FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 22, 2022 – The Texas Society of Architects has presented a 2022 Studio Award to Bennett Partners for the architectural firm’s work in reimagining the Center for Transforming Lives (CTL), a Fort Worth outreach organization assisting underserved communities. The recognition is the latest in a series of recent awards bestowed on Bennett Partners for its creative approach to designing and improving working and living spaces.

The project began as a pro-bono study by Bennett Partners to assist CTL by assessing the feasibility of adaptively reusing a 1960s-era department store for their new facilities. The firm was later selected to go ahead with the work. CTL provides a wide range of services for at-risk women and children, including crisis support, childcare, Head Start services, financial education, housing services, family counseling and job training.

Originally a two-level department store, the all-concrete structure will undergo significant upgrades under Bennett Partners’ redesign plan. The work will include the addition of a landscaped entry courtyard that will introduce natural light into the building, a landscaped parking lot incorporating a park-like connection from the nearby bus stop to the building entry, and the creation of outdoor shaded play areas. Freestanding “houses” within the volume of the building will provide classroom space for children enrolled in Head Start. Much of the 13-acre site will be converted into greenspace for neighborhood activities and events.

“We are certainly gratified for this recognition, but we are even more pleased to be able to help CTL in the important work they are doing for those in our community who are in need,” said Michael Bennett, principal and CEO of Bennett Partners.

The CTL project also garnered Bennett Partners a 2021 Studio Award from the AIA’s Fort Worth Chapter. The firm has received numerous other recent accolades for its design work, including a 2021 Texas Society of Architects Design Award and the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art’s John Staub Award for the restoration and adaptive reuse of the Fort Worth Stockyards Historic Horse and Mule Barns; AIA Fort Worth Chapter’s Merit Award for the optimization of Jetta Operating Company’s offices; the North Central Texas Council of Governments’ CLIDE Award for Mayor Vera Calvin Plaza in Burleson’s Old Town; AIA Fort Worth Chapter’s Merit Award for the new Overton Park Elementary School in southwest Fort Worth; and AIA Fort Worth’s Merit Award for the Tarrant County College District’s new administrative offices.