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
This Youth Mental-Health Campus is Designed to Heal
NBBJ turned to the power of nature and beauty for the Ohana Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health in Monterey, California.
Projects
Inside a Flatiron Loft That Doubles as a Spalike Retreat
The owner of a loft in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, an art dealer, kept coming back to Messana O’Rorke to expand their tranquil and minimalistic home.
Projects
Creativity Abounds In This Three-Story HQ For Neiman Marcus
Replete with 300 suspended butterflies and funky tech innovations, Gensler crafted the ideal remote-hybrid office for all Neiman Marcus employees.