AIA Indianapolis is pleased to present the winners of its annual Excellence in Architecture Awards program. This year’s recipients, all members of AIA Indianapolis, garnered a total of 10 awards: three honor awards for new buildings, one merit award for small/projects/interior architecture, and two citations each for new buildings, renovated buildings, and small projects/interior architecture. CSO Inc. of Indianapolis proved the top recipient this year: The firm captured all three honor awards and a citation for renovated buildings.

Honor Awards for New Buildings

Cathedral High School Student Life Center, Indianapolis by CSO Inc., for Cathedral High School
This student life center, Phase One of an overall campus expansion, provided this high school with much-needed classrooms, a larger media center, and a commons area for students, the architects report. A bell tower and monumental stair leading to the main entry form the focal point, while a large glass curtainwall points the way to the gathering area. On the other side of the tower, stepped brick and glass denote the academic portion of the addition, which offers second-floor classrooms, some with operable partitions for increased flexibility. On the first floor, a new media center offers Internet access, a multimedia classroom, and of course a full range of books. The lower level of the academic portion of the building is the student-life center common, also with operable partitions to support a maximum range of activities, while a terraced area outside the commons and a devotional area within the courtyard offer an alternative space for student use. “This project is a very sophisticated composition, reminiscent of the work of Alvar Aalto,” the jury said. In all, they found the design “very crisp, taut, and composed,” and particularly admired the restraint of the exterior expression. Photo © Dan Francis, Mardan Photography

Irwin Mortgage Corporate Headquarters, Fishers, Ind., by CSO Inc., with Carlos Jimenez, for Irwin Mortgage
The architects placed this four-story office building perpendicular to Interstate 69, an adjacent freeway. Centered on a median island, the building bisects the eight-acre property, creating two parking zones and two focal entrances to the main lobby. A central core and open-plan lobby allow for interchangeable placement of work stations along each floor’s periphery. The flexibility of the open-office system is expanded by an uninterrupted flow of natural light on each floor. A variety of textures and colors, as well as architect-designed furniture by the likes of Charles Eames and Mies van der Rohe, animates and differentiates the otherwise neutral volumes, the architects say. “The patterning and clarity of the exterior expression of this building is very intriguing,” the jury remarked. “It makes its own sophisticated statement. It represents a fresh, pure, and direct graphic statement.” Photo © Hester + Hardaway

Peeler Art Center, Greencastle, Ind., by CSO Inc., with Carlos Jimenez, for DePauw University
“This is a very calm building, which contains some very thoughtfully conceived spaces to create art, learn, and work,” according to the jury. “The design of the building is neither pretentious nor trying too hard. The thin taut skin is simple in its expression and quite delicate in its detailing.” The 87,000-square-foot center makes up an important component of the major expansion currently under way at DePauw University. It accommodates a variety of art-related spaces, including studios, workshops, and exhibition galleries. The architects report that the building also will serve as a new primary entry to the campus. On the inside, the painting and drawing studios occupy the north site of the two-story building to take best advantage of the steady natural light. Additionally, three large light monitors give the north façade a distinctive profile. The first floor holds the major public spaces, and the second floor is the site of various classrooms and studios.
Photo © Hester + Hardaway

Citations for New Buildings

Fall Creek Place Model Homes, Indianapolis, by Rottmann Architects, for Fall Creek Place Model Village, LP
These five model homes serve as the prototype designs for a revitalized, mixed-income neighborhood that ultimately will include 400 new and rehabbed houses. To ensure that the houses built for low- and moderate-income households are not differentiated from market-rate housing, the project team created design guidelines and required that all new designs be approved by a design review committee. The architect designed the five prototypes in a mix of single- and two-story styles that range from 1,200 to 2,000 square feet, each of which was built by a different builder. The prototypes share similar materials, detailing, fenestration sizes, roof pitches, and setbacks. In all, the jury found this entry to be “a modest infill project in which the quality and scale of the neighborhood is preserved and sustained by straightforward urban design and the preservation of the original planting.” Photo © Mike Sorensen

