The 1980’s-era building debuted as the Honolulu Club, a fitness and social-networking hub for the city’s well to do. Despite its exclusive membership, the seven-story structure was uninspired architecture: a solid, beige, unarticulated block, with strip windows interrupted by a large blank wall on the main facade. The building’s formal reinvention has been a matter of strategically revealing the existing mid-rise by removing portions of the historic fabric and inserting new elements consistent with the site’s new purpose.

The proposal for the new Jack Kerouac Center in Lowell, Massachusetts is a museum and performance venue designed to bring the literary icon fully home while anchoring the revitalization of the city's Acre neighborhood. Developed in partnership with the Jack Kerouac Foundation following singer-songwriter Zach Bryant’s recent purchase of the original On the Road scroll and the historic St. Jean Baptiste Church where Kerouac served as an altar boy, the project aims to enrich downtown cultural life. Preliminary renderings, recently shared with the Lowell community at its annual folk festival, showcase a design that deeply respects the historic fabric of the church while introducing a lasting tribute to Kerouac’s free spirit, creating an inviting space where future generations can reflect, enjoy, and learn.

The architecturally significant Nauset Regional High School embraces the landscape of the Cape Cod National Seashore with buildings grounded in the gently rolling topography.  The school was originally designed in 1972 by The Architects Collaborative (TAC) as a modernist, campus-style high school.  The design featured a strong east-west axis which took advantage of natural sunlight and sheltered itself from cold winter winds. At the time of construction, the school buildings were well integrated into the natural surroundings.  Many existing trees had been preserved, so that the surrounding woodland seemed to permeate the interior courtyards, unifying the constructed school with the existing surrounding landscape. 

A reconfigured campus centralizes academic study to the west and consolidates larger community spaces to the east.  The siting of these new additions respects the existing campus and enhances circulation and the opportunity for the student and community use.  The community courtyard contains a pedestrian circulation system, as well as spaces for gathering and socializing. A large lawn panel that pitches from north to south with stacked seating on the back and sides. The lawn focuses towards a flexible plaza that can be used as a stage for outdoor performances.  The district recognized the value of the open courtyards and connection to landscape they provide, and this solution enhances the day to day experience by students, teachers and the greater community.

The campus has served the communities of Brewster, Eastham, Orleans and Wellfleet well for nearly 50 years.  The design retains the best parts of the existing campus, provides new additions, and expands outdoor use to support the next generation of learners, makers and performers.  The design for the Nauset Regional High School’s renovation preserved much of the original 1972 sensibilities, while updating it to address current safety concerns, accessibility codes and ecological stewardship.  Much of the existing building and landscape character was retained and restored through well placed building additions and the use of native and naturalized plantings within the courtyards and throughout the surrounding landscape. 

While phasing was required for this occupied renovation project, the finished product capitalized on the prime location of the existing school, centered within the site and situated in the Cape Cod National Seashore, only a ½ mile from Nauset Light Beach.  The 215,000 gross square feet school retained over 50% of the existing 1970 campus buildings and provides new additions.  New additions and buildings accommodate a Performing Arts Center with a 750-seat Auditorium, a Dining Hall, a new Science and Academic building and a new centrally located administration building.  Renovated spaces include the Research Center, TV Studio, a Blackbox Theatre, Robotics/Innovation Labs, and updated academic classrooms. 

The Coastal Research Center deepens a commitment to experiential learning and awareness, specifically in the marsh ecosystem by encouraging students to “get their hands dirty” with real-world data and projects. Its siting, perched on an existing granite saddle, minimized tree removal, and compromised none of the shoreline, marshes, and wetlands. Sustainable wood clads exterior walls, so the building effectively disappears into the forest. Steel frames with ample glazing offer textbook views of nature, each ready for study. Emphasized by floorplans which direct attention outwards, they will act as living calendars. 

Flexible classrooms foster equity between disciplines, from traditional hard science to emerging studies of climate justice and ethics. Makerspaces and aquatic labs are designed as active learning environments, with concrete floors and exposed systems. 

