AIA Detroit acknowledged nine new projects, two buildings standing the test of time, and four individuals at the chapter’s annual awards program in late November. “These projects represent some of the best work of Detroit area architects,” said AIA Detroit President Jeffrey Hausman, AIA. “The winners include the very large—the Northwest WorldGateway by the SmithGroup—to a tiny garage/studio in Royal Oak by Thomas Barrie Architects.”

Winning Projects

Amtrak Station and Transit Hub, Bakersfield, Calif., by Rosetti, for the City of Bakersfield

“Reminiscent of the golden age of travel” was the jury description of this train, bus, and truck transit station that provides the area’s primary means of transportation between Northern and Southern California. Rosetti conceived of the stations, designed to serve a half million visitors a year, as a “vital city heart” in an area that had no centralized core. Its rusticated sandstone base provides color in a monochrome desert environment and supports an interestingly shaped roof atop a massive glass wall.
Photo © Erich Koyama

An Architect’s Studio, Royal Oak, Mich., by Thomas Barrie, AIA

This modest, 400-square-foot office space benefited not only from the design talents of Thomas Barrie, but also from his hands-on construction. Wood frame and Western red cedar siding form this simple and elegant workplace. The jury described it as “an inner sanctum, almost monastic in its unpretentiousness” that “succeeds by its very modesty. Simplicity and humility are captured in this reincarnation of the primitive hut.”

Cooper Center for Physical and Massage Therapies, Farmington Hills, Mich., by biddison architecture + design, for E.W.N.S. Inc.

Architect and owner collaborated to create this 5,000-square-foot space with the notion that “architectural design has a subtle but profound influence on those who spend their time within a built space.” They believe that physical rehabilitation encompasses both body and soul and so provided a space that is in harmony with nature through earth tones as well as natural materials and textures. The building’s plan draws distinction between reclusive individual treatment spaces and open, airy group-oriented therapy places.
Photo © Laszlo Regos

Detroit Country Day Preschool, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., by TMP Associates Inc., for Detroit Country Day Preschool

TMP Associates infused Detroit Country Day School’s new Early Education Center with the design concept that the facility is a hamlet, and each classroom is a cottage within that hamlet. Circulation spaces literally recall a village street and are lined with trees, lampposts, mailboxes, and flowers. The street holds seven “cottages” with separate entrances scaled to pre-kindergarten eyes and ends in a common “village square” for gross motor activities. “A brilliant project just for kids,” the jury concluded. “The themed interior that creates a friendly and inviting context is an intriguing model to monitor.”
Photo © Beth Singer

Far Eastside Study Area, Detroit, by Archive Design Studio, for the City of Detroit

The architect created this redevelopment scheme for a 1,200-acre site on the city’s easternmost edge. Part of a 15-year planning initiative, the study offers a “regeneration” master plan for an existing mixed-use neighborhood and incorporates residential, commercial, institutional, and recreation use. The jury called it “a clear vision, beautifully documented . . . an important resource for future development.”
Sketch courtesy of the architect

Gensler Offices, Detroit, by Gensler, for Gensler

The architect reports that this interior redesign was partially defined by the finely detailed Yamasaki building in which it resides and partially by the built aesthetic of downtown Detroit. Skewed wall and other elements express freedom from the grid and represent the “breaking out of the box” thinking for which the designers strove. Curved wood profiles and varied light patterns bring further individuality to the spaces within the space. The jury termed Gensler’s project “one of the best examples of successful exploration in the redefinition of the workplace.”
Photo © Beth Singer

Northwest World Gateway, Detroit, by SmithGroup Inc., for the Detroit Metropolitan Airport

At 2 million square feet, this new complex offers an upscale, exciting environment to the Detroit Airport. A large king-post truss and framing system emphasizes the diagonals within the spaces and supports some 650,000 square feet of roof. Special interior features include a 70-foot clerestory, a 39-foot-wide black granite water fountain, and an 800-foot passenger tunnel with a variable light and sound environment. “Grand in the best sense of civic transportation center,” was how the jury put it. “Beautifully detailed, light, and airy spaces. Love the people mover inside.”

Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, Houghton, Mich., by Gunnar Birkirts, FAIA, with David Chasco, AIA, for the Michigan Technological University

The only facility in the region capable of accommodating large-scale Broadway touring performances, the Rozsa Center can seat 1,100 people or be transformed for smaller audiences of 350 for lectures or intimate theater. A campus landmark in both function and form, the theater on the campus of the Michigan Technological University in the northernmost region of the state offers a cultural hub. The jury remarked that the building “has a distinct soul.” It is, they said, “one of the more memorable and distinctive forms that seems to manifest its performance function within the folded roof forms.”
Photo © Jeff Garland Photography

St. Paul Catholic Church, Grosse Point Farms, Mich., by Constantine George Pappas AIA Architecture/Planning, for the Catholic Diocese of Detroit

St. Paul’s Catholic Church renovation “is an example of recapturing a building’s soul that resonates from every view angle and every restored detail,” said the jury. “The sensitive and constrained addition is masterfully executed.” The restoration and renovation of the 1848 church included a new HVAC system, complete floor removal and replacement, new electrical and lighting systems, restoration of decorative plaster castings, replacement of wood entry doors and wood detailing, and decorative painting. The architect also needed to undo incorrect repairs of the existing structure that were made following a fire in the 1960s.
Photo © Justin Machonochie

Two Twenty-Five Year Awards

1300 Lafayette East Apartments by Birkerts & Straub Corporation, for the Lafayette East Corporation

This project recognizes architectural design of enduring significance that has stood the test of time for at least 25 years. The lean lines and elegant proportions of the 1963 Lafayette East Apartments remarkably were created in response to the Federal Housing Authority’s standards. The architects then devised a structural frame to accommodate straightforward layout of the precisely measured apartments, rather than vice versa. Now part of the Lafayette Development Area, the four-acre project site sits on a major thoroughfare, half a mile from the Detroit Civic Center.
Photo © Balthazar Korab

Prefabricated Control Center for Power Plants, Vera Cruz, Mexico, by Luckbach/Ziegelman Architects, (successor to Robert L. Ziegelman Architects) for Westinghouse Electric Corporation

The second Twenty-Five Year Award winner, designed in 1973, consists of transportable, 12-foot-wide by 40-foot-long by 10-foot-high modules for computers that are both building enclosures and shipping enclosures. Built with rigid steel framing, each module is self-sufficient in terms of lighting, airconditioning, heating, and computer hook-up, yet any number can be combined to created power plants of varying capacities. Designed to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes, the modules have been granted several U.S. patents.
Photo © Daniel Bartush

Accolades to Individuals

In addition to projects, AIA Detroit honored:

Eric J. Hill, PhD, FAIA, vice president and director of urban design for Albert Kahn Associates in Detroit, received the AIA Detroit Gold Medal, the highest honor the chapter awards. His distinguished list of projects includes the Detroit Opera House interior restoration, the Detroit Riverfront Promenade, and the Wayne State University Master Plan. With John Callagher, Hill coauthored the new AIA Detroit—American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture. Hill also serves as a Fellow of the Institute, trustee of the Michigan Architectural Foundation, and adjunct professor of architecture at the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Planning.

Dorian A. Moore, AIA, is the Young Architect of the Year. Moore, president of Archive D/S, also serves as a professor of architecture and urbanism at Lawrence Technological University, Wayne State University, and the University of Detroit-Mercy. He is active in his community and in the Congress of New Urbanism.

AIA Detroit also honored Wayne County Executive Edward McNamara by making him an honorary member. Peter Cummings, chair of the board of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, received the Charles Blessing Award for his efforts to stimulate reinvestment in the city through expansion of the Detroit Orchestra Hall.

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.