Spokane (Washington) School District No. 81 has replaced 12 obsolete elementary schools and enlarged a thirteenth. A design competition involving three consortia of 10 local architectural firms and the use of a prototype design for all 12 new schools saved the school district about $8 million from the original estimate. (MLF)

The new student center at Villanova University was designed to look as if it had always been there. A large roof forms a unifying framework for the variety of activities organized on two levels. Each function has its place, yet shares visual contact with the other activities. (Author/MLF)

Examines the storage conditions and the circumstances surrounding the film storage facility fire in Suitland, Maryland, which destroyed over 13 million feet of film. Outlines possible causes for the fire and offers recommendations for prevention of such future disasters. (JMF)

A large high school in Oak Park, Illinois, has saved energy since 1971 with gradual changes and a committee to generate new ideas and win support. (Author/MLF)

Boston's Jamaica Plain High School is a bright, colorful facility that belies that building's former life as a utilitarian warehouse. (Author)

Cautions against underestimating children's intelligence and describes the development of the award winning book, "Building: The Fight against Gravity." (MKM)

An imaginative joint effort by public and private interests revived the former Ridgefield High School (Connecticut) and transformed it into an executive office building. It will eventually revert to the town for another use. (Author/MLF)

An analysis of the architectural characteristics of Kresge College at the University of California Santa Cruz. (MLF)

The plan outlined in this article can yield quick results, lay the foundation for any systematic future programs, and be established with a minimum of outside help. For a program to be successful, a commitment to energy conservation must be made at the highest level. (Author/IRT)

Two government clients, the state of California, and the Tennessee Valley Authorit y, are encouraging building design that reduces the use of energy. (Author)

The National Humanities Center in North Carolina has individual studies that provide absolute privacy for each scholar, and a commons, with lounges and a dining room, placed to encourage interaction. (Author/MLF)

An AIA Honor Award was given for the Pembroke Dormitories at Brown University. The dormitories, said the jury, are an "outstanding example of weaving an institution into the urban fabric." (Author/MLF)

The Legal Research Center for Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, was designed to allow existing facilities to dominate, to continue a linear development of a steep nonlinear site, and to connect gracefully to adjacent buildings. (Author/MLF)

The classrooms of the Franklin County (Virginia) Continuing Education Center are in a modular building constructed to replace one destroyed by fire. (MLF)

The long spinelike classroom and office building extending down the campus of Southern Illinois University is an example of how new construction can synthesize and organize an older environment. (Author/MLF)