Press Releases

September 6, 2002 Noble High School garners five design awards Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine, has received five awards for design excellence and has been the subject of feature articles in three national magazines. The 1,500-student school, which opened last year, was designed by Harriman Associates, a full-servce architecture and engineering firm with offices in Auburn and Portland, Maine. "We're very pleased when any of our designs gets this amount of national recognition," said project architect Daniel W. Cecil, AIA, who is also a partner at Harriman Associates. "But this is especially gratifyng because faculty, students, administrators, parents and others in the community were so heavily involved in the design process." National and regional recognition Awards have been received from the Boston Society of Architects, Mass Networks Education Partnership, American School Board Journal's Learning by Deisgn, School and Planning Management magazine's 2002 Education Design Showcase, and American School & University magazine's 2002 Interiors Showcase. In addition, Noble was also chosen as the Facility of the Month by School Construction News, a national bimonthly magazine, and was profiled in Horace, the quarterly journal of the Coalition of Essential Schools, a national organization that encourages innovation in teaching. Noble is one of about 1,000 schools in the country which participate in the organization. An article in New England Construction magazine described the cost-savings measures taken when the school was being built. Noble is tailored to a project-based, interdisciplinary teaching style and has fifteen "learning communities," each accommodating a team of four teachers and 100 students. In addition, it takes the concept of communty use to a new level. With a healthare clinic, a day care center, an adult education center, a restaurant serving 50, and a performing arts center seating 1,000 it has become the center of the three rural Maine communities it serves -- Berwick, North Berwick, and Lebanon. Judges' comments Judges from the Boston Society of Architects noted that "the plan responds nicely and effectively to the educational concept described," and that "the central space is captivating and seems to unify the school with a distinctly Maine flavor." Noble was one of eight among 57 entrants to win a BSA award for design excellence for K-12 schools. The Mass Networks Education partnership awarded Noble one of two Grand Prizes in recognition of "excellence in the design of effective learning spaces for technology-rich education." This award also included a $3,000 cash prize for the high school. In awarding Noble a Bronze Citation, American School & University magazine noted that Noble's town square had a "nice warm feel to a space that appropriately links to other areas in the school." Noble also received a Citation Award in the American School Board Journal's Learning by Design competition and Honorable Mention in School Planning & Management magazine's 2002 Education Design Showcase. back to list