The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) has selected nine educational facilities for this year’s CAE Education Facility Design Awards.
The program honors educational facilities that the jury believes should serve as an example of a superb place in which to learn, furthering the client's mission, goals and educational program while demonstrating excellence in architectural design.
The jury for the 2015 Educational Facility Design Awards includes: J. Stuart Pettitt, AIA (Chair); Straub Pettitt Yaste Architects; William C. Ayers, education advocate; Victoria S. Bergsagel, Architects of Achievement; Mark Kranz, AIA, SmithGroup JJR; and Robert Miklos, FAIA, designLAB architects.
More information about the recipients here.
Berklee Tower; Berklee College of Music; Boston
Award of Excellence
William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc.
All images courtesy of AIA
This 16-story mixed-use building is on the Berklee College of Music campus. A 40-foot-high performance and dining space shows student performances nightly and fronts onto a major Boston thoroughfare. Twelve floors, housing 380 students plus a fitness center and music practice rooms, sit above the performance space. Six double-height lounges on the residential floors link two floors of students. Two floors below grade house the largest recording studio complex in New England.
Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB); University of Arizona & Northern Arizona University; Phoenix
Award of Excellence
CO Architects with Ayers Saint Gross
The striated copper cladding helps protect against a harsh desert climate. The design meets the two universities’ desire for identity, sustainability and effective new learning environments. Many student-focused spaces encourage interaction between students and lecturers. The instructional elements of the project are organized in east-west blocks to minimize the building’s exposure to the intense Arizona sun. These blocks are located close together, creating a narrow “canyon”: a shaded space for outdoor gatherings and providing access to lecture halls.
University Center, The New School; New York City
Award of Excellence
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP with SLCE Architects
With its 230,000-sf, seven-story campus center and 130,000-sf residential tower, the University Center reorganizes the elements of a traditional campus, from quads to classrooms and living quarters. Vertical, horizontal, and diagonal campus pathways ease movement through the building while increasing interaction among students and faculty. Academic spaces can be renovated or reconfigured with minimal impact on power, data, or lighting to meet changing needs.
Vashon Island High School; Vashon Island, Washington
Award of Excellence
Integrus Architecture
Located on a small island in Puget Sound, the design team sought to impart a quality of porosity to the new building. The concept of porosity defines how the building supports spatial connections and how students move in and out of the building. Shared areas are located adjacent to more formal teaching spaces, while a learning commons extends the library. A small group presentation room is located within the commons and a central courtyard provides sheltered outdoor learning areas.
Carl Sandburg Elementary School; Kirkland, Washington
Award of Merit
NAC|Architecture
Preserving the park-like feel of the northwest corner of Carl Sandburg Elementary School was central to the planning of the replacement school. The majority of the classroom neighborhoods are focused on a grove of 70-year-old Big Leaf maples, creating multiple outdoor learning spaces. The school has a capacity of 600 students in neighborhoods of either three or four classrooms. Each neighborhood is organized around an open learning area, small group rooms, and teacher planning areas.
Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, Georgia Institute of Technology; Atlanta
Award of Merit
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
The Clough Commons is at the center of Georgia Tech’s campus. The three dimensional grid of circulation and daylight frames large sections of furnished common spaces for student study, interaction and experiential learning. The building anchors campus circulation and frames Tech Green, the school’s central outdoor space. Clough Commons's landscaped roof garden is one of Tech’s most popular destination amenities.
Reed College Performing Arts Building; Portland, Oregon
Award of Merit
Opsis Architecture LLP
Reed College’s Performing Arts Building creates a 78,000-sf, cross-disciplinary home for the arts, like theatre, dance, and music programs. The building functions as the public front door to the campus. All performance and teaching spaces open to the three-level, light-filled, arts atrium merging informal and formal learning.
e3 Civic High School; San Diego
Walter Taylor Award
LPA, Inc.
The central circulation provides students with more than just a path of travel as the central steps and gallery space connecting the two floors. Every gathering space has a pull out or quiet area and every learning cluster or village has a small team room and a larger social space, all to support learning skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and communication.
Nueva School at Bay Meadows; San Mateo, California
Shirley Cooper Award
Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects
The Nueva School's new campus provides innovative educational spaces that supports cross disciplinary engagement and project-based inquiry. It fosters a strong community, models healthy, low-carbon living and learning, and adaptively reuses space at a former horse racing venue.
Related Stories
| Apr 30, 2013
Tips for designing with fire rated glass - AIA/CES course
Kate Steel of Steel Consulting Services offers tips and advice for choosing the correct code-compliant glazing product for every fire-rated application. This BD+C University class is worth 1.0 AIA LU/HSW.
| Apr 24, 2013
Los Angeles may add cool roofs to its building code
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants cool roofs added to the city’s building code. He is also asking the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to create incentives that make it financially attractive for homeowners to install cool roofs.
| Apr 2, 2013
6 lobby design tips
If you do hotels, schools, student unions, office buildings, performing arts centers, transportation facilities, or any structure with a lobby, here are six principles from healthcare lobby design that make for happier users—and more satisfied owners.
| Mar 14, 2013
25 cities with the most Energy Star certified buildings
Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago top EPA's list of the U.S. cities with the greatest number of Energy Star certified buildings in 2012.
Building Enclosure Systems | Mar 13, 2013
5 novel architectural applications for metal mesh screen systems
From folding façades to colorful LED displays, these fantastical projects show off the architectural possibilities of wire mesh and perforated metal panel technology.
| Feb 18, 2013
Top 10 kitchen and bath design trends for 2013
Gray color schemes and transitional styles are among the top trends identified by more than 300 kitchen and bath design experts surveyed by the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA).
| Feb 15, 2013
Could the student housing boom lead to a bubble?
Student housing has been one of the bright spots in the multifamily construction sector in recent years. But experts say there should be cause for concern for oversupply in the market.
| Feb 8, 2013
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s new wing voted Boston’s 'most beautiful new building'
Bostonians voted the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's new wing the People's Choice Award winner for 2012, honoring the project as the city's "most beautiful new building" for the calendar year. The new wing, designed by Renzo Piano and Stantec, beat out three other projects on the short list.
