Architects and friends of the profession honored eight projects as AIA Northeast Illinois 2003 Honor Awards recipients. From a field of 52 entries, juries selected four awards for excellence in design and four awards for merit in architecture, which were presented at the component’s biennial “Celebration of Architecture” event in Oak Brook. Most of the winning projects were facilities intended for use by large groups of people and included two schools, two churches, an office interior, a company headquarters, a church renovation, and an electrical substation.

Distinguished Building Awards for Excellence in Design

Washington Street Electrical Substation, Naperville, Ill., by Oppermann Bilsland Architects
The city demanded more than the typical concrete-block box and chain-link-fence enclosure for its new substation, sited along a major artery and within a park backing up to the Riverwalk. The architect’s solution called for outcroppings of natural stone walls that step as they extend out of the ground. Walls flare out to allow for access doors to the substation enclosure. Wisconsin limestone echoes materials used in many of the Riverwalk pavilions, shelters, and monument signs. The Washington Street Electrical Substation feeds power to the neighborhood businesses and homes through underground conduits, allowing removal of power poles. “We really appreciate the effort of the architect and the municipality to make this a gift for the neighborhood that is carefully crafted, beautifully landscaped, and fun,” the jury noted.

Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran Church, Grayslake, Ill., by Harding Partners
The design of the sanctuary addition presented the challenge of connecting a new building to an existing structure, providing an appropriate expression for contemporary worship, and meeting a limited budget. The massing of the building derives from imagery of an open Bible. Tall, north-facing clerestory windows introduce daylight into major spaces, and a fan-shaped ceiling configuration wraps around the platform to foster a sense of intimacy. At night, indirect lighting visible through the clerestory windows creates a symbolic beacon for the community. “The building is an exercise in elegant planes with brick and roofscapes that reveal lightness to the building and a reaching up to the sky, which is uplifting in a real way,” the jury remarked. “The luminosity of this building adds to its presence as a building that conforms to night as well as the day.”

Unity Junior High School, Cicero, Ill., by FGM Architects Engineers Inc.
This new junior high school bucks the trend toward smaller schools by placing two 1,800-student schools totaling 442,000 square feet under one roof. Each school has its own entrance and administration and is organized as four “houses” where students spend most of their day. To achieve an intimate educational experience, students stay within one school and “house” with the same teaching staff for both years. A four-story gently curving structure contains the classroom “houses,” with the library/media center located centrally on the second floor overlooking the main-floor student commons. Two cafeterias and a gymnasium structure divisible into 12 teaching stations complete the facility. The jury said, “The school seems to have done just a terrific job of celebrating the students by giving them a great space to spend their time in and really be an inspiration.”

Award for Excellence in Interior Design

FGM Architects Engineers Inc.—Algonquin Office, Algonquin, Ill., by FGM Architects Engineers Inc.
“The design is one that marries restraint of form, detail, and planes to almost a steel color philosophy that adds elegance and vibrancy to the composition,” said the jury of this new interactive team environment and image for this office. The placement of colored horizontal and vertical planes creates a lobby space and defines transitional space between program areas. A curved yellow wall leads the visitor into the meeting room and simultaneously conceals the office’s marketing functions. The shapes and placement of vertical and horizontal planes create positive and negative spaces that allow for private and semiprivate space. “Its silence is the powerful element of this space, and the way the colors fall gives it a resonance with the space that it’s capturing,” the jury concluded.

Distinguished Building Awards for Merit in Architecture

First Christian Church, Gurnee, Ill., by David F. Schultz Associates, Ltd.
The architect met the charge of the Disciples of Christ congregation to design an economical building that reflected the frontier heritage and basic theological tenets of the church. The simplicity of the massing, detailing, and construction of the building reflects the historical frontier heritage and thriftiness of the congregation. The four-arm exterior cross represents the church’s commitment to missions and the four gospels going out to the four corners of the earth. “The simplicity of our forefathers is greatly admired; the restraint that was shown was just terrific,” the jury said. “It’s also very traditional in its overall shape, but when you get up close to it, it is a very Modern building, and that’s refreshing.”

Oak Prairie Middle School, Lockport, Ill., by FGM Architects Engineers Inc.
The jury particularly liked this building’s “restraint in the palette of colors and a skill at organizing solids and voids, planes and masses in a way that is played handsomely.” The owner challenged the architect to design a 750-student school on 53 acres that takes advantage of the heavily sloped topography, large tree stands, a pond, and archeological sites. Each classroom in the school has two large windows with views of the trees and pond. Environmental and archaeological educational sites are connected to the school by a path system. Subtle color and texture changes in the interior and exterior block combine with a crisp, dark-gray metal shed roof to form a set of volumes and planes that fit into the context of the site while providing a sense of the new and modern.

The Pampered Chef, Bloomingdale, Ill., by Heitman Architects
A new home with a personal touch is what this building’s recipe called for. After 20 years of growth built upon home and family values, this female-founded company consolidated operations. To reflect the company ethos, the new headquarter building required an upscale residential image for 65,000 female home-sales consultants around the world to identify with. “It’s really great to see a celebration of a really large building not trying to hide that it’s a really large building,” the jury remarked. “Both architect and client should be thanked for the sheer commitment to making something very humane and ecologically sensitive.”

Divine Details/Architectural Ideas Award for Merit in Architecture

St. Basil/Visitation Renovation, Chicago, by Jaeger, Nickola & Associates
The architects for this project took on both restoration of a historic exterior and extensive interior remodeling to respond to current liturgical demands and the need to provide full accessibility. Remodeling of the nave included plaster repair, painting, and restoration of the original painted religious icons and stained glass windows. All new lighting was incorporated into the remodeling. Exterior restoration included slate-shingle and copper-gutter repair, cleaning and tuck-pointing of the stone masonry, window-sash restoration, and the incorporation of new wrought-iron fencing in the style of the original architecture. “The intent of restoration with the least amount of disturbance is evident in this building,” the jury concluded. “We applaud the architects for that effort.”

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