Lawton Elementary School Design Wins Mass Timber Competition

The new Lawton Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is among four projects selected as winners in the Softwood Lumber Board and USDA Forest Service’s 2025 Mass Timber Competition: Building Sustainable Schools. Quinn Evans is the architect for the project, which is still in design.

The competition, which split $1.8 million in grant funds among the winners, is intended to promote the use of mass timber—an engineered wood product—in K-12 education projects. Wood is a renewable resource with less embodied carbon than steel or concrete, making mass timber a more sustainable alternative for a building’s structural components.

Exposed timber elements will provide visual warmth and connections to nature.

While the design for Lawton Elementary School is not finalized, it envisions using timber framing to further the project’s goals for sustainability and student wellbeing. The building is planned to be net zero energy ready, meet Passive House standards, and fulfill the requirements of the US Collaborative for High Performance Schools’ “Verified Leader” certification.

The grant funds will allow Ann Arbor Public Schools to explore additional possibilities for mass timber construction at Lawton that can be replicated in future facilities. The project design team includes Bakergroup; Beckett & Raeder, Inc.; Fielding International; Fleis & VandenBrink; JDRM Engineering; Soundscape Engineering; Strategic Energy Solutions; and TYLin.

The winning projects demonstrate how biophilic design with mass timber can strengthen academic performance, improve teacher and staff well-being, and create healthier, more resilient learning spaces for students.