Hasta La Ideas

News: the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced 26 winners for this year’s Institute Honor Awards, including a holocaust museum beneath a hill in Los Angeles, a stone mausoleum in Minneapolis, and a concrete house on a rocky outcrop in Washington (+ slideshow).

The AIA awards, which recognise excellence in the fields of architecture, interior architecture and urban design, awards projects from all around the world by architects licensed in the United States, and this year’s winning firms include SOM, Olson Kundig Architects, KieranTimberlake and WXY Architecture + Urban Design.

Winners in the architecture category include the renovation of a Beaux Arts library in St. Louis, an art college at a former railroad complex in Georgia and a visitor centre with a curving green roof at a botanic garden in Brooklyn.

A bar in a converted warehouse in San Francisco and an overhauled 1970s library in Seattle were among projects recognised in the interior design category, while urban design projects to pick up awards included a vision for Manhattan’s East River waterfront in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and a new zoning code for public spaces in Miami.

A jury of architects and academics selected this year’s winners from over 500 submissions and the awards will be presented at the AIA 2014 National Convention and Design Exposition in Chicago this June.

See the full list of winning projects below with descriptions from the AIA:

2014 Institute Honor Awards for Architecture

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Centre; Brooklyn, New York
WEISS/MANFREDI

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Centre is an inhabitable topography defining a threshold between the city and the garden, culture and cultivation. Nested into an existing berm, the LEED Gold building is a seamless extension of the garden path system, framing views through the historic garden. As a chameleon-like structure, the visitor centre transitions from an architectural presence at the street into a structured landscape in the botanic garden. The building redefines the physical and philosophical relationship between visitor and garden, introducing new connections between landscape and structure, exhibition and movement.

Centre for International Governance and Innovation (CIGI) Campus; Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
KPMB Architects

This project is located on a 3.9-acre site and is a reinterpretation of a traditional academic quad building based on the Oxford model. The client asked for a campus to last at least 100 years, a “vibrant sanctuary”, to facilitate reflection, collaboration, and discussion. The solution consists of two three-story, interconnected buildings and an auditorium pavilion organised around a courtyard. The scale, proportions and materials of the brick elevations facing the street are a direct response to the 19th-century masonry industrial buildings in the surrounding neighbourhood. A limited palette of local limestone and brick masonry, wood and glass was used to create a serene atmosphere for study and reflection.

New Boathouse for Community Rowing, Inc. (CRI); Boston
Anmahian Winton Architects

This is the first permanent facility for Community Rowing, the largest public rowing organisation in the country. The project is composed of two buildings that form a courtyard that overlays two typically incompatible conditions: a public forecourt to the river and a staging terrace for the boats. The small building, a glass-shingled pavilion for single shells, displays the boats to the adjacent parkway. The large building houses longer boats, offices, and training rooms. The unique kinetic cladding system, which regulates natural ventilation and light, literally transforms the shape of the building and its relationship to the surrounding landscape.

Jackson Hole Airport; Jackson, Wyoming
Gensler

With respect to Teton National Park, The Jackson Hole Airport renovation and expansion considers the building as a simple, understated foreground feature intended to merely reside within the landscape. The queen-post trusses reduced beam depths, increasing the volume, allowing for an expansive glass curtain wall that reinforces the connection between interior and exterior. This LEED Silver Certified airport distinguishes itself from the aesthetics of typical airports because of its regional design approach, materiality, and intimate scale. The airport serves as passenger’s first and last impression to this truly unique region.

King Street Station; Seattle
ZGF Architects LLP

The rehabilitation of King Street Station restores historic 1906 architectural finishes, re-establishes the station as a modern transportation hub and capitalises on materials and energy invested a century ago by reusing materials rather than replacing them. The project enhances public spaces, improves pedestrian and multi-modal connections in and around the station, and has served as a catalyst for additional redevelopment within the neighbourhood. Securing the station for the future, the rehabilitation also included significant seismic and structural updates to improve the building’s safety and durability. The project has achieved LEED Platinum certification.

Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum; Minneapolis
HGA Architects and Engineers

Addressing the intimacy of personal grieving and the shared rituals of commemoration, the design for the new Garden Mausoleum at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis revisits an ancient building type whose setting demands contextual sensitivity and attention to materiality. The mausoleum minimises the visual impact on its historic context by nestling more than three-quarters of the building into an existing south-facing hillside. In each crypt and columbarium room, daylight strengthens the relationship between the spiritual and the earth-bound while offering a serene and healing environment. The material palette – stone, bronze, wood and glass – calls upon visual and experiential senses while recalling centuries of memorial tradition.

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust; Los Angeles
Belzberg Architects

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust is submerged into the surrounding public park space allowing the landscape to continue over the structure. Pathways are morphed onto the building and appropriated as surface patterning. The museum emerges from the landscape as a single, curving concrete wall that splits and carves into the ground to form the entry. Entry to the building entails a gradual deterioration of this visual and auditory connection to the park while descending a long ramp. Inside visitors experience a series of isolated spaces saturated with interactive archival content with diminishing natural light while descending further into the earth.

