HEADLINE NEWS

LEARNING BY DESIGN Announces Spring 2010 Awards

The nation’s leading education design magazine and competition has released its much-anticipated Spring 2010 Edition, which showcases outstanding pre-K to 12, college, and university facilities. Of all the outstanding projects showcased in this most recent edition of LEARNING BY DESIGN, 17 were selected for Spring 2010 awards, including two Grand Prizes, eight Citations of Excellence, and seven Honorable Mention awards. Read the LEARNING BY DESIGN press release announcing all of the Spring 2010 award recipients.

Among the award winners featured in this edition of LEARNING BY DESIGN, judges noticed many trends that bode well for the future of education design. Most significantly, sustainable design is going mainstream. Nearly one third of all of the outstanding projects in this issue of LEARNING BY DESIGN include significant green design components.

Other trends judges noted include increasingly flexible learning environments that support experiential learning ; enhanced technology components that support learning outside the  traditional classroom model; and innovative design strategies that support more high-tech, vo-tech, and career-tech educational alternatives—particularly as community college enrollments continue to increase in response to the recent economic downturn.

In addition, judges reported that the strongest projects in this issue include many modernizations and renovations. This supports the focus on sustainability because fewer new materials are introduced and fewer old materials are disposed. “There’s a value in older architecture,” judges note. “You can, without really harming the building, do the modern things you need to do. There’s a real heritage to some of these older buildings.”

In October, LEARNING BY DESIGN will publish its Fall 2010 Edition, which also will feature outstanding education design projects as well as projects with a special focus on green design or technology initiatives. The jury panel for the Fall 2010 Edition convened in April and selected outstanding projects for publication as well as an elite group of award recipients. LEARNING BY DESIGN will issue a press release in the coming weeks.

In 2011, LEARNING BY DESIGN is commemorating its 20th year as the premier source for education design excellence. Make sure your firm is part of this high-profile celebration by submitting your outstanding design projects. Don’t miss this opportunity to get your firm the recognition it deserves. Download the LEARNING BY DESIGN 2011 Call for Entries.

Texas Charters Earmark $22M for Education Construction

Houston’s YES Prep Public Schools have announced a $22.1 million bond program for construction projects, making it the first charter school system in Texas to start using federal stimulus funds. YES Prep plans to add six new schools to its current 13, all of which serve grades 6 to 12 in low-income Houston communities. The expansion plan aims to increase student numbers to 10,000 from about 3,500 by 2013.

The charter school system, established in 1988, will use $6.1 million in Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCBs)that were part of the federal stimulus bill passed last year. According to a Bloomberg News report, the 15-year debt package will save about $28 million in costs because the average interest rate on loans for charter schools is about 6.5 percent. About $2.7 billion in QSCBs have been sold nationwide.

The National School Boards Association, which co-publishes LEARNING BY DESIGN with Stratton Publishing & Marketing, this month endorsed a new program that pools QSCBs to create larger and higher visibility collections, thus making them more attractive to investors. The nonprofit National Education Technology Funding Corporation, or “Eddie Tech,” is leading the program to help more districts access QSCBs to go toward education construction/renovation and to acquire land.

“It’s the law of supply and demand,” Brett Mandel, Eddie Tech’s executive director, said in an interview with District Administration magazine. “ Peop le interested in tax-credit bonds are interested in lots of them. Now we can get their attention because we’ll have pools of millions of dollars.”

Anne Bryant, executive director of the NSBA, commented, “While we were very pleased to see the dramatic expansion of the tax-credit-bond programs, we were disappointed to hear that many school districts have not been able to take full advantage of cost savings. We fully support Eddie Tech’s efforts and believe they will reduce costs and help our school boards meet their ongoing challenge to invest in schools.”

Reconciliation Act Could Boost Education Construction

Particularly at the community college level, the recently passed Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act could be a shot in the arm for education design and construction. And while the legislation does not specifically earmark money for construction, it calls for providing and improving education and career training programs. The nation’s community colleges, which enroll more than 6 million students, received $2 billion over four years.

The Reconciliation Act also aims to increase college and university enrollments by more than doubling the amount of funding available for the federal Pell Grant program, meaning postsecondary institutions likely will need to accommodate more students in the coming years. Another initiative of recent legislation features a change in how students repay loans—another measure that designed to boost enrollments at the nation’s colleges and universities.

As is usually the case when the economy dips, community colleges in particular have recently experienced an enrollment surge, and now college administrators are reaching out to experts in education design and construction for innovative solutions. Among these are cutting-edge technology buildings that can meet the needs of today’s students. For example, SHW Group, Berkley, Michigan, received a Citation of Excellence in 2009 from LEARNING BY DESIGN for Jackson Community College Information and Technology Center in Jackson, Michigan.

