Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

A Glimpse of the Future of Educational Facilities

  • By Jerry Enderle
  • 11/01/18
Annual Education Design Showcase

Grand Prize winners and projects that received Honorable Mentions in School Planning & Management’s and College Planning & Management’s 19th Annual Education Design Showcase were the featured attraction in one of the lounge areas of the EDspaces Conference & Expo.

Approximately 2,300 professionals who design, equip, and manage the creative learning environments in our nation’s schools and higher educational institutions gathered in Tampa, Fla., Nov. 7 through 9 for this year’s EDspaces Conference & Expo. The Education Market Association, host of the event, says that attendance has increased by more than 10 percent each of the last two years.

In addition to having the opportunity to visit with more than 200 exhibitors (56 of which were new this year) and experience their offerings of educational furniture, equipment, fixtures, and services, attendees could choose from more than an offering of 60 EDsessions that were certified for continuing education credits. There were also two plenary sessions on creating educational environments for 21st Century Learners and several tours of both PreK-12 and higher education facilities.

If you are curious about new ideas, furnishings, equipment, and products to help create innovative educational spaces, this is one of the conferences you should consider attending. Next year, the conference will be held Oct. 23 through 25 in Milwaukee.

Changes in Our Print Publication Schedule

In 2019, School Planning & Management will begin publishing 8 issues per year—combining the January/February, April/May, July/August, and November/December issues. The January/February issue is scheduled to mail around Feb. 13 and will include our annual Facilities and Construction Brief.

This article originally appeared in the School Planning & Management November/December 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

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.