The Pierre; San Juan Island, Washington
Olson Kundig Architects

A secure and unexpected retreat nestled into a rocky outcropping, The Pierre (French for stone) celebrates the materiality of its Pacific Northwest site. The house – composed of concrete, wood, steel and glass, and topped with a green roof – visually and physically merges with nature. Inside, rugged surfaces of rock periodically emerge into the space, contrasting with the refined textures of the furnishings. While one side of the house is hunkered into the site, the other overlooks the water, balancing the dual desires of prospect and refuge.

Quaker Meeting House and Arts Centre, Sidwell Friends School; Washington; D.C.
KieranTimberlake

With a minimum of means, this project transforms a non-descript 1950s gymnasium into a Quaker Meeting House and Arts Centre serving the entire middle and upper school community at Sidwell Friends School. The building program includes a worship space, visual art and music rooms, and exhibition areas. The essence of Quaker Meeting, and thus the Meeting House itself, is silence and light. Architecturally this is achieved by filtering light and sound through architecture, landscape, structure, and systems arranged in successive concentric layers around a central source of illumination, both literal and spiritual.

SCAD Museum of Art; Savannah, Georgia
Sottile & Sottile and Lord Aeck Sargent in association with Dawson Architects

Resurrecting the ruins of the nation’s only surviving antebellum railroad complex, the Savannah College of Art and Design transformed a National Historic Landmark. The design process emphasised an artistically manual approach, honouring the humanity and integrity of the site’s heritage. Ruins were integrated within a contemporary concrete structure, preserving and highlighting the historic materials as a fundamental part of the new architecture. With its galleries, art studios, classrooms, theater, public gardens, and vibrant streetscape, this new civic landmark stands as a centre of intellectual exchange, artistic discovery, and urban evolution.

St. Louis Public Library, Central Library Transformation and Restoration; St. Louis
Cannon Design

St. Louis Public Library’s Central Library, designed by Cass Gilbert, fills a city block in the centre of downtown St. Louis. The transformation of the 3-story 1912 Beaux Arts structure focused on the north wing, replacing multistorey, non-public book stacks with a new “building within the building” for public use. Now light filled and welcoming to its urban neighbours, the north wing is a new entrance surrounded by upper stories of books visible to all. The original entry and public rooms are restored and revitalised, continuing their active use as a vibrant public resource.

2014 Institute Honor Awards for Interior Architecture

Bar Agricole; San Francisco
Aidlin Darling Design

This project is a 1,400-square-foot restaurant and bar located in San Francisco’s industrial South of Market district. A wooden “hull” -constructed of reclaimed whiskey-barrel oak, milled into thin strips, and suspended from the ceiling – creates a sense of intimacy in the long, tall interior of the former warehouse building. Above the hull, three existing skylights, fitted with delicate glass sculptures formed from warped Pyrex cylinders, filter natural light throughout the space. Designed to complement the restaurant’s seasonal menu, the interior palette balances warm textures with the use of durable, sustainable materials. Two bars, made of board-formed concrete and old barn beams, anchor the space. Inch-thick ribbons of ductal concrete form the high-backed banquettes.

K&L Gates at One New Change; London, United Kingdom
Lehman Smith McLeish

International law firm K&L Gates’ London office is seamlessly integrated into Land Securities’ complex and iconic One New Change, which was designed by Jean Nouvel. Commanding views of St. Paul’s Cathedral are a backdrop to technologically advanced meeting spaces and collaborative work areas that enhance the provision of integrated global services. The design responds directly to the dynamic and irregular building envelope, with enclosures, ceiling treatments, lighting, and site-specific art that define space and reflect K&L Gates’ physical and strategic brand.

Knoll Flagship Showroom, Offices and Shop; New York City
Architecture Research Office

Architecture Research Office’s design of Knoll’s New York showroom, offices, and shop reflects intelligent planning, sensitivity to craft and joyful materiality. A choreographed path draws visitors from the ground floor shop through the showroom and offices. Colourful textile layers define the space, including a vibrant 55-foot wall that showcases 2,400 material samples. Two steel stairs display felt and leather and promote connectivity in the offices, where clients experience open plan, private office and activity spaces in use. This mix of spaces supports a variety of work styles – formal, informal, public and private.

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust; Los Angeles
Belzberg Architects

The interior architecture at The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust employs natural light and the morphing of space to open and lift or darken and compress the user’s experience at key points. The lighting of the interior galleries dim as the visitor steps deeper into the earth and subsequent rooms, while limited natural light serves as a companion to each patron’s unique experience. The final ascent up is filled with sights and sounds of unrestricted park land. The exhibition design incorporates educational content that is synthesised with all aspects of the design via innovative technology using integrated interactive design methods.

Marc by Marc Jacobs Showroom; New York City
Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects PC; HLW International

The Marc by Marc Jacobs Showroom is housed within the Manhattan headquarters of the global fashion house Marc Jacobs. The showroom is a reinvention of the client’s original space and addresses the challenge to maximise the use of daylight within the building’s deep floorplate, while simultaneously addressing the need for areas of relative privacy. The design solution employs a central curvilinear glass form as an organising element of the space which is used to filter natural light while creating subtle visual screening to delineate the private zones.

