Exhibition of Educational Environments awards presented at Conference

Two school projects were named as the 2016 Award of Distinction winners in the annual Invitational Exhibition of Educational Environments, sponsored by IASB Service Associates. DLA Architects, Ltd. was honored for a remodel of the West Chicago High School science department. BLDD Architects was recognized for designing the new Meridian Middle/High School.

This was the 28th year for IASB’s juried school design competition.

The awards were presented on Friday, Nov. 18, during the First General Session of the 2016 Joint Annual Conference. Winning projects were selected by a blind-jury pool of architects and superintendents in September. In addition to the two Award of Distinction winners, the jury chose two projects for Awards of Merit and five Honorable Mention recipients.

All 23 entries in this year’s exhibit were on display throughout the Conference. This year’s winning entries are listed by firm, school, and district:

BLDD Architects, Inc.
Meridian CUSD 15

Award of Distinction
BLDD Architects, Inc.
Meridian Middle/High School
Meridian CUSD 15, Macon

DLA Architects, Ltd.
West Chicago High School,
Science Department Remodeling
Community HSD 94, West Chicago

Award of Merit
PCM+ Design Architects

DLA Architects, Ltd.
East Peoria ESD 86

Central Junior High School Phase II
East Peoria ESD 86

DLA Architects, Ltd.
Steger Intermediate Center
Steger SD 194

Honorable Mention
ARCON Associates, Inc.
Bannockburn School
Bannockburn SD 106

STR Partners LLC
Brookwood Middle School
Brookwood SD 167

Wight & Company
Joliet Central High School Student Center & Galleria Addition
Joliet Township HSD 204

FGM Architects, Inc.
Mt. Vernon High School
Mt. Vernon Township HSD 201

ARCON Associates, Inc.
Schrum Memorial Middle School
Hoover-Schrum Memorial SD 157

Criteria considered by the judges included: program/challenge met; how the facility meets 21st century education environmental needs; design; unique energy efficiency or green features; and safety (including passive security design and traffic patterns). To be eligible, construction projects had to be completed in time for occupancy with the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

All of this year’s entries will be added to IASB’s School Design Database. The searchable online database is available for use by IASB member districts and their architectural firms. The file is updated each year after the competition and contains more than 500 Illinois public school design projects.