Learning by Design Magazine Announces 2018 Design Awards
RDG Planning & Design's work on the Early Learning Center at Skinner has been recognized for its focus on sustainability and positive community impact.
Learning By Design Magazine has awarded RDG a Citation of Excellence Award for its design for the Early Learning Center at Skinner Elementary School. The magazine’s annual Architectural and Interior Design Awards showcases the very best in education design and construction, recognizing newly built learning space projects or significant works in progress.
Omaha Early Learning Center provides outcomes-based education for at-risk parents and their children. As an organization committed to helping learners from birth to age 3 grow up safe, healthy and eager to learn, Omaha Early Learning Center looked to RDG to design a space that could support concurrent delivery of both education and community care. RDG’s subsequent design for the Early Learning Center features flexible classrooms and multipurpose indoor and outdoor play areas. Transparency in the design allows for continual observation of the young students, while the building's clerestory corridors bring in abundant natural light, creating strong connections to the outdoors. RDG's design also incorporates administrative and consultation areas to support the center's parent education programs, and lounge and resource spaces for educators.
Learning By Design’s Architectural and Interior Design Awards of Excellence entries are judged on their implementation of seven criteria: design challenges, innovation and solutions, functional design and effective space planning, sustainability and social impact, next-generation learning, interior architecture and design and meeting community needs. For its 2018 awards, submissions were judged by a jury of jury of five architects and end-users.
The 2018 jury praised the school for its innovative design, highlighting its daring center commons and lecture hall, its ambition for LEED Platinum certification, and its overall positive impact on design and planning. They commended the dynamic spatial layout, creative use of light and color, and the seamless integration of space, furnishings, and equipment, emphasizing the project's role in fostering a special sense of community.