Odegaard Undergraduate Library; Seattle
The Miller Hull Partnership

The interior renovation of the Odegaard Undergraduate Library re-imagines the learning experience for 21st century students through the astonishing transformation of space in an outmoded 1970s building; accomplished in two years by state mandate. Updates to the massive 165,000 square foot library, serving 10,000 students, 24 hours a day, include removal of an imposing atrium stair, and a ‘kit of parts’ approach supporting key learning behaviours in a bright, open setting. New seating, individual and group workstations, and Active Learning Classrooms further enhance the academic experience for a collaborative and tech-savvy student body.

The Pierre; San Juan Island, Washington
Olson Kundig Architects

A secure and unexpected retreat nestled into a rocky outcropping, The Pierre celebrates the materiality of its Pacific Northwest site. The house – composed of concrete, wood, steel and glass, and topped with a planted roof—visually and physically merges with nature. Inside, rugged surfaces of rock periodically emerge into the space, contrasting with the refined textures of the furnishings. Antique and vintage furniture is complemented by custom-designed pieces, while contemporary works of art are displayed inside and outside the house.

SoHo Loft; New York City
Gabellini Sheppard Associates LLP

This 8284 square foot interior renovation enhances the SoHo-Loft typology while creating multi-level garden roof terraces. The design emphasises lightness, openness, spatial fluidity and permeability. Light, considered as a tangible material, is the premise on which the program and spatial organisations are based on, with the creation of light apertures helping to organise the uninterrupted space. Influenced by the client’s requests to blur the lines of separation between public and private, children and adult areas, thresholds are defined by sliding translucent doors, acting as light filters, while providing flexibility of use.

Venture Capital Office Headquarters; Menlo Park, California
Paul Murdoch Architects; Kappe Architects Planners

Gardens, transparency and wood finishes create a warm, intimate work environment for this office headquarters of a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. To reduce on-site construction, the two-story office building is made of prefabricated steel modules set by crane on a concrete parking podium. The building interior is designed to temporarily house and incubate young companies, adapting to their changing needs. Strong, accent-coloured glass expresses the company’s reputation for risk taking while fine, wire-brushed wood finishes form an elegant and understated feeling in keeping with the firm’s market sophistication.

2014 Institute Honor Awards for Regional & Urban Design

The Creative Corridor: A Main Street Revitalisation for Little Rock; Little Rock, Arkansas
University of Arkansas Community Design Centre + Marlon Blackwell Architect

The Creative Corridor retrofits a four-block segment of Little Rock’s historic Main Street based on aggregation of the city’s scattered cultural arts organisations. The project goal is to structure an identity for the Creative Corridor rooted in a mixed-use living environment anchored by the arts, rather than Main Street’s workaday retail base. A townscaping framework reliant on the urbanism of streetscapes—landscape architecture, water management, public space configurations, frontage systems, furniture, and miscellaneous assemblages―ensures a coherent evolution of the street. The street is seen as a platform for capturing value.

Denver Union Station Neighbourhood Transformation; Denver
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

The redevelopment of the former rail yards at Denver Union Station is a case study of the power of transit-oriented urban design. The 42-acre master plan knits together light rail, commuter rail, and buses into a 21st-century intermodal transportation hub. Modal connectivity is facilitated by integrating land use and transportation infrastructure to support more than 4 million square feet of mixed-use urban infill. This substantial public investment has catalysed an unprecedented wave of private-sector activity, with over $1 billion in new projects shaping a transit-oriented precinct and new urban neighbourhood.

The East River Blueway Plan; New York City
WXY architecture + urban design

The East River Blueway Plan, led by WXY architecture + planning, provides a new vision for Manhattan’s East River waterfront from the Brooklyn Bridge to 38th Street. It addresses issues that were overlooked for the last half century, including waterfront access from the land and water, environmental goals, climate change adaptation and storm resiliency for the waterfront and adjacent neighbourhoods. Completed shortly before Hurricane Sandy, the planning process offered innovations such as structures for storm water capture, saltwater marshes for wave attenuation and water quality, bridges supporting movement along the waterfront, and water recreation including boat launches, pools and fishing.

Miami 21: a New Zoning Code for the City; Miami
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. LLC

Miami 21 is a form-based zoning code that replaced Miami’s Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and land-use based regulations. Using the Transect and the SmartCode as its basis, the new code focuses on the control of building to assure pedestrian-oriented public space, and provide physical predictability for developers and residents alike. Multiple use and density types are consolidated, and the translation from FAR to FLR (floor lot ratio that includes parking) simplifies building capacity measure and reduces parking. A public benefits program encourages the provision of affordable housing, public open space and historic preservation.

The Pearl Brewery Redevelopment Master Plan; San Antonio
Lake|Flato Architects

The Pearl Brewery Redevelopment Master Plan is serving as a transformative model and catalyst for green urban revitalisation in a long neglected portion of San Antonio’s inner city. Established in 1883, the Pearl Brewing Company once had the largest brewery in Texas but eventually closed their operation in 1985. After 15 years lying derelict, the creative reuse of this 26-acre brownfield site and its abandoned structures are drawing in a rich mix of new residents, small businesses, retail, and non-profits while emphasising community, conservation, and local economic development.

