2024 Planet Positive Awards > Workplace & Education > Workplace > Higher Education Honorable Mention

The old Highland Mall in Austin has been transformed into Austin Community College, to act as the primary gateway to higher education and technical training in Central Texas. The existing enclosed mall building, as well as the fact that infrastructure is shared between all campus buildings, made it challenging to incorporate sustainability strategies; yet the team was able to successfully deliver a LEED Gold project. Nearly 80 percent of the original structure was kept intact, and over a third of the original cladding components were reused—avoiding 11,250 tons of CO2e in embodied carbon emissions.

The campus was designed purposefully to connect to the broader community not just through the centralization of the district’s special programs and building features like a new paseo, but also through a display of the rich history of the neighborhood that was erased by the construction of the mall.

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