Bev Lewis Center for Women’s Athletics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark., by Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects, for the University of Arkansas
This 40,000-square-foot center serves the newly created gymnastics programs and women’s athletics in general at the University of Arkansas. The architects took advantage of the site’s 30-foot change in elevation by creating two levels for the facility, and topped the building with a sculpted roof form “to engage the dramatic topography.” Large expanses of glass on the exterior and through the interior showcase the dynamics of the athletic functions they house. The jury pronounced this project “professional, competent, and complete.” They liked its “very clean vocabulary and detailing,” and said, “The tectonics possess lightness and transparency, allowing for many interesting interior views.” Photo © Nathan Kirkman

Citations for Renovation

Indianapolis Electrical Joint Apprenticeship Training Center, Indianapolis, by CSO Inc., for the Trustees of the IEJATC
The jury seemed quite taken with this project’s “very strong interior development.” They liked the way the striking interior created a “playful and picturesque” atmosphere. The design team adapted a former CMU repair shop in a highly visible location to meet the client’s goals of efficient new classroom facilities that would get noticed. In tribute to the building’s users, the architect gave the electrical room prominent display by placing it adjacent to the main reception lobby and enclosing it with frameless, full-height safety glass. Bright yellow bulkheads from the electric room pierce through the building’s structure, “to serve both as visual screens for the rooftop mechanicals and as dramatically illuminated, iconic symbols to passersby,” the architects report. Photo © Dan Francis, Mardan Photography

Pendelton/Fall Creek Township Fire Station, Pendelton, Ind., by Ratio Architects Inc., for the Pendleton/Fall Creek Township Building Corporation
The architects reconstructed a new fire station on the old one’s existing site, which fronts Pendelton’s historic State Street, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They preserved the historic façade and broke the block-long massing of the building into four architectural parts, better to suit the scale of the town and offer visual variety and interest. The detailing takes its cue from the nearby historic landscape, as it steps back from the main access avenue to provide an apron for apparatus. The office and living quarters now reside in town levels over the footprint of the original building. “This project offers a very sensitive incorporation of the original fire station,” the jury noted. “It demonstrates a polite response to context.” Photo © Dan Francis, Mardan Photography

Merit Award for Small Projects/Interior Architecture

Atelier Installation, Architecture Building, Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., by Faber Design, for Jason Faber, AIA
“This project is very clever,” the jury remarked. “A great deal of thought has been given to the insertion of multiple functions.” The architect received a Creative Arts Renewal Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis to explore furniture/installation design and construction with two emerging technologies. He used computer-modeling programs to design the installation completely in three dimensions in the computer and then digitally input the design information from the computer into a CNC router for initial construction of the installation. The program called for a “private space for reflection, a public space for interaction with students, and storage elements for work and books,” and the architect drew inspiration from Le Corbusier’s residential works, notably Maison Ozenfant. Photo © Jackson Faber

Citations For Small Projects/Interior Architecture

Arbor, Indianapolis, by 26.26.26.25, for Marcia Stone and Wes Janz
“I’m building an arbor in my backyard. I work on it every day,” writes the architect. He tells us that his project reminds him of how just living can be a great challenge to most of the people on this planet, and that his arbor, built with no-cost materials, helps him come to terms with preconceptions of what it means to make buildings and what architectural knowledge actually is. A galvanized steel frame supports found objects, from cut saplings to steel mesh skin, vines, moonflowers, a hammock, and lights. The jury pronounced this project “Wonderful, personal, and poetic.” They were intrigued by the temporary nature of the project as well as its exemplification of the healing quality of environments and their “ability to keep life sane.” Photo © Wes Janz

Burkhardt Residence, Indianapolis, by Domain Architecture, for Gwendoyln and Glen Burkhardt
The owner of this two-story residence asked for a house with a simple, Modern aesthetic that could still meet the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission’s design standards for their neighborhood of predominantly Victorian architecture. The architects responded with a traditionally scaled envelope employing nontraditional materials, including ground-face concrete block with polychrome banding, aluminum-clad windows, and an aluminum-dipped galvanized aluminum standing-seam roof. A garden courtyard and trellised walkway connect the house to its carriage house/three-car garage. In summary, the jury pronounced the project “Very nice, complete, and contemporary.” Photo © Irena Mezhuritskaya

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