Son Tra Peninsula Strategic Vision Plan; Vietnam
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Son Tra is connected with Da Nang via the longest suspension cable bridge in Vietnam, the Thuan Phuoc Bridge, which was opened in 2009. This connection to the city has improved accessibility, but it has also brought development interest that threatens the environmental health of the area. The plan champions this territory as one to be enhanced, rather than exploited; it calls for the creation of a protected status for the “mountain-island”, and it establishes clear “no build” zones at altitudes above 100 meters while suggesting locations where development may enhance economic opportunities without affecting the environment and natural beauty.

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News: the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has named its top ten sustainable projects of the year, including a university building made from timber, concrete and Corten steel in Minnesota (above) and a series of prefabricated houses in Tennessee.

The annual COTE Top Ten Green Projects programme, intended to promote environmentally responsible architecture, is organised by the AIA‘s Committee on the Environment (COTE) and is open to all architects licensed in the US. This year’s top ten projects were selected by a jury of architects and experts.

Brooks + Scarpa Architects is recognised for Yin Yang House, a combined home and workplace in California that produces more energy than it consumes, while Philadelphia-based KieranTimberlake is awarded for Charles David Keeling Apartments, a courtyard housing development in the same state.

Three more mentions go to projects in California: to the daylit and naturally ventilated Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera, a high-density housing community for senior citizens in Oakland and a 13-storey office building for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

Other project in the top ten include a warehouse and brewery that Lake Flato Architects converted into a mixed-use complex of shops, offices and apartments in San Antonio, an office block on an urban brownfield site in Milwaukee, plus a Seattle office block for the US Army Corps of Engineers, which was planned and designed in 18 weeks by ZGF Architects.

The AIA also recently announced the ten winners of its annual Small Project Awards, while earlier this year the organisation revealed 28 winners of its Institute Honor Awards, including projects by OMA and Kohn Pedersen Fox. See more architecture in the US.

See the full list of winning projects below:

The American Institute of Architects Select the 2013 COTE Top Ten Green Projects

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment. The projects will be honored at the AIA 2013 National Convention and Design Exposition in Denver.

The COTE Top Ten Green Projects program, now in its 17th year, is the profession’s best known recognition program for sustainable design excellence. The program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. They make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.

The 2013 COTE Top Ten Green Projects jury includes: Fiona Cousins, PE, Arup; Lance Hosey, AIA, RTKL; Keelan Kaiser, AIA, Judson University; Sheila Kennedy, AIA, Kennedy & Violich Architecture Ltd.; Rod Kruse, FAIA, BNIM Architects and Gail Vittori, Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems.

Charles David Keeling Apartments, La Jolla, California, by KieranTimberlake

The design response was to tune the design to capitalize on the favorable environmental features, while moderating or eliminating the undesirable ones. This led to a building envelope that uses thermal mass to buffer temperature changes, minimizes solar gain, and naturally ventilates. Water scarcity is managed through a comprehensive strategy of conservation and reuse, including on-site wastewater recycling. A vegetated roof, an unusual feature in this dry climate, absorbs and evaporates rain that falls on that portion of the building, with overflow directed to the courtyard retention basins.

Clock Shadow Building, Milwaukee by Continuum Architects + Planners

This project cleans up a brown-field site that was difficult to develop. The continental climate provides large swings in temperature and humidity which necessitated passive strategies such as: southern facing windows with sun screens that maximize insolation of the sun during cooler months and operable windows that let cool fresh air into the building, allowing the users to effectively “turn off” the heating and cooling systems during swing months. To gain the most efficiency from the HVAC systems, the project utilizes a geo-thermal system, drilled directly below the building, which stabilizes the temperature of the conditioned water used to heat and cool the spaces.

Federal Center South Building 1202, Seattle by ZGF Architects LLP

Current energy models predict the building to operate at a “net zero capable” Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 20.3 kBtu/SF/year, performing 40 percent better than ASHRAE 2007. The building will earn an ENERGY STAR Score of 100 and comply with 2030 Challenge goals. The project is one of the first in the region to use structural piles for geothermal heating and cooling, as well as a phase change thermal storage tank. Two new products, chilled sails and open office lighting, were developed and manufactured specifically for this project to help achieve aggressive energy targets. To optimize the use of the available reclaimed timbers, the team designed, tested, and constructed the first wood composite beam system in the U.S.

Marin Country Day School Learning Resource Center and Courtyard, Corte Madera, California by EHDD

Around 95 percent of spaces are daylit and naturally ventilated. Night time operation of the cooling tower and an underground water tank provide active thermal storage, for daytime cooling. The design of the building envelope includes air tightness detailing and the use of fire treated wood stud framing to minimize thermal bridging. To provide an excellent thermal envelope, walls were constructed with 2×8 and 2×10 wood studs (rather than conventional steel studs) to minimize thermal bridging and provide ample insulation. This building is designed to achieve an EUI of 6.74 kbtu/sf/yr including the energy generated by the PV array, and to use less than half as much energy as California’s strict energy code.

