Calling All Entrants: The 2016 James D. MacConnell Award is just around the corner!

Scottsdale, Ariz. — The James D. MacConnell Award recognizes an outstanding, comprehensive planning process, which results in educational facilities that serve the needs of students, staff, and the community, and facilitate student achievement. Emphasizing the connection between the planning process and the end-result, a healthy, high-performing school facility, the James D. MacConnell Award uniquely assesses how well a school facility supports the academic program of the school district. With on-site interviews of students, school staff, community stakeholders and the design team, the jury thoroughly evaluates the entire process of building a school.

MacConnell award entries will be displayed at the annual Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) Annual Conference & Exhibition in Philadelphia, PA, September 29-October 2, 2016. All finalists will be prominently recognized in a separate section of the exhibition, highlighted in an awards brochure distributed at the conference and to the general membership of A4LE.

Complete submittal requirements are available online at: www.a4le.org.

For additional information, please contact Janell Weihs at 480/391-0840.

Featured

  • Zurn Elkay Releases 2025 Sustainability Report

    Zurn Elkay Water Solutions recently announced the release of its annual sustainability report, according to a news release. The 2025 report discusses the organization’s efforts to maintain good environmental stewardship and the solutions provided in helping customers meet sustainability goals.

  • New Arizona Fine Arts School Reaches Construction Milestone

    Construction of the new Hilltop School for the Arts and Theater in Litchfield Park, Ariz., recently hit a significant milestone, according to a news release. The Agua Fria High School District held a beam-signing ceremony to celebrate the building’s topping out, or the placement of its last structural beam.

  • Chartwells Launches Campus Dining Evaluation Framework

    Contract food-service management provider Chartwells Higher Education recently announced the launch of BLUEPRINT, according to a news release. The evaluation framework was designed to provide a data-driven and customizable roadmap towards optimizing campus dining services and, by extension, the student experience.

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Education Design Showcase Awards

    Spaces4Learning has opened submissions for the 2026 Education Design Showcase! The awards program launched in 1999 with the goal of celebrating innovative, practical solutions in the planning, design, and construction of K–12 and higher-education facilities. EDS recognizes new developments that help achieve optimal learning environments, as well as the architecture firms that brought the ideas to life.