2010 AIA Institute Honor Awards for Architecture, Interiors, and Urban Design

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected the 2010 recipients of the Institute Honor Awards, the profession’s highest recognition of works that exemplify excellence in architecture, interior architecture and urban design. Selected from over 700 total submissions, 28 recipients located throughout the world will be honored in June at the AIA 2010 National Convention and Design Exposition in Miami.

2010 Institute Honor Awards for Architecture

The jury for the 2010 Institute Honor Awards for Architecture includes: Richard L. Maimon, AIA, (chair), KieranTimberlake; Jeanne Gang, FAIA, Studio/Gang Architects; Sam Grawe, Editor-in-Chief, Dwell Magazine; Jeffrey Lee, FAIA, Pearce Brinkley Cease & Lee P.A.; Justine N. Lewis, AIAS Representative; Miguel A. Rivera Agosto, AIA, Miró Rivera Architects; Mark Simon, FAIA, Centerbrook Architects & Planners; H. Ruth Todd, AIA, Page & Turnbull Architects and William R. Turner, Jr. Assoc. AIA, Shears Adkins Architects.

Alice Tully Hall; New York City
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, FX FOWLE Architects

The redesign of Alice Tully Hall transforms the venue from a good multi-purpose hall into a premiere chamber music venue with street identity and upgraded functionality for all performance needs. The sloped underside of Juilliard’s expansion serves as a canopy framing the hall, its expanded lobby, and box office. The opaque base of Pietro Belluschi’s building is stripped away to reveal the hall’s outer shell and a shear one-way cable net glass façade puts the hall on display.

Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture; Columbus, Ohio
Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects and WSA Studio

Asserting the belief that a school of architecture has a commitment to teach by example to both students within and the community at large, the architectural form and urban positioning of the new school is strategically active and interactive. The building form is generated by enclosing, defining and confronting the spaces and existing buildings of the larger site. Studios overlook the newly captured spaces. Students are in the midst of the urban activity which they will study and will eventually help form and influence.

Beauvoir; Biloxi, Mississippi
Albert & Associates Architects

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped the piers out from under the porches causing structural failure of the entire front porch and the roof over the front porch, as well as compromising the integrity of the chimneys. Failure of the roof over the front porch also caused extensive damage to adjacent interior ceilings. Ultimately, the mansion had barely survived the worst weather event in its 153 year history with a severely compromised foundation and an overly vulnerable envelope. The jury said of this project, “A wonderful, archetypal house with significant history has been brought back from the dead. This project transcends the typical restoration project – restoring Beauvoir was truly a labor of love and it shows in every detail of the home.”

Brochstein Pavilion and Central Quad; Houston, Texas
Thomas Phifer and Partners

Centrally located on Rice University’s campus, the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion was conceived as a destination for students and faculty to interact and share ideas in a relaxed environment. Carefully sited at an important intersection of campus pathways to create a new hub of activity, the Pavilion encourages interaction without interrupting pedestrian movement through campus. The Brochstein Pavilion is capped by a steel trellis structure which protects the building and extends in all directions to cover and shade the surrounding seating terrace.

Camino Nuevo High School; Los Angeles, California
Daly Genik

A winding form for the 30,000 square foot, 18-classroom building maximizes the space available on the oddly shaped site. Additionally, by single-loading the one, main classroom building, two important social and sustainable functions were accomplished with simple solutions: direct visual connections are established between the classrooms and the inner courtyard and natural light flows into each classroom from both the windows on the street side and courtyard side. The courtyard has become the hub of the school.

Campus Restaurant and Event Space; Stuttgart, Germany
Barkow Leibinger Architects

The pavilion provides a new central cafeteria and event space for a Stuttgart-based industrial campus. When programmed for events the space functions as an auditorium with seating for 800. A floating roof hovers over the central dining space and mezzanine that are placed in an excavated hollow. The intention was to create a polygonal leaf-like canopy that wide-spans over column-groups. Aesthetically, the roof as a fifth facade, is carefully organized with skylights, and air-vents, as it is highly visible from the mid-rise office buildings adjacent to it.