Merritt Crossing Senior Apts. Oakland, California by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects

The roof area has a cool roof surface and is devoted to both a solar water panels and photovoltaic panels. Ground floor spaces benefit from the full height storefront system that similarly provides ample daylight and transparency to the outdoors. These windows are also thermally broken and have high performance glass. The windows are shaded in summer by either exterior sunshades or an overhang from the second floor. With no mechanical air conditioning, cooling is achieved by a low volume ventilation system augmented by ceiling fans in each habitable room. The site has a 94 walkability rating, an 82 transit rating and an 86 bike friendly rating from walkscore.com.

A New Norris House, Norris, Tennessee by College of Architecture & Design, UT Knoxville

At 1008 square foot, this production house is less than half the size of the median house. “Rightsizing” reduced material and operational loads and costs, and shifted funds to quality design and construction, passive strategies and high-efficiency systems. The dormer and skylight are placed so daylight is reflected and diffused. No-VOC paint color is warm white with a punch of red-orange hidden within the swing space to produce a warm glow from reflected light. Low-E glass and translucent blinds provide further control over heat, glare and privacy. All interior rooms are daylit throughout the day. Electric lighting is integrated with cabinetry and includes low-energy LEDs.

Pearl Brewery/Full Goods Warehouse, San Antonio, by Lake Flato Architects

This 67,000 square foot LEED Gold warehouse includes passive solutions including open breezeways, which were carefully oriented to prevailing summer breezes and supplemented with large ceiling fans. Large light monitors oriented to the north provide natural daylight to the breezeways, while the south wall of the cupola is open to allow hot air to escape as it rises. 100% of the rainwater captured from roofs coupled with recycled water, is used to irrigate the landscaping on site, eliminating the need for potable irrigation water. Highly efficient ductless minisplit systems were installed to condition indoor spaces. These systems can serve multiple zones using only one outdoor unit, and allows individual control of the air conditioning in each room.

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Headquarters (SFPUC), San Francisco by KMD Architects with Stevens & Associates

The building is designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification and will exceed California’s recently-instituted Title 24 requirements for energy efficiency in new office buildings by 55% according to SFPUC estimates. The building will produce up to 7% of its own power needs from renewable photovoltaic and wind sources; will provide $118 million in energy cost savings over 75 years; and will require 45% less energy to illuminate the interior through daylight-harvesting and advanced lighting design, compared to typical Class A office buildings. The SFPUC consumes 60% less water than similarly sized buildings and is one of the first buildings in the nation with on-site treatment of gray and black water.

Swenson Civil Engineering Building, Duluth, Minnesota by Ross Barney Architects with SJA Architects

As an educational facility whose curriculum directly impacts the natural environment, the building overtly exposes sustainable systems and materials. 73% of the site is devoted to pervious materials and landscaping, reducing site detention requirements. An extensive green roof with native plants covers 22% of the roof, reducing storm water rates and filtering impurities. Storm water is directed from the roof to three scuppers and into above ground cylinders filled with rocks for filtering. Storm water eventually makes its way to a French drain system of underground water storage pipes for retention. The site lighting is minimal, and all fixtures are equipped with full cut-off optics.

Yin Yang House, Venice, California by Brooks + Scarpa

This sound passive design strategy combined with a very tight perimeter building envelope and other active sustainable features such as the 12kw solar system make this home a zero energy consumption home. It produces 100% of its energy needs and since completion, has never received an electric bill. The design maximizes the opportunities of the mild, marine climate with a passive cooling strategy using cross-ventilation and a thermal chimney. A large cantilevered roof overhang shades all the bedrooms from direct sunlight while providing ample natural light and ventilation. The project also has green roofs, its own storm water retention system and retains 95% of roof storm water on site.

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News: the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced 28 winners of this year’s Institute Honor Awards, including projects by OMA, BIG and Kohn Pedersen Fox.

The awards, which recognise excellence in the fields of architecture, interior architecture and urban design, include projects from all around the world by architects licensed in the United States. A jury of architects and academics selected this year’s winners from over 700 submissions.

Above: Doc Magic by RA-DA, photograph by Ralf Strathmann
Top: The Barnes Foundation by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, photograph by Michael Moran / OTTO

Olson Kundig Architects picked up two awards for projects in Seattle and Washington, while Skidmore, Owings & Merrill were recognised for three masterplan concepts, including one in China.

Other winners included the National September 11 Memorial by Handel Architects and The Barnes Foundation by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.

Above: Milstein Hall, Cornell University by OMA and KHA Architects, photograph by Iwan Baan

The recipients will be awarded at the AIA 2013 National Convention and Design Exposition, which will place in Denver this June.

See the full list of winning projects below:

Art Stable; Seattle
Olson Kundig Architects

Art Stable is a seven-story mixed-use, urban infill project in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle. Built on the site of a former stable, the simple, low-to-no-maintenance design draws upon the warehouse typology of the formerly industrial neighborhood. Both front and rear elevations of the building are active: 8-foot by 7-foot doors—steel clad on the rear façade and glazed on the front façade—are strung on 40-foot tall hinges which open by means of custom-designed hand wheels. Geothermal loops integrated into the building’s structural piles and natural ventilation result in efficient heating and cooling.

