Best Higher Education: Tulane School of Social Work
Tulane University’s School of Social Work was relocated beyond the historic academic uptown campus where it had operated for the last 50 years. Now housed in the former Elks Building, a neo-classical structure built in 1917, the school occupies the third and fourth floors, offering nearly 20,000 sq ft of study, classroom and meeting spaces. The project also reworked the first-floor entrance to be ADA compliant.
The biggest challenge the team had to overcome was trying to retrofit an existing building that was built almost a century ago into a modern, energy-efficient educational facility. Teams installed modern finishes but aimed to retain the building’s historic character. The fast-tracked project was complete in five months despite having encountered several unforeseen existing building conditions.