HONOR AWARDS - Planning and Design
Honor Award
Davidson Elementary School, Davidson, N.C.
Adams Group Architects, PA and Henry Sanoff, AIA.
This elementary school, designed by the Adams Group with Henry Sanoff as educational planner, “exemplifies all the best results I believe the awards program is all about,” said juror Edward Kirkbride. Davidson provides clear evidence that the participatory process doesn’t require more of an architect’s time or result in additional costs. As the firm states in its entry, “direct participation requires less time…involving all participants in a planning workshop is more efficient than relying on information gathered in a piecemeal fashion.”
Another juror, Prakash Nair, commented on how engaging key users in the design process enables them to “elicit the best ideas.” Some of those ideas include the enlarged hallways and collaborative workspaces mentioned in the POE section and porches off of classrooms for indoor/outdoor learning spaces. Said Nair of the porches, “giving each south-facing classroom its own porch and connection to the outdoors is a wonderful way to stimulate the naturalist intelligence of students.” project link
 Honor Award
Rockford Environmental Science Academy
Rockford, IL, Ruck/Pate Architecture
Right: partial site plan
Click for full image
This middle school was planned by Ruck/Pate Architecture with assistance from Winters Barr Truitt Architects. What made this design successful, according to juror Sharon Sutton, is that “[the school] has a strong relationship with its very generous site, a clear organization that reduces the size of the large building, varied outdoor experiential learning spaces, and an extensive community participation process.” The site plan indicates a very comprehensive effort to utilize the whole site for environmental learning by planning for a recycling center, a student and community garden plot, a future observatory, outdoor classrooms, wetlands, prairie restoration, and access to a nearby arboretum. project link
 Honor Award
Harold G. Fearn Elementary School
Aurora, IL
Designed by Perkins and Will with educational planning by Gaylaird Christopher, the Harold G. Fearn Elementary School is distinguished by learning clusters, reminiscent of the Crow Island School, an icon of successful school design for more than forty years.
Although not yet built, the jurors liked the corridor circulation planning shown on the floor plans. The corridors include an interesting mix of breakout spaces to accommodate various activities. Another interesting feature singled out by the jurors is the professional development center that should provide unique opportunities to partner with nearby Aurora University.
In summing up his evaluation of this winning design, Kirkbride said he “would like to see this school when it’s built and then see them follow up with a POE in about five years.” project link
 Honor Award
Kent Island High School, Stevensville, Md.
Grimm and Parker Architects
The planning committee’s initial concern when talking with Grimm and Parker about the design of this facility was that it become a focal point on Kent Island where both students and community feel a sense of identity and belonging. The planning process for Kent Island High School provided a unique forum for community, civic and business leaders, teachers, staff, students, and architects to learn from one another and become partners in accomplishing a unified goal.
The building’s plan is organized around a central “main street” that creates a student and community gathering place. Jurist Sharon Sutton suggests “this project benefits from a strong design parti that makes a large school seem smaller.”
Academic/career oriented clusters are grouped together to encourage relationships between classes and disciplines. However interesting to note in this school is the plan that remains departmental despite intentions to be interdisciplinary.
This issue sparked the curiosity of the judges who see this school as playing an important role in the discussion of whether it is possible to physically plan for the evolution of the American high school from departmental to interdisciplinary organization. project link
CONCLUSIONS
Jurors thought that schools with a formal planning process before architects started drafting plans were the most important projects. Juror Steven Bingler remarked that he was “impressed that so many design teams included a broad range of stakeholders in the design process.” It is interesting to note that some of the most successful projects were those that allowed students to take an active role in the planning and design process, as opposed to allowing only teachers and members of the community to provide input.
The jurors also liked seeing projects with a mix of indoor/outdoor spaces. They thought that some of the more compelling projects were the ones with creative uses for outside teaching, learning, and social spaces—for the school as well as the community.
In the future, the jurors, including Bingler, would like to see more deviation of the corridor and standalone classroom design theme. They applaud various winners for their creative use of hallway space and note that projects with the maximum amount of flexibility are ones that provide the greatest variety of learning strategies.
The jury hopes this awards program assists designers and educators in creating 21st century learning environments and encourages them to perform POEs to help them identify successful design elements and uncover those areas warranting further refinement.
School Construction News and Design Share want to express our appreciation to all of this years entrants and pass on congratulations to the winners. We look forward to continued innovation in educational design for next year’s awards program.
For a complete listing of all 26 awarded projects, click on: Awards 2000
The Awards 2000 program was sponsored by:
For information about the Awards 2001 program, firm listings or sponsorship opportunities, contact: Randall Fielding, editor, fielding@designshare.com (612)925-6897
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Awarding Innovative Educational Design: The School Construction News & Design Share Awards 2000 Program - Commentary
