'Forceful,' 'acrobatic,' 'muscular,' 'raw,' even 'gritty' are usually the operative adjectives to describe the architecture of Thom Mayne (2013 AIA Gold Medalist) and his firm, Morphosis.

On a sunny afternoon in Pasadena, California, an energetic sixth grader runs between the ginkgo trees in the large circular courtyard of Blair International Baccalaureate Middle School.

Like a proud parent, Denise Davis, an associate at the Communities Foundation of Texas, shows off photographs of the Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy whenever she is asked about exciting developments in early-college-high-school programs.

In a town of just 8,000 people, a 310,000-square-foot building is a big deal, especially if it's the new high school.

Back in 1975, when the Eden Institute was founded in a New Jersey church basement to serve children with autism, the disorder was considered relatively rare, then estimated at a nationwide rate of 1 in 10,000 births.

In Japan, where the birthrate is dropping and the elderly population is rising, more schools are closing than opening. But in Kumamoto prefecture on the nation's southernmost island, Kyushu, the city of Uto was faced with an aging elementary school and nearly 800 youngsters to educate.

Encircled by a stand of towering deciduous trees, Benjamin E. Mays High School keeps a low profile, despite having been home to such notable alumni as visual artist Radcliffe Bailey and musician Cee Lo Green, and currently being the largest school serving grades nine through 12 in the Atlanta Public Schools (APS).