In January, we asked visitors to our American-Architects platform to vote for their favorite Building of the Week from 2023. In the end, the US Building of the Year winner was the Interactive Learning Pavilion, a dedicated classroom building that opened last spring at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Designed by Seattle’s LMN Architects, the building is organized about a canyon-like outdoor “street” with stairs, terraces, and bridges. To learn more about the winning project and how it fits into the firm’s wider portfolio, World-Architects spoke with LMN partner Stephen Van Dyck via Zoom. Our conversation, which took place in early May as pro-Palestinian protests spread across American universities, has been lightly edited for length and clarity.