Macallen Building; Boston
Office dA, Inc. and Burt Hill

As a pivotal building in the urban revitalization of South Boston, the Macallen’s design required a reassessment of conventional residential typologies to produce an innovative and sustainable building that worked within a developer’s competitive budget. The Macallen is fully integrated— in structure, and sustainability— and is replete with sustainable features to make it the first LEED gold certified building of its type in Boston.

Outpost; Central Idaho
Olson Kundig Architects

Set in the remote and harsh high desert landscape of Idaho, Outpost is an artist live/work studio and sculpture garden for making and displaying art. The architects chose a readily available construction material – concrete block – for the primary structure; commercial builders were able to quickly and cheaply assemble the building. Interiors are exposed and unfinished. The footprint of the building is the limit of intrusion into the landscape – a simple, clearly defined space within the landscape.

Serta International Center; Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Epstein | Metter Studios

The project is a 90,000 square foot world corporate headquarters for Serta International Mattress Company located on a 20-acre Illinois prairie site. The building has been designed to facilitate equal access to natural light, ventilation and views of the wetlands for all employees. To accomplish this, the floor plan has been layered from a glass edged public circulation path on the east, to an open office area on the west toward the wetlands. The design also takes advantage of the variations in the topography of the site, to weave together the building and the landscape into a strong holistic composition.

Skirkanich Hall; Philadelphia
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

Located in the heart of the University of Pennsylvania, Skirkanich Hall is home to the Bioengineering Department. It is an infill building that functions as a connector by creating a new public quadrangle and entry for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Movement and interaction is emphasized with generous circulation spaces that offer places to sit and gather. To subtly stand out from the red brick buildings next door, a new kind of brick was developed through an extensive process to balance texture, color, durability, and stability.

Step Up on 5th; Santa Monica, California
Pugh + Scarpa

The new 46-unit mixed-use building provides a home and support services for the mentally disabled homeless population. The main façade made from custom water jet anodized aluminum panels creates a screen that sparkles in the sun and glows at night, while also acting as sun protection and privacy screens. The project incorporates energy efficient measures that exceed standard practice, optimize building performance, and ensure reduced energy. The design emerged from close consideration and employment of passive solar design strategies that make this building 50 percent more efficient than a conventionally designed structure.

TKTS Booth and the Revitalization of Father Duffy Square; New York City
Perkins Eastman, Choi Ropiha, and PKSB Architects

The new TKTS Booth, including the redevelopment of Father Duffy Square, creates a new center for Times Square. The project began in 1999 with a design competition to re-design the popular TKTS booth. The transformation of the public space of Father Duffy Square by the Plaza architect allows for increased pedestrian traffic and more prominence for Father Duffy’s commanding statue. “With its elegant conception and realization, its refined design stands up to the cacophony of Times Square; this is as much a 21st Century art piece as a building,” said the jury.

Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd.

The design of the Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus, housed in five rehabilitated buildings in the historic Philadelphia Navy Yard centers on utilizing the factory characteristics of the buildings—industrial materiality, open volumes, and access to daylight—to repurpose the buildings’ major function from production to creativity. The synthesis of four measures—art, culture, economy and environment—results in the transformation from a public, production-based yard to a private, creativity-based one.

Yale University Art Gallery, Kahn Building Renovation; New Haven, Connecticut
Polshek Partnership Architects

Completed in 1953, the Kahn Building is widely considered to be the visionary American architect’s first masterpiece and a significant turning point in the history of American museum architecture. The renovation of the landmark building reestablishes its original purity and integrity, restoring many original design features that had become altered or obscured over the years. Roofed over in the 1970’s to create additional gallery space, an exterior courtyard has been restored as an open exterior sculpture space.

