Elevating Student Engagement
By Teresa Tobat
Ranging from an environmental science magnet school with a museum-like atmosphere to an addition to a historical fine arts center, the two projects recognized with Publisher’s Commendation Awards overcame challenges to achieve design excellence and engage students with rich, stimulating environments.
The entire design of Mary M. Hooker Environmental Sciences Magnet School, located in Hartford, CT, a project by BL Companies, Inc., reinforces the school’s environmental science curriculum. From the learning center’s spacious lobby outfitted with a 3,500-gallon eco-pond, plants, trees, and a waterfall to a butterfly vivarium and a planetarium, every inch of the building emphasizes environmental awareness. Judges said this rich, museum-like atmosphere increased pre-K through eighth-grade student engagement.
“This building embraced the environmental curriculum and provided several spaces that reinforced that program and made it quite exciting for the children to experience every day,” judges noted.
In addition to a design that emphasizes the outdoors, the building itself is a lesson in environmental sustainability, as it was designed to LEED Platinum standard.
Hailed as a performance venue landmark 40 years ago, the Calvin College Covenant Fine Arts Center was in need of an enhancement and GMB Architecture + Engineering delivered. The center, located in Grand Rapids, MI, is a fixture in the community, and the design team did not want the building to lose its sense of history.
The brick and limestone exterior was designed to respect the campus’s prairie school design and add 40,000 square feet of space to the original structure. The west-side entrance of the building was enlarged to serve as an anchor for the center’s three main public spaces: a new 240-seat recital hall, a new 3,800-square-foot gallery, and a renovated 1,100-seat auditorium complete with new HVAC with humidification, as well as theatrical lighting, fabrics, and woodwork.
Judges praised the architects for preserving the building’s core through the expansion. They also commended the renovated auditorium as the “real strength” of the building.
“The addition to the Calvin College Covenant Fine Arts Center gives the building a modern touch and complements the historical roots of the center while providing students with a stimulating learning atmosphere,” said LEARNING BY DESIGN Publisher Debra Stratton. “The project showcases education design innovation and excellence in an exceptional way—furthering LEARNING BY DESIGN’s mission.
