2019 Best of Design Awards winners for Unbuilt

2019 Best of Design Award for Unbuilt – Education: Otto Specht School

Designer: Charles Rose Architects
Location: Chestnut Ridge, New York

The Otto Specht School houses a unique educational program for 80 students with learning disabilities and developmental delays. The pedagogy, based on the curriculum and hands-on approach of the Waldorf Schools, nurtures the whole child through experiential learning. These students thrive in an environment free of distractions, with spatial variety, straightforward navigation, and access to nature. The classrooms are simple in finish and form, providing calm, interior spaces. The circulation and gathering areas are sculpturally dynamic, encouraging movement and a constant relationship to the site. Expansive windows frame views, creating a light-filled interior that open’s to the landscape, blurring the boundary between inside and out while heightening the sense of place. The building is net-zero and nontoxic in construction.

Resources:
Civil Engineer: McLaren Engineering Group
Structural Engineer: BuroHappold Engineering
Products: RHEINZINK, Reynaers Aluminium windows, Unilock pavers

Honorable Mentions

Project Name: Church Hill North
Designer: O’Neill McVoy Architects

Rendering of the University of Arkansas Center for Farm and Food System Entrepreneurship — Unbuilt — Educational: Honorable Mention: Church Hill North (O’Neill McVoy Architects)

Project Name: University of Arkansas Center for Farm and Food System Entrepreneurship
Designer: University of Arkansas Community Design Center