A gently sloping, elevated walkway meanders through the woods to the shore, effectively transforming marsh and riverbanks into ADA-accessible and additional classrooms. At the river, students engage in processes of discovery by gathering specimens and returning to the lab. The Center benefits local and national research alike with a small residence for visiting scientists. Between the classrooms, an outdoor venue with stepped seating provides perches for lectures, performances, and community outreach and engagement.  

The new High School is a bold and forward-looking approach to education and the environment. The LEED-Certified, 7-story open air structure doubles academic space while maximizing green space and providing state-of-the-art facilities that support 21st Century education. Bright colors, sculptural forms, natural materials, and crisp design are inspired by Guadalajara’s cultural heritage.

Drawing from Mexico’s cortile buildings, courtyards, and public sculptures, the design embraces the city’s architectural history and fosters a strong sense of community. The project connects classrooms to outdoors, incorporating lush green space and utilizing Guadalajara’s climate in its sustainable design. Native plantings are deployed strategically, using water-intensive plants sparingly. Sustainability is integrated in all aspects of the building’s design and construction process, focusing on daylighting, solar control, passive cooling, thermal mass, shading, and natural ventilation.

Students can connect, reflect, restore, and energize in outdoor classrooms, garden balconies, and rooftop terraces. Ultimately the project is a distinctive, location-based, sustainable, learning environment that celebrates its place in a fast-growing city.

Flexible academic spaces support the school’s varied teaching and learning styles. Indoor classrooms have acoustical wood panels and glass walls, establishing verbal and visual connections between students and faculty in and outside the classroom.

The multi-school 13,000-m² (140,000-sf) Središće Educational Complex consists of a new 6,000-m² (65,000-sf) building for the American International School of Zagreb designed by Flansburgh, as well as a Croatian kindergarten and a Croatian elementary school designed by Sangrad + AVP. With a shared vision of an elegant, highly structured scheme that resonates with its urban context and reflects the educational priorities of each school, Flansburgh and Sangrad + AVP jointly won the international competition hosted by the City of Zagreb to design the new educational precinct. After award of the competition, Flansburgh engaged AISZ and continued to refine the design with the school’s input.

J.F.K. Elementary School and Holbrook Middle-High School together serve 1,095 students grades pre-kindergarten through 12 in a new building that is 217,353 gsf on two floors. This consolidates all three existing aged schools in the town into a single building with separate entries and spaces for the Elementary School and the Middle-High School.

Northfield Mount Hermon was founded by 19th-century evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody as two institutions in 1879 and 1871. It became a single coeducational school in 1971 and consolidated to the Mount Hermon campus in 2005. Today, the school’s distinctive College-Model Academic Program (CMAP) helps students develop not only knowledge about the world, but also a love of learning that will serve them throughout their lifetimes. Through the CMAP, students take three major courses each semester, which adds up to six challenging college-preparatory courses per year.

The new David Mindess Elementary School is located in a distinctly New England landscape, surrounded by rolling hills and near a historic main street.  Accessed from Concord Street, a scenic route, the school’s tree-lined approach frames views of the new school as the site opens to reveal playfields to the west, the entrance and student drop-off areas to the east, and mature woodlands beyond to the north.

The building nestles into an existing wooded hillside to reduce the perceived scale of the building while creating a place for direct exploration of mature native trees and understory plant life.  Athletic fields, the play area, and the building itself are all situated to overlook an expansive wetland to the south, providing a new campus that expands educational opportunities beyond the classroom.

The configuration of the building maintains a compact footprint, yet still allows the academic ‘houses’ to shift and stretch east to west across the hillside to create unique outdoor learning nooks and gardens.  Large gathering spaces serve as bridge elements between these academic houses, connecting them internally while maximizing both visual and physical access to outdoor educational opportunities.

A high-performance building envelope, with efficient insulation and glazing, allows the building heating and cooling loads to be reduced. A hybrid heat pump system is applied to meet these loads, so the building can be heated and cooled with electricity under most conditions, while still providing back up during times of power failure. Future renewables will allow the building to meet the town’s net zero energy goals. Other measures like high efficiency plumbing fixtures and a careful approach to rainwater management bring it all together to create a building that is LEED Silver.

