Pawtucket, RI LLB Architects was recognized at the annual AIA Rhode Island Design Awards on December 6th,  with an Honor Award for its design of Lincoln School’s STEAM Hub for Girls. Completed in May, 2018 by Shawmut Design and Construction, the addition and renovation project provides interdisciplinary teaching and learning spaces, as well as an art gallery for students and visiting artists. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art & architecture, and mathematics.

In honoring LLB Architects’ design for Lincoln School’s STEAM Hub, the jury said, “This addition takes an existing under-developed façade and provides an aesthetic terminus to Blackstone Boulevard while creating a progressive image for Lincoln School.”

The project transformed existing traditional science classrooms into flexible spaces for group collaboration and project-based learning, while making the facilities more sustainable and resilient. An AIA juror commented that, “the interior renovation of the existing building is programmatically exciting and colorful; the utilitarian spaces allow for multiple functions and a dynamic interdependence of uses occurs in a limited square footage.”

Principal Kathleen Bartels, AIA, said, “It’s a bold, tectonically expressive design that shows girls learning and leading in STEAM fields. It’s a timely and important message that Lincoln School, as a leader in girls’ education, wanted to make. We were honored to partner with Lincoln on this truly collaborative project.”

The design of the addition is a visual expression of the school’s mantra “where tradition meets innovation.” The façade features a glass curtainwall facing the west and 20 vertical fins, or sun shades, spaced in such a way as to create rolling shade as the sun moves.

Principal Christian Ladds, AIA, said, “The curvilinear glass design allows people outside to look through the new addition and see the adjacent historic building. That juxtaposition was a key element of the design.”