The Barnes Foundation; Philadelphia
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

The new museum replicates the galleries in the old Paul Cret designed facility but provides visitors with a light-filled, contemplative space. Conceived as “a gallery in a garden and a garden in a gallery,” the new building honors the Merion facility and provides visitors with a personal and contemplative experience. The legendary Barnes art collection is presented in a 12,000-square-foot gallery that replicates the scale, proportion, and configuration of the original Merion spaces. To emphasize the founder’s commitment to education and the visual interplay between art and nature, the galleries now include a classroom on each floor, an internal garden, and vastly improved lighting conditions.

Above: Boat Pavilion for Long Dock Park Architecture Research Office (ARO), photograph by James Ewing

Boat Pavilion for Long Dock Park; Beacon, New York
Architecture Research Office (ARO)

This project for the Scenic Hudson Land Trust is a boat pavilion in a new park on the Hudson River. One of two new structures created for Long Dock Park, the Pavilion is a threshold to the Hudson River. The roof is a plane of corrugated steel that parallels a wide cumaru wood deck where boats launch. Secure storage for up to 64 kayaks or canoes, a changing room and storage area are enclosed by aluminum bar grating panels. Enabling both contemplation and athletic activity, the project establishes an affirmative relationship between the public and the Hudson River.

Centra Metropark; Iselin, New Jersey
Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)

Developed by The Hampshire Companies, CENTRA re-imagines an obsolete dated existing structure into a state-of-the-art office experience. By strategically grafting a 10,000-square-foot addition to the top floor, the presence of the project not only doubles, but it offers an urban room conspicuously absent within the local ‘sub’ urban context. The new high-performance enclosure, the expressive structural asymmetrical tree-column and truss supporting the fourth floor extension, and the new garden light wells all work in concert to bring a third more rentable area, and a dynamic aesthetic that focuses on the integration of the natural environment with new urban civic spaces.

Clemson University, Lee Hall College of Architecture; Clemson, South Carolina
Thomas Phifer and Partners

The addition to the Lee Hall College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities at Clemson University is an ultra-energy efficient building. The 55,000-square-foot addition was conceived to accommodate the expanding needs of the college which includes 12 professional degree programs. To cultivate this sense of community within the addition, program elements are intermingled to generate an environment for “cross pollination” between disciplines through adjacency, allowing students to learn from other students and faculty though informal creative exchanges. Proximity and transparency are supported with carefully detailed glazing between interior program elements.

Mason Lane Farm Operations Facility; Goshen, Kentucky
De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop

The project consolidates dispersed operations facilities for a 2,000-acre farm into a single centralized complex. Rooted in the simplicity of regional farm structures and local building traditions, the project challenges accepted design constraints for conventional kit-of-parts utility structures and explores possibilities for passive sustainable strategies based on a nuanced understanding of site and climate. A particular focus on material application, detailing and sourcing includes the use of locally grown bamboo to weave a porous, impact resilient building skin, and cross-grain cut recycled paper pulp panels as acoustical interior wall surfaces.

Milstein Hall, Cornell University; Ithaca, New York
OMA

Milstein Hall is the first new building in over 100 years for the renowned College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) at Cornell University. Rather than creating a new free-standing building Milstein Hall is an addition to the AAP buildings creating a unified complex with continuous levels of indoor and outdoor interconnected spaces. Enclosed by floor-to-ceiling glass and a green roof with 41 skylights, this “upper plate” cantilevers almost 50 feet over University Avenue to establish a relationship with the Foundry, a third existing AAP facility.

Above: Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges by Kieran Timberlake, photograph by Peter Aaron/OTTO

Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges; New Haven, Connecticut
Kieran Timberlake

Designed by Eero Saarinen, the Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges are part of Yale’s system of residential colleges. Located on an irregular site at the western edge of the campus, it has an organic geometry, with the two colleges bifurcated by an elevated walk. The renovation focused on the transformation of the student housing mix from single rooms into suites, the provision of 25,000 square feet of student activity space below grade, and the transformation of outdoor hardscapes into a sustainable landscape. The addition is conceived as being unified with the landscape, extending it through the architecture, fusing inside and outside, new and old, and above and below.

The New York Public Library – Exterior Restoration; New York City
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.

The New York Public Library is considered one of the most important works of the firm of Carrère and Hastings. The design team investigated, recommended treatments, and oversaw a $50 million restoration of the library’s exterior in preparation for its centennial in 2011. The project addressed deteriorated marble facades, fine art sculptures, monumental bronze doors and windows, Monel roofs, and the surrounding ‘approaches’ or plazas. Repairs included cleaning (with soap and water), repointing (using hydraulic lime mortar), and various protective treatments. Over 2,000 carved in-situ marble dutchman patch repairs were executed.

Saint Nicholas Eastern Orthodox Church; Springdale, Arkansas
Marlon Blackwell Architect

This project is the result of a transformation of an existing metal shop building into a sanctuary and fellowship hall in anticipation of a larger adjacent sanctuary on the same site. The simple original structure is enveloped by a new skin, obscuring and refining the original gabled form. Although a small structure, its bold form makes it visible and recognizable from the interstate which passes nearby.

