Greenhill School Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center

The private K-12 Greenhill School replaced its 60-year-old science building with a flexible STEM facility integrating middle and upper school science, math, and makerspaces. The Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center houses classrooms, fabrication and robotics labs, and makerspaces intermixed to encourage cross-disciplinary teamwork. The design distills familiar campus elements—including brick, heavy timber, and indoor-outdoor connections—to create a contextual building deeply rooted in its place. The first mass timber building in Addison, it leverages the material to lower the project’s carbon footprint while supporting long-term flexibility. Daylighting, stormwater management, and energy conservation serve as teaching tools for sustainability, while a modular approach and raised access floor plenum anticipate changing use and technology. Greenhill leadership describes the building as the “epicenter for everyone on campus,” saying it has transformed the school.

“The choices in materiality and form-making respond thoughtfully to the project’s different orientations and sides. The way it opens up for students in the middle—with the rhythm of the colonnade, the social spaces, and the connections to the outdoors—is really compelling. It allows the outdoors and nature to provide the vibrancy and color within the space while the architecture remains purposefully muted, elegant, and timeless.” —Chris Baribeau, FAIA

View full Design Awards submission