North Middlesex Regional High School Wins Edward Kirkbride Award

North Middlesex Regional High School, located in Townsend, MA, was recently recognized with the top honor at the annual Association for Learning Environments’ (A4LE) Northeast Regional Conference - the Edward Kirkbride Award. The conference, which took place in Cambridge, MA this year, also included two of SMMA’s school projects on tours for attendees: North Middlesex Regional High School and Bancroft Elementary School in Andover, MA.

According to A4LE, the winner of the Kirkbride Award exceeds in how the project’s design responds to the function and identity of the community, how the learning environment supports a variety of learning styles and delivery methods, how the physical environment demonstrates appropriate use of materials, systems, and elements, and how the planning process ensures the final environment aligns with the vision and goals set during the planning phase.

“These awards are especially exciting for us,” explains Lorraine Finnegan, Director of SMMA’s K-12 Studio. “We always push excellent and efficient design throughout the planning process for the students; we strive to lead our clients to be more progressive when it comes to student agency and project-based learning. Receiving several honorable A4LE recognitions in the past four years is affirmation that we are succeeding in our mission and continuing to advance our designs.”

North Middlesex Regional High School is a model of next-generation education and space utilization. This highly flexible and adaptable school enables multidisciplinary teaching while also incorporating functional sustainability. Science programs now intersect across both the humanities programs and the arts and technology labs, and multi-functional corridors and common areas add to the building’s efficiency and cost value.

North Middlesex officially marks the third SMMA-designed school to have won the Kirkbride Award, following Bancroft Elementary School in 2017 and Ayer Shirley Regional High School in 2015. SMMA’s Winchester High School was also recently honored, having received the 2018 Project Distinction at last year’s A4LE Regional Conference.