GSBD Overview

Each day across the United States, more than 59 million students, teachers, and education employees spend substantial time in our country’s 120,000 school buildings. Unfortunately, too many of these schools are aging, crowded, and in need of repair. Such pervasive conditions negatively impact our children’s ability to learn and our teachers’ ability to teach. Now, with school enrollment forecasted to increase at record levels through 2013, and spending on school construction, renovation, and maintenance expected to total nearly $30 billion annually, the need to transform our schools has never been more urgent.

AAF established Great Schools by Design in 2005 with the belief that a well-designed learning environment is an important, perhaps essential, contributor to successful teaching and improved learning. By promoting collaboration, excellence, and innovation in school design, AAF seeks to improve the quality of America’s schools and the communities they serve.

In creating GSbD, AAF also recognized that education leaders are often unaware of the full potential that design and the design process can provide. We expected that empowering these educators with an understanding of the principles of design would support their efforts to serve their students and communities.

Since its creation, GSbD has engaged hundreds of superintendents, local government officials, and design professionals, as well as parents, teachers, students, and other stakeholders in a far-reaching conversation about what must be done to improve the places where children and young adults learn. We strive to help create schools that both support student achievement and serve as centers of community.