construction projects, from pre-K to 12 to college and university facilities. This spring four unbelievable new buildings were awarded Grand Prize Awards, six facilities where bestowed with Citation of Excellence Awards, and four very well-done projects where chosen to receive Honorable Mention Awards.
A distinguished panel of five architects and education administrators reviewed 50 outstanding submissions and selected the thirteen to receive special best-in-class recognition awards. The top awarded projects combined all the elements that make a learning environment successful—transparency, connectivity, safety, sustainability, great interiors, purposeful functional design, and sophistication.
The jury members included:
- Dwain A. Lutzow, AIA, CEO - DLA Architects, Ltd. (Itasca, IL)
- Julie M. McLaurin, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, Community Studio Principal – Little (Durham, NC).
- Irene Monis, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Principal -SmithGroupJJR (San Francisco, CA).
- Dr. Pam R. Moran, Retired Superintendent, Albemarle County Public Schools - Socol Moran Partners, Executive Director Virginia School Consortium for Learning (VaSCL) (Keswick VA).
- Kate Scurlock, AIA, Associate - GWWO, Inc. Architects (Baltimore, MD)
The Best-in-Class Top Awards where bestowed on the following projects and architectural firms:
Grand Prize Awards
- Design Tech High School at Oracle (Redwood City, CA) - DES Architects + Engineers
(Redwood City, CA) - The New Commons at Life University (Marietta, GA) - Collins, Cooper, Carusi Architects, Inc. (Atlanta, GA)
- Olathe High School (Olathe, KS) - Stantec (Austin, TX)
- Pankalo Education Center (Casper, WY) - BWBR (St. Paul, MN)
Citation of Excellence Awards
- Carver Elementary School (Carver, MA) - HMFH Architects, Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
- Stratford Middle School (Bloomingdale, IL) - ARCON Associates, Inc. (Lombard, IL)
- Energy Institute High School (Houston, TX) - VLK Architects (Fort Worth, TX)
- Rutgers University, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Clinical Academic Building Renovation (New Brunswick, NJ) - DIGroupArchitecture, LLC (New Brunswick, NJ)
- Godley High School (Godley, TX) – Huckabee (Fort Worth, TX)
Honorable Mention Awards
- Natrona County High School (Casper, WY) - Bassetti Architects (Portland, OR)
- Farmington High School (Farmington, UT) - VCBO Architecture (Salt Lake City, UT)
- Hayward High School STEAM Building (Hayward, CA) - CSDA Design Group (San Francisco, CA)
- New Trier High School (Winnetka, IL) - Wight & Company (Darien, IL)
During the jury project review and deliberations members commented on or discussed the various nuances of all fifty submissions. The outcome produced the following important directives or trends that Learning By Design wished to share that may impact future education architectural designs.
- Flood all the buildings spaces with daylight.
- Security design should be relatively invisible.
- Provide a good balance of flexible/open space and a variety of small informal and large break-out areas dispersed throughout the building.
- Designs should be based on tangible data.
- Incorporate site design to maximize the indoor/outdoor classroom and common space connection and to incorporate courtyard or rooftop gardens.
- Classrooms do not need a front. Furnishings, writing surfaces, and technology should be movable, allowing them to be truly flexible.
- Design spaces to the social-emotional and physical needs of learners, not just cognitive.
- Provide transparency between spaces to put learning and innovation on display.
- The exterior façade and the interior design should be integrated and age appropriate.
TO REVIEW ALL PUBLISHED SPRING 2019 OUTSTANDING PROJECTS VISIT: https://learningbydesignmagazine.com
LEARNING BY DESIGN, published in the Spring, the Summer and Fall each year, circulates to more than 50,000 leaders and decision makers at all levels of education—from early childhood and elementary schools to career-technical, college, and university-level institutions.
For more Information Contact:
Mark Goodman, Publisher
Learning By Design magazine
mgoodman@learningbydesign.biz
p: 216-896-9333
Learning By Design is a Designquest Media, LLC publication.
