AIA Announces Winners of the 2009 CAE Educational Facility Design Awards

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) have selected 13 educational and cultural facilities for this year’s CAE Educational Facility Design Awards. The purpose of the design awards program is to identify trends and emerging ideas, honor excellence in planning and design, and disseminate knowledge about best practices in educational and community facilities.

The jury’s decisions are the culmination of a rich and thoughtful dialogue between architects and educators about exemplary architecture that supports and fosters the learning experience.

The 2009 CAE Educational Facility Design Awards jury includes: jury chair, Gerald (Butch) Reifert, FAIA, Mahlum Architects, Seattle; Daniel Friedman, FAIA, Dean, College of the Built Environment, University of Washington, Seattle; Patricia Wasley, Dean, College of Education, University of Washington, Seattle; William Leddy, FAIA, Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, San Francisco; Margaret Gaston, Executive Director, The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, Santa Cruz, CA; and Caroline Lobo, AIA, Orcutt Winslow Partnership, Phoenix, AZ.

Thirteen awards were issued in three categories which include Citation, Merit and Excellence.

2009 CAE Educational Facility Design Awards recipients:

Indian Community School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Antoine Predock Architect, PC

The building follows the natural rolling topography of a former farm while preserving the remnant hardwood forest on the site. Prairie and wetlands were restored as an outdoor learning experience. Nature and those dwelling inside the structure are seamlessly connected as every space provides unique associations with the exterior environment. The school strives to maintain the connection between the students and land.

Yale University Sculpture Building and Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Kieran Timberlake

The Sculpture building features a high performance façade that incorporates solar shading, a triple glazed, low-e vision panel, 8-foot high operable windows and a translucent double cavity spandrel panel. Inhabitants are able to see the buildings systems and experience how it was meant to perform. The environmental performance of this structure is a product of a fully integrated design process that took the project from programming through occupancy in only twenty-two months, less than half the timeframe of a typical university process.

Environmental Education/Visitor Activity Center, National Park Service, Pennsylvania
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

A key building feature is the use of reused, recycled or recyclable materials. Materials were selected that were durable, had long life spans, required little maintenance and had a low impact on the environment. Another building feature is the shingle cladding of the north façade seen as one approaches the building. These shingles, cut on site from old, discarded tires reclaimed from a nearby river, park grounds and other local sources, directly challenge users to think about environmental responsibility.

Francis Parker School, San Diego, California
Lake|Flato Architects

The campus recaptures the spirit of its original 1912 structure. The new classrooms, punctuated by operable walls, encourage connectivity to the environment to expose the process of education, not simply the products. High performance envelopes and environmental systems significantly reduce operating costs. The campus emphasizes vibrant, landscaped exterior spaces at its heart.

ASU Polytechnic Academic Complex, Mesa, Arizona
RSP Architects, Ltd. in association with Lake|Flato Architects

The design transforms 16 acres of a former air force base into a dense, walkable, and shady campus. The buildings embrace shaded courtyards for exterior learning environments. The shaded exterior atriums, portals and overall site circulation allow for diverse academic and research disciplines across the campus to interact with increased ease. The open-air atria provide intimate seating areas while visually and spatially connecting multiple departments and disciplines.

Camino Nuevo High School, Los Angeles, California
Daly Genik

By single-loading the main classroom building two important social and sustainable functions were accomplished with simple solutions: direct visual connections from the classrooms to the courtyard and natural light flows into every classroom from windows on both the street and courtyard side. The street edge walls of both the classroom building and administration wing are clad in a perforated corrugated metal to dampen sound from the busy city streets and provide sun control. By shading the building during the hottest point of the day limited air conditioning is needed for cooling.

Canada’s National Ballet School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects

The design integrates an active public realm of generous corridors, lounges and stairwells with 12 large dance training studios, and specific programmed spaces for teaching and administration. The transparency of the design has opened the community to the art of ballet and students up to the community. The design emphasizes the art of ballet as one of storytelling, allowing the city to see the dancers.

Cornell University West Campus Residence Initiative, Ithaca, New York
Kieran Timberlake

The project was developed to provide immersive living-learning centers for undergraduate students, redefining the residential experience by drawing students more fully into the intellectual community of the university through integrated living with faculty, graduate students and visiting scholars. Each hall has its own unique identity and intellectual tone.

Staples Elementary School, Easton, Connecticut
The S|L|A|M Collaborative

The new 121,000 square foot Pre K-5 school for 800+ students replaces an overcrowded, outdated elementary school with a new school that blends modern teaching philosophies with a contextual design appropriate in a town whose character is still inspired by agrarian buildings. The design stems from the town’s rural character, encouraging young children to relate to the facility by using welcoming colors and recognizable forms.

Ralph Ellison Campus, Chicago, Illinois
OWP|P

The design of the building involved converting an elementary school into a high school by modifying the classrooms and creating an addition. Many of the existing walls, wood floors, wood trim and terrazzo were retained from the original structure. The classrooms had large window openings, but 2/3 of the glazing was translucent and 1/3 was opaque. The new windows are thermally insulated and clear, bringing natural daylight into the classrooms, which increases student concentration and comfort.

Avon Old Farms Beaston Performing Arts Center, Avon, Connecticut
The S|L|A|M Collaborative

By providing a place to both practice and perform as well as host students, families and visitors, the structure has become a vibrant campus icon. Its visible entrance responds to pedestrian flow from both campus and parking lots, reflecting its importance as a student focused learning facility as well as a resource for the school population, alumni and the surrounding community at large. The structure has superior acoustics requiring minimal enhancement for vocal and instrumental music.

Modular Zero Energy Classroom, Hawaii
Anderson Anderson Architecture

|The design optimizes photovoltaic roof surface orientation, shaded daylight glazing, and modulated natural ventilation. All of these forces are balanced with manufacturing and transport efficiency, functionality for classroom use, low operating costs and ease of maintenance. The design exposes and celebrates all elements of its interaction with natural phenomena, illustrating the performance of the building relative to nature.

Green Dot Animo Leadership High School, Lennox, California
Pugh + Scarpa Architects, Inc.

As the first public school in the country to provide 100% of its own energy needs, Green Dot will set the standard for 21st-century secondary education. The building will itself become a living, working lesson in sustainability. The small class size is the hallmark of the Green Dot system. The narrow floor plate increases daylight and natural ventilation, complementing the small class size, to afford an overall feeling of spaciousness and comfort.