UMD architecture Lecturer Dan Curry probably knows his teenage daughter’s high school better than she does. Years before she enrolled, he helped design it, a fact he likes to jokingly remind her whenever they pass by Benjamin Banneker Academic in Washington, D.C., despite her eye rolls.
“I’ll joke, ‘Hey, that’s a nice building! I wonder who designed it?’” said Curry. “I’ve probably taken it as far as I can.”
A prestigious national award may give the joke a bit more mileage. The project was one of 10 in the U.S. to win an American Institute of Architects COTE Award, one of the highest honors given to projects demonstrating sustainable, resilient design. Curry was part of a team led by design firm Perkins Eastman, which also included alums Mary Rankin and Ann Neeriemer, to make the elite list, released this summer.
“This has been a career goal for over 10 years, to work on a COTE Top 10 project,” said Curry. “It was the project of a lifetime for me.”
Opened in 2021, the geometric, glassy school offers light-filled spaces to study and socialize, a rooftop classroom overlooking D.C.'s monuments, and expansive, bright hallways; but what clinched the COTE were the project’s aggressive design strategies to achieve net-zero energy and certified LEED Platinum, the pinnacle of green building design. Curry served as project architect for executing the building’s envelope—the layers that form a physical barrier between outside and in, and a critical aspect for achieving the project’s sustainability goals.
Opened in 2021, the geometric, glassy school offers light-filled spaces to study and socialize, a rooftop classroom overlooking D.C. 's monuments and expansive, bright hallways; but what clinched the COTE were the project’s aggressive design strategies to achieve net-zero energy and certified LEED Platinum, the pinnacle of green building design. Curry served as project architect for executing the building’s envelope— the layers that form a physical barrier between outside and in, and a critical aspect for achieving the project’s sustainability goals.
At four stories tall and situated on a modest urban parcel, achieving net zero required both creative design work and nimble project management. Photovoltaics adorn the roof, but also run along the south side of the building, doubling as shade canopies in warmer months. The building envelope is nearly “passive-house level airtightness”, by ensuring proper sealing between systems, a quality air barrier, and high insulation values. Well-distributed windows and skylights infuse natural light into interior spaces to reduce energy use while minimizing heat gain. The high school leverages a portion of the energy generated by John Lewis Elementary School, a sister project that won a COTE award last year, to offset any gaps in power generation.
“It can be really challenging to build net-zero in an urban environment where you don’t have as much roof area to work with,” said Curry. “So one of the strategies was to define Banneker and Lewis as a larger institutional portfolio. That way we could guarantee that between the two projects, we’d be able to offset the energy consumed for both schools.”
Curry, whose practice specializes in creating engaging community learning spaces, has contributed to the designs of regional schools across the educational spectrum; his projects include 2024 AIA Design Excellence Education Facility Design Award recipient Bard High School Early College DC (also with Perkins Eastman DC), McKinley Middle School, Gallaudet University Living and Learning Residence Hall 6, Benjamin Franklin Museum, Yorktown High School, Deanwood Community Center and Brightwood Elementary School. The longstanding institutional knowledge Curry and his colleagues brought to Banneker—from managing multiple stakeholders and city regulations to creating exciting learning spaces and an inviting building form—gave them the foundation to go further, delivering a finished project that will serve students, taxpayers and the planet for generations to come.
“A project like this has so many competing determinants,” he said. “But we now have a product that will be self-sufficient for years to come. It’s a worthy civic investment.”