Vancouver Convention Centre West; Vancouver, Canada
LMN Architects + MCM/DA

The new Vancouver Convention Centre West integrates the urban ecosystem at the intersection of a vibrant downtown core and one of the most spectacular natural ecosystems in North America. Certified LEED® Canada Platinum, the project weaves together architecture, interior architecture, and urban design in a unified whole that functions literally as a living part of both the city and the harbor. Urban spaces formed by the building’s landforms mix with landscape and marine ecosystems, transportation modes, retail activity, and civic gatherings. The glass perimeter enclosure provides strong linkages with the urban and environmental context.

2013 Institute Honor Awards for Interior Architecture

Blessed Sacrament Chapel and Abbey Church Pavilion–Modifications to Marcel Breuer’s 1961 St.John’s Abbey Church Project; Collegeville, Minnesota
VJAA

The original Abbey Church complex by Marcel Breuer (1961) was modified to include a new Blessed Sacrament Chapel, a two-level lobby addition (9,200-square-foot) and the renovation of the existing Chapter House. The chapel space is focused on a modern re-interpretation of the 14th century reredos wall (an ornamental panel) that holds the tabernacle. Designed to shield the view of an existing window, the wall diffuses natural light into the space. Platinum leaf is used on the ceiling to distribute light and echo Breuer’s discreet use of precious materials in the Abbey Church. A new stair uses lattice-like steel railings to bring light to the lower level of the addition.

BNIM Iowa; Des Moines
BNIM

Located in a former bank lobby on the southeast corner of an active street intersection, the space includes full-height glazing to the north and west, building lobby to the south, and a new demising wall to the east. The fundamental design objective for this project was to create an environment of collaboration in a space that engages the surrounding urban core. The space is organized around a central wall lined with cork panels and designed for critiques, display, and spontaneous collaboration. Shared daylight, acoustics, and multiple levels of planned and unplanned interaction are vital parts of achieving the spirit of collaboration set forth as the key design objective.

Above: Charles Smith Wines by Olson Kundig Architects, photograph by Benjamin Benschneider

Charles Smith Wines Tasting Room and World Headquarters; Walla Walla, Washington
Olson Kundig Architects

Inspired by the client’s rock-and-roll style, the space is capable of transforming from office and retail to dining and entertainment. Fit within a former auto shop (built in 1917), the design highlights the patina and aesthetics of its former life, featuring a large shape-shifting element dubbed the Armadillo, as well as large hand-cranked pivoting window walls that merge the interior with the exterior. Prefabrication of substantial components including the Armadillo and mobile furniture including seating, tables and stages contribute to the fluidity of the space.

Chicago Apartment; Chicago
VJAA

The new 5,500-square-foot apartment is located in a new high-rise in the Midwest. The main social spaces are lined by warm wood surfaces conceptually set within larger, brightly lit and open circulation areas. Rather than walls shear lines of material divisions define rooms and separate the living spaces. The display of a collection of contemporary Asian art plays a central part in the development of the spaces. Sculpture is used for its silhouette and to create an element of surprise. Digitally designed and fabricated reflective aluminum plate screens create a layered effect while moving natural daylight into the center of the plan.

Doc Magic; Torrance, California
RA-DA

For a technology company that deals in highly sensitive information transmitted over the internet, RA-DA’s unique play of light and careful sculpting of passageways contrasting open work areas succeeded in creating a powerful physical presence to reflect the company’s strong virtual presence. The success of this project is not only in the commitment to the study of a single paradigm that so eloquently embodies an obscure goal, but also in the flawless follow-through from concept to reality.

Lamar Advertising Corporate Headquarters; Baton Rouge
Eskew+Dumez+Ripple

This adaptive re-use of a 1970’s era data center transforms what most considered a ‘throw away’ building into an unexpected and exciting corporate headquarters for a billboard advertising company. To counteract the expansive, largely windowless floor plate of the existing building, the design removes a portion of the structure to create an outdoor court – or ‘garden room’ – that brings a captured landscape and daylight into the middle of the office environment. Elsewhere in the building, additional structure was removed to connect the multiple floors into one communicating whole, promoting employee interaction and reinforcing the culture of the company as a single creative
community.

McAllen Main Library; McAllen, Texas
Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd. (MS&R)

In need of a new library and understanding that the greenest building is one that already exists, the City of McAllen, Texas, decided to convert an abandoned Walmart big box store into its new main library. The primary design challenge was to create a functional, flexible library of 125,000 square feet on a single level. To meet this challenge, forms, materials, patterns, and colors create elements that organize the space, provide landmarks for visitors, and modulate the scale of spaces within the largest single-story library in the U.S.

Above: McAllen Main Library Meyer by  Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd, photograph by Lara Swimmer

PACCAR Hall (interior), Foster School of Business, University of Washington; Seattle
LMN Architects

The design responds to the business school program’s strong emphasis on social connectivity and its active central campus site with a high degree of porosity—in terms of both visual and functional relationships. The 4-story central atrium works as a collector of community activity and social heart of the school, spilling into a vibrant daylit cafe. Common areas throughout the school are organized as a series of interconnected spaces that function in many different combinations—creating opportunities to cross paths, casually encounter, interact and engage outside of instructional rooms and offices.

Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity; Kansas City, Missouri
BNIM

Relocating the Kansas City Ballet (KCB) involved preservation and adaptive reuse of the 52,000-square-foot historic Power House at Kansas City’s Union Station, a former coal-burning plant completed in 1914. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, the building sat abandoned from the 1970s until 2006. The project team had the daunting task of turning generator rooms into dance studios, coal bunkers into dressing rooms, and fire pits into usable space, all while adhering to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.

2013 Institute Honor Awards for Regional & Urban Design

Burnham Place at Union Station Master Plan; Washington, D.C.
Shalom Baranes Associates, PC HOK

Placing 3 million square feet of new mixed-use construction above the active rail yard behind Washington, DC’s historic Union Station, Burnham Place stands as a model of innovative and sustainable urban development. Connected to Daniel Burnham’s landmark structure and vertically integrated with a proposed multi-level station expansion, the master plan incorporates a street grid, public plazas, train hall and linear greenway to create a vibrant new neighborhood. Burnham Place mends the urban fabric of the city while maximizing its relationship with an intensely multi-modal transportation hub.

Coal Harbour Convention District; Vancouver, Canada
LMN Architects + MCM/DA

This CAN$883 million civic district succeeds by connecting Vancouver’s expanded convention center with the public realm, acting as the city’s “front porch to the world.” The urban design integrates many layers of built and natural components –landscape and marine ecosystems, transportation modes, retail activity, and civic gathering spaces – into a holistic, ecologically productive whole. The excitement of major civic events mixes with the daily life of the city, while architectural landforms and living systems link with the harbor ecology to create a regenerative ecotone of the region.

The Great Lakes Century – a 100-year Vision; Great Lakes Region, United States
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

The Great Lakes Century is a pro-bono initiative of SOM’s City Design Practice to promote a comprehensive 100-year vision for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Basin. It establishes common measures for cities, industry and agriculture across the bi-national watershed, with ongoing research to uncover opportunities for the region. Since 2009, SOM has engaged scientists, politicians, environmentalists, businesses, and public policy advocates from over 35 organizations. The vision has been unanimously approved by the 73 mayors of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative as a guiding framework.

Nanhu New Country Village Master Plan; Nanhu District, Jiaxing, China
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Nanhu Country Village addresses agricultural goals and environmental problems through the introduction of modern farming technologies and sustainable design practices. The design coalesces the agrarian setting with urban amenities to create a compact village while maximizing local farming production. Of the 1,100 hectare site, over 700 remain working farms. Within an intricate canal network, the traditional regional character is reinterpreted to create a village integrated with environment while treatment wetlands improve water quality. Together, the village and its adjacent farmlands form a 21st-century sustainable community and serve as a model for future rural-to-urban development throughout China.

Above: National September 11 Memorial by Handel Architects, photography by Joe Woolhead

National September 11 Memorial; New York City
Handel Architects

The National 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center in New York is a verdant and vibrant urban plaza that marks the site of the former Twin Towers with emptiness. A pair of voids – deeply recessed reflecting pools – are ringed by waterfalls and bronze panels etched with the names of the deceased. The Memorial Plaza creates a clearing in the dense urban fabric of Lower Manhattan and stitches the site back, physically and emotionally, into the life of the city.

Parkmerced Vision Plan; San Francisco
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

The Parkmerced Vision Plan is a pioneering neighborhood revitalization program that holistically integrates best principles of environmental sustainability and neighborhood livability. The project will create a pedestrian-friendly mixed-use neighborhood that radically reduces automobile dependency; provides much improved connectivity to transit; creates larger, more usable open spaces; and relies upon rapidly evolving green technologies in infrastructure to reduce energy and water usage. The project would protect existing residents at Parkmerced from displacement, and help address the City’s and Bay Area Region’s current housing shortage for households at all income levels.

Rock Street Pocket Housing (RSPH); Little Rock, Arkansas
University of Arkansas Community Design Center

RSPH is an affordable housing project that serves as a catalyst for redevelopment of Little Rock’s struggling Pettaway neighborhood. Once a vibrant 20th-century streetcar neighborhood, Pettaway has since taken a turn for the worse. By clustering 4–16 homes around shared outdoor commons and infrastructure, pocket housing is ideal for leveraging quality in an affordable housing setting. Pocket housing provides desirable housing options between the scales of the single-family house and mid-rise flats—what planners call the “missing middle,” because such housing has not been built since the 1940s.

Above: Superkilen by BIG, Topotek1 and Superflex, photograph by Iwan Baan

Superkilen; Copenhagen, Denmark
BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group

At almost a mile long, this urban park is positioned through one of the most ethnically diverse and socially challenged neighborhoods in Denmark. The project possesses all that typically makes up a modern park with trails for pedestrians and cyclists, outdoor recreation spaces, a market space and games areas. Superkilen is divided into three zones: the red square, the black market and the green park and is conceived as a giant exhibition of urban best practice – a collection of global objects from the 60+ home countries of the local inhabitants.

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