a seating area with yellow furnishings in The Graham Athletics & Wellness Center — Penn Charter

February 8, 2024

This Athletic Center is a Win for the Environment

2023 Best of Year Winner for Early Education

The country’s oldest Quaker school boasts a brand-new building to house its robust K-12 athletic program—one that also switch-hits as the heart of its academic campus in Philadelphia via a vibrant lobby/common space complete with a nutrition bar, store, student lounge, and study areas. Designed by EwingCole, a second-floor classroom with glass wall permitting views of the buzzy space below, plus a soaring geometric feature wall pairing oak veneer and acoustic panels combine to make the most of the airy double-height volume. Nestling half of the Graham Athletics & Wellness Center’s 87,000 square feet below-grade, meanwhile, minimized its impact on the landscape and the environment, reducing energy use and solar heat gain to boot.

See Interior Design’s Best of Year Winners and Honorees

Explore must-see projects and innovative products that took home high honors.

2025 WINNERS

a rock climbing wall in The Graham Athletics & Wellness Center

a striped wall with a white staircase overlooks floors in The Graham Athletics & Wellness Center

Projects
Trippy Geometric Forms Shape This Award-Winning Bar Design
Explore the ethereal hues in Le Bar, a 2,000-square-foot watering hole in Nanchang, China, by Matrix Design, which took home a Best of Year Award.
Projects
OTJ Breathes New Life Into A Storied Mixed-Use Facility In Washington D.C.
Nodding to the facility’s curved glass façade, OTJ blends curvilinear forms with blue-gray and cognac hues for the Pelli Clarke & Partners building.
Projects
A Natural Palette Warms an Eye Clinic in Tai Yuan, China
Karv One Design instituted a warm, simple palette that eschews sterility for Starry Ophthalmic Hospital in Tai Yuan, China, instilling a sense of calm.