Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Franklin High School Project Recognized for 2015 Starnet Commercial Flooring Grand Prize & Gold Award

  • 06/04/15

Milwaukee, Wis. – Franklin High School was awarded the Gold Award in the Education category for Starnet’s 2015 Worldwide Commercial Flooring Design Awards. Additionally, the project captured the prestigious 2015 Grand Prize project award, recognized as the best project of all the submissions. As a result, Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA) was awarded $5,000 to donate to a charity of choice. EUA has chosen to donate the prize money back to the Franklin Educational Foundation to support the high education standards of the district.

Franklin High School’s primary goal was to create transparent spaces that encouraged active learning separate from academic areas. A strong emphasis was placed upon designing a sense of flow and movement within the space to form a fluid environment for students. Throughout the school, each department had the opportunity to communicate their unique ideas, while contributing to the comprehensive brand and identity of the school. Incorporating the district’s idea of “learning anytime, anywhere,” classrooms were designed with advanced acoustics and the ability to support many flexible furniture arrangements.

The school is centered around a common hub for students that demonstrates the environments of higher education institutions and future workplaces. Carpet is used throughout the seating areas to cleanly integrate with the tile flooring and provide continuity in these open spaces. To break up the length of the long hallways, the design team integrated form and color to enhance the flooring visually and aesthetically. To display the strong school pride, the project was completed using an array of yellows, golds and the school colors.

“We are excited to be recognized for this National award, and it is made all better because we can give back to the district to help excel program initiatives” said Bob Vajgrt, Director of the Education Market for EUA. “I’d also like to commend Emily Thomas, for her high quality efforts with developing functional but innovative carpet patterns to excel the environment of this school, I believe that this aesthetic improvement will improve the student perception of the high school’s spaces.”

Featured

  • 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.

  • Virginia Tech Tops Out New College of Engineering Building

    Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., recently celebrated the topping out of Mitchell Hall, which will soon stand as the largest College of Engineering building on campus, according to a news release. The university partnered with Skanska on the 285,500-square-foot facility, which has an expected completion date of winter 2028.

  • Q&A: How to Prevent Kitchen Grease Fires in Commercial Kitchens

    School cafeterias and university dining halls serve thousands of meals daily, relying on high-heat equipment like fryers, grills, and ovens. While these operations keep students fed, they also generate significant grease-laden vapors. Without proper controls, this grease becomes a silent fire threat. As a certified exhaust cleaning specialist and business coach who has helped hundreds of institutional facilities achieve NFPA 96 compliance, I emphasize that proactive grease management isn’t optional; it’s a core fire/life safety practice.

  • Tomball ISD Opens New Tomball West High School

    Tomball Independent School District in Tomball, Texas, recently celebrated the official opening of Tomball West High School, the district's third comprehensive high school, with a community ribbon-cutting ceremony, according to a district news release.