Founded in 1928, Interlochen Center for the Arts, on its scenic Michigan campus has inspired generations of artists. Students study music, theatre, visual arts, film, creative writing and dance, guided by an outstanding faculty and guest artists. Interlochen has a summer festival that serves some 2,500 students through performances and educational programs in the arts since 1964. The project involves the conceptual design for a renovated and expanded dance building to include five studios, changing rooms, offices and other support spaces. The project will include structural and mechanical upgrades to the existing masonry and wood framed building. 

The new Bourne Intermediate School serves grades 3–5 in a new two-story, 72,680-sf building. The classroom wing contains general classrooms and informal “team rooms” that encourage group learning opportunities. Administrative and guidance offices are adjacent to the main entrance lobby with convenient access to the gymnasium and cafeteria.

Saigon South International School is an independent college preparatory school for K-12 students from over 40 countries grounded in a spirit of inquiry. This project involves two new buildings, a Middle School and STEAM Design Center.

The two buildings are thoughtfully positioned on opposite sides of an expansive athletic field and green space. Their architecture complements one another with light colors and undulating curves that interact harmoniously with their gridded structure. Planters, inspired by the terraced rice fields of Sa Pa, accentuate the curvature of the facility, cascade with native species, provide visual interest, and break up the building plane. The dynamic interplay of these elements is accentuated when the wind or rain introduces movement to the lush greenery. The interiors of the atria feature bamboo that upholds a commitment to local aesthetics and sustainability, and capture daylight. Levels of the building serve as metaphorical branches extending to exterior garden balconies and ultimately to the river, fostering a seamless connection between educational spaces and nature.

The Middle School is designed for students in grades 6-8, with their emotional, creative, and physical growth in mind. Skylit atria encourage collaboration and a sense of belonging. Bright, daylit, open spaces encourage hands-on learning and foster students’ experimentation. They include a 220 sqm black box theater, dance room, classrooms, science labs, breakout rooms and maker spaces. The library is a community hub for research and exploration while the gymnasium offers opportunities for physical activities, team sports, and community-building events.

The STEAM Design Center includes five science labs, two art rooms, independent art studios, a 3D art and printmaking room, and an indoor/outdoor art gallery. The Center provides opportunities for high school students to explore their creativity, kindle their passions, and develop essential future-ready skills in a transparent, highly flexible, cross-disciplinary learning environment.

Designed to replace an outdated facility, Seabury Hall’s ‘A’ali’ikuhonua Creative Arts Center is located on a promontory overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Its barn-like structure echoes architectural elements seen throughout upcountry Maui. The open floor plan, large sliding doors and sensitive siting create a strong connection between interior and outdoor spaces.

Tree-lined roads wind through the ring of hills that surrounds the borough of Pennsburg, in eastern Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County. Hand-painted signs for farmstands selling fresh-picked rhubarb and sweet corn dot the landscape, as do stone houses and bank barns, links to the not-so-distant centuries during which agriculture was an even larger part of life in this part of the state. The main drag along Pike Street features a DQ and a brew pub called Simple Days. Taken together, these impressions add up to a quaint picture of this small pocket of the Upper Perkiomen Valley. So it’s rather unexpected—if not truly surprising—to find amidst the gentle folds of the topography a school that educates students from as many as 34 countries around the world. 

The Perkiomen School, an independent college preparatory institution, admits students in grades six through twelve. Some students board, living in on-campus dormitories, and others stay just for the day—but the atmosphere is exceedingly convivial, and socializing frequently happens across boarder-commuter lines. But while the former could easily retreat to their dorm rooms during breaks, between classes, or after the end of the school day, the rest of the students didn’t have such a straightforward place for hanging out outside of class. In the mind of Perkiomen’s exceptionally visionary head of school, the idea began to form for a new building, one that would not only rearrange students’ relationships to each other and their campus but reorganize the spatial relationships within the campus itself.