Monday’s announcement concluded a yearlong selection process, which included a hemisphere-spanning jury tour of five projects, winnowed from 219 nominated last spring. “From Winnipeg to Buenos Aires, we saw evidence of architecture activating and enriching the lives of those who study, work, and play in the settings created by these designs,” says Denison. In addition to Cox and von Ellrichshausen, the jury included Giovanna Borasi, director and chief curator of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal; Gregg Pasquarelli, founding principal of SHoP Architects in New York; and Mauricio Rocha, founder of Taller | Mauricio Rocha in Mexico City and 2023 MCHAP recipient for his expansion of the Museo Anahuacalli.

Photo © Timothy Hursley

The other finalists were Centro de Investigación Mar de Cortés in Mazatlán, Mexico, by Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO; Clínica Veterinaria Guayaquil in Buenos Aires by adamo-faiden; Ecoparque Bacalar in Bacalar, Mexico, by Colectivo C733; and Pumphouse in Winnipeg, Manitoba, by 5468796 Architecture. Cox, commenting on the 42 semifinalists selected last June, noted an uptick in projects serving the public interest. “The increase in publicly commissioned works clearly signals a renewed commitment to civic architecture and the power of design as demonstrated by a wide range of types, including community centers and cultural, arts, and educational institutions,” he said.

Photo © Timothy Hursley

Thaden School is a private, co-ed, nonsectarian college-prep academy, serving a socioeconomically diverse student body in grades 6–12. Its expansive new facility provides the setting for an innovative, hands-on, interdisciplinary curriculum focused on energy, environmentalism, and food production. The Walton Family Foundation’s Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program was involved in conceiving and developing the project.

The 30-acre site is an open field, formerly a county fairground, bordered by single-family houses and light industry. The carefully composed campus is defined by four long, low, linear volumes reminiscent of vernacular barns, sheds and porches, arranged around an irregularly shaped quad. Materials are tough and basic in a vivid color palette dominated by green. Exterior walls framed in steel are clad in a box-ribbed metal panel system while fiber-cement board-and-batten wraps those framed in wood. Roofs, whose profiles vary to define interior spaces, are standing seam metal. Multiple openings connect the structures to each other and to meadows, lawns, water features, and winding paths.

“The rural context of Arkansas,” says Cox, “has inspired the design team to create a uniquely American spatial form that is simultaneously centered on the Thaden School academic community while remaining completely open to the surrounding community.” According to the jury’s comments, “no singular space dominates, but instead a series of distinctly public landscapes and gardens of different scales and characters invite pedestrians, cyclists and even wildlife and weather to meander through.”

Photos © Timothy Hursley

In both plan and section, the buildings emphasize daylight, outdoor access, and ventilation. Sustainability features include geothermal wells, stormwater management, native planting, and reclaimed materials. The facility operates with 70 percent greater energy efficiency than comparable institutions, sequestering over 1,400 metric tons of CO2 each year.

Completed in 2022, Thaden School has already become a lively center for the local community, hosting events and facilitating connections between town and gown. The collaborative efforts of three separate design practices have allowed educational goals, environmental stewardship, and civic engagement to coalesce in one cohesive architectural vision.