 

2010 Institute Honor Awards for Interior Architecture

The jury for the 2010 Institute Honor Awards for Interior Architecture includes: Daniel H. Wheeler, FAIA, (chair) Wheeler Kearns Architects, Inc.; David H. Hart, FAIA, Utah Capitol Preservation Board; Audrey A. Matlock, AIA, Audrey Matlock, Architect; Audrey Stokes O’Hagan, AIA, Audrey O’Hagan Architect and Clive R. Wilkinson, AIA, RIBA, Clive Wilkinson Architects.

The Cathedral of Christ the Light; Oakland, California
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP and Kendall/Heaton Associates, Inc.

The Diocese challenged the design team to create a building for the ages. As a result, the 1,350-seat sanctuary, with its side chapels, baptistery, health and legal clinics, and dependencies, will honor its religious and civic obligations to the Catholic Diocese and the city for centuries to come. The Omega Window resonates with the surrounding structure metaphorically and physically through its experimental use of light, re-imagining a 12th-century depiction of Christ from the façade of Chartres Cathedral in France through over 94,000 pixels cut into the Window’s triangular aluminum panels.

CHANEL Robertson Blvd.; Los Angeles, California
Peter Marino Architect

Zoning restrictions dictated preservation of an existing building, which was stripped down to the bare wood frame. Through the open street façade a gently rising promenade passes through three distinct “zones” to a semi-obscured stair hinting at continued exploration above. The U-shaped first floor is organized around an exterior courtyard with a plaster façade punctured by 17 uniformly sized openings. The unifying courtyard is present in each ‘room’, but always freshly orientated in both plan and section.

Craftsteak; New York City
Bentel & Bentel Architects

The architect’s ultimate goal was to shape, within the one hundred year old shell of this previous National Biscuit Company bakery building, a simple yet texturally and spatially rich interior that integrates the context with the food service both functionally and metaphorically. Inspired by chef and owner Tom Colicchio’s culinary approach of uncomplicated respect for the ingredient, all furnishings and fittings, such as the walnut and steel dining tables, were designed to celebrate their materials and the simple craftsmanship used to assemble them.

Data; Omaha, Nebraska
Randy Brown Architects

The client is one of America’s leading providers of mailing lists, marketing data, sales leads and research data. The client’s challenge to the architect was to create a fresh new design for their office that expresses who they are. The design focused on three elements: an etched glass conference room wall expressing the company’s data, a cut and bent wall/ceiling form which connects the office together and galvanized metal shed wall panels to express both ideas of technology and the Midwest rural vernacular of the company’s founding location.

Exeter Schools Multipurpose Space; Exeter, Missouri
Dake Wells Architecture

The challenge was to design a single space that functions well as a cafeteria, practice gym and performance hall. Solving the acoustic challenges of these varied uses led to a solution derived from a sushi roll - absorptive on its outermost layer with a thin, reflective inner layer. Attention is paid to detailing the wood panels to distribute sound appropriately for performances while protecting light fixtures and mechanical systems for use as a gymnasium.

Historic Central Park West Residence; New York City
Shelton, Mindel & Associates

This project called for combining two untouched, disparate penthouses (circa 1920) in one of Manhattan’s noted landmark beaux-arts revival buildings to create one cohesive, seamless residence. It had to retain the best of the historic past, while still being appropriate to our time. Additional goals involved taking full advantage of the four exposures of light, mezzanine, conservatory, rooftop access and views of Manhattan’s Central Park. In addition, the architect provided for the philanthropist owner a residence easily maneuvered and divided into “public” and “private” spaces for work and family.

Vera Wang Boutique; Soho, New York City
Gabellini Sheppard Associates

Customers enter as performers on a stage, stepping into the elevated, double-height proscenium at the front of the store. The spatial sequence unfolds down a full-width, white Corian grand stair, which transitions into the more intimate display and changing area at the rear of the space. With LED backlighting, the steps appear to float; they double as seating for special events or a display riser with translucent acrylic platforms. Reflecting the juxtapositions that characterize Vera Wang’s fashion design, the material palette is based on a series of complementary contrasts.