Judges for the prestigious education design competition called the outstanding project an “illustration of the type of building that community colleges really need.” The building’s transparent design invites visitors to use the facility and offers them plenty of seating throughout the building to comfortably gather. When selecting materials, designers took cues from many of the original buildings, using brick, glass, and wood, but expressing them in a more contemporary manner.

In another example of how community co lleges are preparing for an influx of students, is a project of Gould Evans, Kansas City, Missouri. the Johnson County Community College—Regnier Center for Technology and Business also won a 2009 Citation of Excellence Award from LEARNING BY DESIGN. Judges called it an “attractive and innovative” facility that cultivates strong connections to the environment through its use of natural materials.

Read more about these outstanding postsecondary design projects:

Jackson Community College Information and Technology Center

Johnson County Community College—Regnier Center for Technology and Business

FEATURE ARTICLES

LEARNING BY DESIGN Honors Two Firms With Grand Prizes

The nation’s leading education design magazine and competition has released its much-anticipated Spring 2010 Edition, which showcases outstanding pre-K to 12, college, and university facilities. Seventeen projects were selected for LEARNING BY DESIGN Spring 2010 awards in all, and there are two Grand Prize Award recipients – The School Without Walls, Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, Washington, DC, and Poquoson Elementary, VMDO Architects, PC, Charlottesville, VA.

The school without walls

A jury of distinguished architects and educational facility planners reviewed and selected the outstanding projects that appear in the Spring 2010 Edition and named this year’s honorees. The judges note that both Grand Prize award-winning projects were strategically designed for maximum efficiency, down to the last details.

Located in the nation’s capital within a cramped city block, The School Without Walls project is an addition to an existing high school. The project combines the 19th century Grant School Building with an impressive new addition that “brings out the best of the old building with a remarkable new building,” according to the judges. The judges praise the Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn design team for the skillful integration of the new and old buildings.

Poquoson Elementary School in Poquoson, VA, is a new facility built in the wake of Hurricane Isabel, which flooded the existing school. The VMDO Architects design team was “very clever about every little piece of the new building,” note the judges. Serving grades 3 to 5, the building features a meticul ously planned sundial on the face of its main entrance that adds to the building’s iconic look and serves as an innovative teaching tool.

Poquoson Elementary

Read the LEARNING BY DESIGN press release announcing all of the Spring 2010 award recipients. Order copies of the LEARNING BY DESIGN Spring 2010 Edition. Get a free subscription to LEARNING BY DESIGN by sending a request to LBD@strattonpublishing.com.

In 2011, LEARNING BY DESIGN is commemorating its 20th year as the premier source for education design excellence. Make sure your firm is part of this high-profile celebration by submitting your outstanding design projects. Don’t mi ss this opportunity to get your firm the recognition it deserves. Download the LEARNING BY DESIGN 2011 Call for Entries.

Photo Captions: (Top)The School Without Walls received a LEARNING BY DESIGN Grand Prize Award in the Spring 2010 competition. Photo by Joseph Romeo. (Second) Poquoson Elementary School received a LEARNING BY DESIGN Grand Prize Award in the Spring 2010 competition. Photo by Prakash Patel.

Skillfully Scaling Down Campus Athletics

We’re not talking about getting rid of the volleyball team; rather, here’s a look at how The Ohio State University in Columbus converted a nearly four-block long facility into a new state-of-the-art Recreation and Physical Activity Center. A project of Moody ? Nolan, Columbus, Ohio, the facility is now made up of four smaller elements. Each of the units is interconnected by either underground passageways or above-ground bridges.

Activity spaces throughout the university’s Recreation and Physical Activity Center are used for both recreational activities and educational purposes. By combining the programs, the economy of scale allowed for the inclusion of major public spaces that provide gathering places for all students. The project received a LEARNING BY DESIGN Citation of Excellence in 2009 and got rave reviews from judges: “The building has very good light and fabulous transparency,” they said. “It’s a place for students to observe and be observed.”

Ohio

In addition to all the amenities the building features—including state-of-the-art technology—it is relatively maintenance free. The exterior is concrete, stainless steel, and glass. Inside the public spaces are finished with durable materials—terrazzo floors; walls that are full-height, integral-color concrete block; exposed acoustical deck for the ceilings; and concrete-encased columns.

Photo Caption: Ohio State University’s Recreation and Physical Activity Center features virtually maintenance-free exterior materials, such as concrete and stainless stell. Photo by Brad Feinknoph, Feinknoph Photography.