The Academy at Irving ISD
Irving, Texas
The 193,000-square-foot high school academy is designed around an innovative instructional model that incorporates rigorous academic expectations with specific awareness of career goals for 1300 ninth-twelfth grade students. Each specialization has its own core and special hands-on instruction learning labs, instructional team office area, workroom and conference areas.
Located on twenty-three acres of steeply sloping terrain, the Academy (which is now known as the Jack E. Singley Academy) shares the campus and its building with North Lake College. The three-story building is constructed into the hillside and is organized around an atrium or “Main Street” of common space that includes a food court and the public space of each specialization, such as the courtroom and the medical clinic. A major goal was to integrate the building and its public uses with the corporations located in the Las Colinas area of Irving. Architecturally, the steel-framed building is clad in multiple tones of stone-faced block and composite metal panels, simultaneously representing the geological “slice” into the hillside as well as the transition from old to new educational system. Abundant natural light enters through clerestories and sunscreen-shaded windows. Architecture, MEP engineering and program development were provided by the association of Milton Powell & Partners and PageSoutherlandPage.
Recognition: James D. MacConnell Award of Excellence Finalist – CEFPI; Walter Taylor Architecture Award – AIA / AASA / CEFPI; Special Citation Award - National School Boards Association; Project of Distinction Award – CEFPI; Process of Planning Award – TASB / TASA; Innovation Award - TASB / TASA; Design Award - TASB / TASA; Education Appropriateness Award - TASB / TASA