AIA Kansas presented awards for excellence in architecture to three firms at their annual conference and exhibition in Wichita last fall. Chair Frank Harmon, FAIA, and the awards jury from North Carolina honored Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell, Kansas City, with three awards, and Gould Evans Associates and Junk Architects with one each.

The component also presented the Henry Schirmer Distinguished Service Award, its highest honor, to C. Stan Peterson, AIA, of the Peterson Architectural Group, Topeka, in great part for his leadership and direction of the chapter’s disaster assessment programs. Among his many accomplishments, Peterson served AIA Kansas and Kansas Communities for 12 years as state coordinator, trainer, field evaluator, and author of the Kansas Disaster Assistance Manual. His work in Kansas and nationally has helped coordinate disaster relief efforts among architects, engineers, and building officials and led to an improved approach to post-disaster damage assessment. By gubernatorial appointment, Peterson has served three terms on the Kansas State Board of Technical Professions and also serves on the Advisory Board for the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design.

Honor Award for Excellence

Richard Bolling Federal Building Renovation
Kansas City, Mo.
by Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell

This project is the first in a series to revitalize a 1960s federal building. It adds a new entry plaza and pavilion while integrating security measures that include metal detection and x-ray devices. The jury called the project “a beautifully composed addition to a large urban building.” They particularly liked the design’s long, horizontal canopy and reflecting pool, which add to its welcoming entry, and believe that the defensive barriers “are so well integrated into the design that they are unobtrusive.” The jury also commented on how “the use of new white concrete contrasts with the existing metal facade in a favorable way. We admired the restraint and subtlety in this thoroughly urbane and handsome project.” (Photo © Farshid Assassi.)

Merit Award for Excellence in Architecture

Board of Public Utilities
Kansas City, Kans.
Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell and CDFM2

“The building promises to foster a sense of community, with common areas anchored around the two light-filled stair towers,” the jury said. This new headquarters allowed the utility to create a more energy-efficient building and a healthier one to boot, according to the architects. They included ample daylighting via open perimeters, an egalitarian plan with management in the core, an in-house health facility, efficient indirect lighting, and displacement air systems in a 12-inch-high, raised-access floor. The jury remarked on the elevational composition as well as the clarity and restraint in the interior spaces. “This building’s owner and architect have invested care and design resources well beyond what is normal in a public project,” they said. “The project designer led the team to go beyond the conventional office building in a solution that will be a sustaining symbol of the Board of Public Utilities’ presence in our city.” (Photo © Mike Sinclair.)

Joseph R. Pearson Hall, School of Education
University of Kansas, Lawrence
Gould Evans Associates

The architects turned an old dormitory into the new School of Education. A complete renovation of the existing seven-story tower afforded an opportunity to remove the existing modular window system and dormitory layout. The seven floors were totally rejuvenated into modern offices, seminar rooms, and workspaces with excellent views to the east and west. The new addition provided an auditorium, classrooms, library, and laboratories. “The massing of the new addition respects the language of the existing building while creating new and lively social spaces along the public way,” remarked the jury. “The elevations are excellent.” The clients were equally pleased: While the faculty and dean were not enamored with the university’s decision to turn this seven-story, 1959 dormitory into a new facility for the School of Education, they are thrilled with the newly constructed space. (Photo © Michael Spillers.)

Chouteau Youth Center
Kansas City, Mo.
by Junk Architects

The Housing Authority indicates that they had struggled to develop a strategy for the renovation of the run-down maintenance facility into a community center for the neighborhood youth. “The architects were two weeks prior to bidding a 140-unit housing renovation project in adjacent properties when we asked them to include the Youth Center,” they said. “The resulting design, completed within these two weeks, provided for the dramatic aesthetic and functional improvement seen today.” Short on time and budget, the architect turned the vacant facility into a youth center using industrial materials, an aluminum storefront window system, chain-link fencing, vibrant color, and a series of custom-built fins for window treatments. “We admired the interior of this project, which creates a sense of place,” said the jury. “Within a low budget the architects have made wonderful moves with color, plan, and a set of light-controlling fins that enliven the interior. As one of us said, ‘Someone loved this building.’ ” (Photo © Mike Sinclair.)

Merit Award for Unbuilt Commissioned Architecture

Fort Osage Education Center
by Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell

The jury seemed particularly enamored with the siting of this project, noting, “the building is invisible from the bluffs above.” A beautiful horizontal green roof ties the building to the site in the manner of a Modernist prairie house. “We liked the contrasts in the building form from uphill to downhill,” the jury said, “and hope the materials used in construction will reinforce this contrast.”

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