Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

O'Connell Robertson Earns CEFPI Architecture Merit Award

  • 04/21/15

Austin, Texas — O’Connell Robertson’s design of the new Success High School in Round Rock ISD earned one of two 2015 Architecture Merit Awards presented by the Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) Southern Region Chapter during the group’s annual conference in San Antonio on Saturday (April 11).

Award entries were evaluated according to criteria in each of the following categories: community environment, learning environment, physical environment, and planning process.

The 68,000 SF campus (located at 500 Gattis School Road in Round Rock) serves high school students who desire acceleration, need evening classes to better fit their personal schedules, or are in at-risk situations. The school was designed to provide maximum flexibility to support varying curriculum and class sizes with flexible and innovative learning spaces, integrated labs, design studios, small group rooms, and a discovery center that replaces the traditional library. A child care center for student parents also doubles as a teaching space for the Early Childhood Education curriculum. The campus features numerous sustainability strategies designed to achieve a LEED Silver rating.

“We are proud of this award that recognizes our partnership with RRISD in designing a progressive and unique educational environment that helps prepare all students for success after high school,” said Amy Jones, principal-in-charge of the Success High School project.

Featured

  • Florida District Completes Construction on New Leadership Institute

    Pinellas County Schools near Tampa, Fla., recently announced that construction is complete on the new Dr. Michael A. Grego Leadership Institute, according to a news release. The district partnered with Rowe Architects for the project’s design and with Skanska for construction services.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • Moline-Coal Valley School District to Consolidate Two Schools into New Facility

    The Moline-Coal Valley School District in Moline, Ill., recently broke ground on a new elementary school that will consolidate the students and staff from two existing schools, according to local news. Robert Ontiveros Elementary School will serve as the new home for Lincoln-Irving Elementary School and Willard Elementary School.