ARCHITECTURE | HONOR  

Entry Name: Reeds Spring High School
Firm: Dake Wells Architecture
Project Location: Reeds Spring, MO
Owner: Reeds Spring High School
Photographer: Gayle Babcock – Architectural Imageworks, LLC

Providing a new practice gym and support facilities, this addition to an existing high school cleverly considers often-overlooked spaces for a budget of $92 per square foot. The gym is conceived as a simple masonry box with a continuous horizontal slice that provides daylight to the interior. The gymnasium box is separated from the existing building by a glass reveal containing a new weight room and lobby. Eight-foot tall text identifying the school’s mascot on the glass mitigates solar gain while enlivening the lobby interior. Places of rest after strenuous activity are identified by wood accents that enrich the material palette, while a screen wall of weathering steel add sculptural quality to the landscape.