 

2010 Institute Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design

The jury for the 2010 Institute Honor Awards for Regional and Urban Design includes: John F. Torti, FAIA, (chair), Torti Gallas & Partners, Inc.; Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, Lance Jay Brown Architecture & Urban; Brenda Scheer, AIA, University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning; Edward K. Uhlir, FAIA, Uhlir Consulting, LLC and Debby Wieneke, Habitat for Humanity of Benton County, Inc.

A Civic Vision for the Central Delaware River; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wallace Roberts & Todd

Currently cut off from the city by the intrusion of I-95, this riverfront plan emphasizes the ecological and economic value of the waterfront and sets forth a framework that the city can follow to generate new, cohesive, and sustainable development. This new growth will be organized around parks and open space, providing access to the river and a new movement system. For the ability of the plan to accommodate the future needs of the city and its people, this project has received numerous endorsements.

Connections: MacArthur Park District Master Plan; Little Rock, Arkansas
Conway+Schulte Architects

The planning concept optimizes the park’s latent economic, environmental and social potential through improvements to the district’s neighborhood infrastructure, enhancing the delivery of ecological and urban services. The planning goal is to align the park’s capacity to sponsor denser and higher quality mixed-use housing fabric throughout the district with improvements to the park grounds. Rather than treat MacArthur Park as a discrete project, planning for the district’s four neighborhoods extends the park’s landscape into a larger urban landscape network with MacArthur Park as the anchor.

Greenwich South Strategic Framework; New York City
Architecture Research Office

The architecture firm developed Five Principles to define a vision for the future of Greenwich South as a dense, reconnected, mixed-use neighborhood and lynchpin for Lower Manhattan. Each principle is comprised of a set of clear objectives to be achieved within these goals. In addition to establishing principles and setting goals, the firm also identified a series of clear opportunities for action—from the subtle, genius and immediate to the huge, radical and visionary—to achieve these goals.

The U.S. House Office Buildings Facilities Plan and Preliminary South Capitol Area Plan; Washington, D.C.
Wallace Roberts & Todd

The U.S. Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. is one of the most significant and sensitive places in our country. Within it, the U.S. House of Representatives is its largest component. The House Office Buildings Plan and South Capitol Area Plan defines a vision for fulfilling the current and future space and functional needs of the House, serves as the basis for organizing, budgeting, and funding its long-range capital improvements, and establishes an interface with the future re-development of the South Capitol District from the U.S. Capitol Complex to the Anacostia River.

Monumental Core Framework Plan; Washington, D.C.
U. S. Government

The Monumental Core Framework Plan is a proposal sponsored by two federal agencies, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, to transform federal precincts surrounding the National Mall into vibrant destinations and to improve connections between the city, the National Mall, and the waterfront. The Plan proposes a series of sector-by-sector strategies that are designed to protect the National Mall, create distinctive settings for cultural facilities and commemorative works, overcome barriers between the National Mall and the surrounding city, and enhance the monumental core of Washington as a symbolic and sustainable place to work, visit, and live.

Ryerson University Master Plan; Toronto, Ontario
Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects

While the Master Plan was developed to deal effectively with the Ryerson University (RU) campus’ deficiencies, it ultimately foregrounds Ryerson as a city building, and a model for the 21st Century urban university. Each goal of the Master Plan is defined by a series of principles, and together, they form the flexible framework which will guide the growth of Ryerson University. These goals are: urban intensification, people first (pedestrianization of the urban environment) and a commitment to design excellence.

Savannah East Riverfront Extension; Savannah, Georgia
Sottile & Sottile

The design process evolved over a five-year timeframe including multiple public charrettes between the city, citizens, property owners and development interests. The Civic Master Plan for the East Riverfront Expansion was implemented by the city in 2006. It defines 54 acres located to the immediate east of Savannah’s National Landmark Historic District along the Savannah River. New city blocks, parks, public spaces and a 2000 foot river walk extension are currently under construction. The initial private sector build out is expected in 10 years at an estimated cost of 800 million dollars.