LPA’s Texas Studios Take Home Two Critical Awards
In late April, LPA Design Studios was honored with two major recognitions: a Texas Society of Architects’ Design Award for the Thomas G. Harris Elementary School, and the A4LE Southern Region Annual Conference’s Summit Award for General Marshall Middle School.
Both schools, located in Austin, Texas, are a study in how deeply collaborative community and district engagement drive design solutions that uniquely serve their student populations.
Texas Society of Architects (TxA) Design Award
Thomas G. Harris Elementary School
The Texas Society of Architects’ Design Awards program focuses statewide attention on the quality of the built environment, while highlighting the critical role architects play in communities.
Thomas G. Harris Elementary School is home to a largely economically disadvantaged population, with three out of four students designated as being at risk of dropping out. The design addresses this by creating healthy, equitable learning environments that prioritize student wellbeing, security and stability.
As the project kicked off, the district selected a team of teachers, representatives, staff, parents and community members, which collectively drove all the decisions on the project. The final outcome reflects their vision.
The campus is organized into neighborhoods, establishing smaller communities within the larger school. Nooks, small-group spaces and collaborative areas offer multiple scales for learning. Each neighborhood also has direct access to outdoor learning spaces, including a plaza paved with 10,000 salvaged bricks. Clerestory windows and light-toned interior finishes, meanwhile, amplify and reflect natural daylight while reducing the need for artificial lighting during occupied hours, which allows students to maintain lower cortisol levels, directly supporting their emotional regulation and resilience.
“The Harris project reflects what is possible through a collaborative design process,” said LPA Project Architect Katie Cavazos. “The TxA Design Awards recognize work that unites design quality, performance and meaningful impact on people and place. Harris embodies these principles, serving as a public school that nurtures connection, inspires learning and creates a foundation for a better future within its community.”
A4LE Southern Region Annual Conference’s Summit Award
General Marshall Middle School
The A4LE Summit Award is given to just one project that positively impacts teaching and learning in the Southern United States, including Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, which came to fruition as the result of a planning process involving the needs of the community.
General Marshall Middle School is a new 130,000-square-foot campus on a 10-acre site in Austin’s Mueller Development. Like the Thomas G. Harris Elementary School, the campus was developed with extensive input from a stakeholder committee, which participated in visioning exercises, site visits and campus tours, alongside community engagement meetings. The campus ultimately balances academics, wellness and neighborhood integration, while fostering student engagement and belonging.
Flexible learning neighborhoods, maker spaces and collaboration spaces that extend outdoors promote academic, social and emotional growth. These neighborhoods provide inclusive spaces where all students, including neurodivergent learners, can thrive, featuring operable partitions, small-group rooms, varied collaboration areas and visual connections supporting this teaching and learning model.
Sustainability and resiliency are also central to the project, with durable materials, solar-ready roofs, water recycling and flexible planning for long-term use, earning an AEGB 4-star certification. Active and passive strategies reduce energy use by 60 percent, and even without dedicated funding, features like optimized acoustics, humidity control, natural ventilation, native planting and stack effect enhance comfort while lowering energy demand.
“The recognition for General Marshall Middle School is really a celebration of Austin ISD’s forward-thinking approach to learning environments that enable flexibility, equity and collaboration,” said Federico Cavazos, LPA Principal and Design Director. “Being able to close out the bond with this hallmark project was a gift we didn’t take lightly.”
