Winchester High School, SMMA’s transformation of a 1970s Brutalist-style school into a stronger, lighter, and more energy efficient building, has been awarded the 2018 Project Distinction at the Northeast Regional A4LE Conference in Baltimore.

The is an award given by SMMA’s peers, which recognizes not just the architectural design, but also strategic planning and plan execution. 

The project served 1,370 students through 288,840 sf of addition and renovation. The Town of Winchester hoped to take the high school’s antiquated aesthetic and learning environment and incorporate technology, STEM, the arts, and differentiated and integrated learning spaces.

The result was everything they could have hoped for and more, having earned such other credentials as ACEC/MA Engineering Excellence and one of the top ten best high schools in Massachusetts. 

SMMA is honored to receive this new distinction for creating a school that has become a major asset to its community. Members of the deciding jury also had positive remarks about the high school: 

“[Winchester] is the best transformation I have ever seen”

“Heroic”

“Great story, well told”

“To imagine what a student must have felt – must have been life changing!” 

The theme of this year’s conference was “Building Community Through Education,” which gathered educators, educational planners, and architects from the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, District of Columbia in the United States and the provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Quebec in Canada.