Located on the northern edge of Greenhill School’s Addison, Texas campus, the 67,400 square-foot Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center includes classrooms, fabrication and robotics labs, makerspaces, and common gathering areas, intermixed to encourage cross-disciplinary study. The first mass timber building in Addison and one of the first in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, the project offers a warm, organic framework for varied activities, while ample glass throughout allows visual connection between learning environments and sheltered outdoor areas.

At the outset of the project, client and design team set the priority of putting sustainable design on display, highlighting visible strategies for daylight access, low embodied carbon, energy reduction, and rainwater collection and reuse. Mass timber was selected as the primary structure and material early in the design process to lower the project’s carbon footprint and achieve flexibility in modifying STEM learning environments over time. The overall design distills familiar Greenhill campus elements––including brick, heavy timber, and indoor-outdoor connections––to create a contextual building deeply rooted to its place.

Congratulations to our clients, Greenhill School, and our project team, including OJB Landscape Architecture, Scott + Reid, Walter P. Moore, DBR Engineering Consultants, Westwood, Metropolitan Acoustics, and Holmes Keogh.

The Texas Society of Architects Design Awards program recognizes outstanding architectural and urban design projects by architects practicing in Texas to promote public interest in design excellence. Learn more about the 2026 winners below.