Greenhill School, Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center Featured in Texas Architect Awards Issue
The new math, science, and engineering building at Greenhill School was one of 21 projects “that most powerfully reflect the design values currently shaping the practice of architecture” in Texas.
"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."
Winners of the 2026 TxA Design Awards take center stage in the fall issue of Texas Architect Magazine. Regarded one of the nation’s premier design competitions, the awards honor projects that exemplify the principles of design excellence, including sustainability, resilience, innovation, social impact, cultural relevance, and community engagement. Introducing the current issue, Wyatt Frantom, FAIA shared details about the awards committee and jury processes, including observations from the 2026 honorees. As Frantom notes, “In assessing the overall quality of the submissions, sustainability performance continued to improve this year. As tracked through the Common App, average scores for submitted projects have risen steadily over the past five years.”
The Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center at Greenhill School, a leading independent day school in the north Dallas suburb of Addison, provides classrooms, fabrication and robotics labs, and makerspaces, intermixed to foster cross-disciplinary teamwork and empower students to collaborate in new ways. The first mass timber building in Addison and one of the first in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, the project is also a teaching tool for sustainability, incorporating visible strategies for carbon reduction, stormwater management, and daylighting.
The 2026 TxA jury included Chris Baribeau, FAIA, co-founding principal of modus studio; Everald Colas, AIA, NOMA founding principal of STORYN Studio for Architecture; Ashley Rao, AIA, principal at Leers Weinzapfel Associates; and James Timberlake, FAIA, founding partner of KieranTimberlake. Learn more about the awards and view all winning projects below.
