The Rosa Parks School in the New Columbia

The Rosa Parks School in the New Columbia HOPE VI development in Portland, Oregon, has won this year’s Richard Riley Award for Schools as Centers of Community. The American Architectural Foundation and KnowledgeWorks Foundation cited the school as “a national model for how the creative design of a school can help to revitalize an entire neighborhood.” Marcy McInelly of the Portland-based firm UrbsWorks, which was involved in designing New Columbia, said the school “has many green building features — certified LEED Gold, tree preservation, stormwater infiltration — in addition to being a model for compact urban schools with a walkable community.”