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Washington DC Department of General Services

Benjamin Banneker Academic High School

Details
Washington, D.C.
Location
175,000 SF
Size
2021
Completion
LEED Platinum Net-Zero Ready
Sustainability
Associate Architect
Moody Nolan
Design Architect
Perkins Eastman
Collaborators
Awards
A4LE Northeast Regional Design Awards
2023 Project of Distinction
IES Illumination Design Awards
Energy and Environmental Design Award: Washington DC Section
Architizer A+ Awards
Special Mention for Educational Interiors
2023
ENR MidAtlantic
Best K-12 Education + Project of the Year
AIA Baltimore
Grand Design Award
AIA Baltimore
Excellence in Design + Sustainable & Resilient Design Award
AIA Northern Virginia
Award of Merit
ENR Mid-Atlantic Regional Best Projects
Best Project: K-12 Education
The American School & University Educational Interiors Showcase Awards
Silver Citation-Common Areas
Learning by Design
Education Facilities Design Awards, Grand Prize Award
2022

The highest-performing public school in D.C., Banneker provides a critical pathway to academic and life-long success for its students—100% of whom gain acceptance to college.

 

The building is designed help students transition to the next step in their life, removing stressors that often impact academic achievement.

Every level of the four-story campus provides flexible modes for learning—both formal and informal places to gather, socialize, and collaborate. Skylights dapple the central core with natural light.

Diverse learning styles

The high-achieving school see’s 100% of it’s graduates onto college. The students work hard academically and the new building follows suit— producing the amount of energy on site that it uses.

Skylights suffuse each level with natural light and generous interior glazing in adjacent instructional spaces allows natural light to supplement daylight from exterior windows, enhancing the learning environment.

To help fit into the community, the facade mixes various shades of red that take cues from the brick buildings in the surrounding neighborhoods.

The animated façade—through its fenestration and shading strategies and visible photovoltaic panels—manifests the approaches that will help establish the building as the standard for a healthy, high-performance place to learn.

The building’s varied massing respects its historic neighbors and creates a balanced streetscape. As the site is also a valued community open space, several existing and cherished features, including a dog park and a skate park, have been integrated to create a campus that is truly the center of its community.

The design pays homage to Benjamin Banneker, an African American polymath and his contributions to the country's capital.
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