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

  • Opportunity by Design Framework

    Opportunity by Design

    Educational improvement efforts often focus on curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, and intervention systems while treating the physical school building as background. But school design is not a passive backdrop to learning — it is a structural lever for equity.

  • DLR Group Hires Three for Higher Education Practice

    Integrated design firm DLR Group recently announced that it has brought three new hires on board to help shape its higher education practice in California and the northeast, according to a press release.

  • Growing Allied Health Workforce Demands Fueling Greater Need for Higher Education Facilities

    With the demand for healthcare professionals at an all-time high, colleges and universities are challenged with supporting the workforce demands in their own communities. Careers in allied health generally require specific training and/or certification, with some positions requiring degrees, certified credentials, and continuing education.

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey

    Spaces4Learning recently launched the 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey, which collects data on the previous year’s K–12 and higher education construction projects nationwide.