The design of First Creek Middle School won the Learning by Design Award as this year’s most outstanding school for education design and innovation excellence.
“As a school that has amazing success despite tremendous challenges, recognition of this sort makes a huge difference for the kids, staff and community,” said Delores Beason, principal, First Creek Middle School.
A jury of distinguished architects and educational facility planners review and select the outstanding projects that appear in the spring 2011 edition of Learning by Design magazine. Judges evaluate each project based on the completeness of the submission and the quality of challenges and solutions, as well as instructional and support spaces and floor and site plan, to name a few. The judges commented in the Learning by Design publication, on how virtually every project submission included a dedicated common space for students to gather informally, but very few succeeded in turning the commons into the heart of the school as did First Creek Middle School in Tacoma.
“The First Creek Middle School construction project is one in which the entire district can take pride,” said Peter Wall, Tacoma’s Planning and Construction Director. “Its success and recognition by Learning by Design exemplifies the realization of the community’s goals for the project and is a credit to foresight and confidence of the district.”
According to Learning by Design, “What truly elevated this project in the judges’ estimation was the thoughtful attention paid to the central commons area, a two-story multi-purpose room that is used for food service, performance arts and circulation.”
NAC|Architecture designed First Creek to provide a strong sense of community and connection through the organization of the site plan and extensive use of transparency given that two existing middle schools – Gault and McIlvaigh – merged to the combined campus now known as First Creek. The plan includes a central “main street” corridor that serves as a spine for three separate academic wings on one side of the school and a range of shared spaces on the other.
Learning by Design created its annual award to honor an invaluable source of education design and construction best practices, innovation and award-winning projects, so the nation’s students ultimately can benefit from rich environments that support educational goals.