AIA Pennsylvania 2004 Design Awards paid homage to the work of Keystone State architects with the awarding of the chapter’s Silver Medal, four honor awards, and six citations of merit. New this year was AIA Pennsylvania’s first Architectural Photography Competition for the chapter’s Associate and student members. This year’s event, sponsored by Powell, Trachtman, Logan, Carle & Lombardo, took place May 25 in Harrisburg. The AIA PA Design Awards jury members were Jury Chair Richard L. Kobus, AIA; Design Awards Chair Elmer Burger II, AIA; Robert A. Brown, AIA; Leland D. Cott, FAIA; and Jane Weinzapfel, FAIA.

Silver Medal

The AIA Pennsylvania Silver Medal, the highest award offered by the chapter, may be granted at the jury’s discretion to the project that distinguishes itself from the rest of the submissions.

Solebury School Abbe Science Center, Solebury Township, Bucks County, Pa., by Hillier Architecture for Solebury School
This project entailed construction of a science center—housing four science laboratories, four math classrooms, a sophisticated greenhouse, teacher work areas, and support facilities—on a campus graced with century-old oaks and willows. Planned as a single-story L, the center creates a three-sided courtyard with the nearby library. Lined with oversized glass doors, the center’s single-loaded corridors allow for direct and literal connections to the outside. The architect reports that the project is informed by the vernacular architecture of the region and that “the architectural resolution is Modernism that provides a new interpretation of the iconic forms of the rural schoolhouse and barn.” Exterior wall surfaces sheathed in a natural cedar “corn-crib,” employ custom-milled wood profiles that allude to the familiar farm icon. The jury appreciated the simplicity of the forms and plan and the simple and familiar materials that were employed in such a creative way.
Photo © Albert Vecerka, Esto Photographics, Inc.

Honor Awards

Durham Academy Lower School, Durham, N.C., by KieranTimberlake Associates LLP, for the Durham Academy
Durham Academy’s new school provides 81,000 square feet of classroom, academic, athletic, multipurpose, and administrative space for pre-K through 4th-grade students. The double-height lobby looks out on a bamboo garden, while an exterior amphitheater serves as the visual terminus of the entry sequence, as well as the link between the lower and preschool courtyards. The jury felt that the architect took a set of rules and executed them in an exquisite way—including siting, plan, larger details, massing, and use of solid and void. They liked the execution of a classically Modern building, saying it recalls a variety of architectural icons of the ’60s and ’70s, “combined in a wonderful way.”
Photo © Barry Halkin Photography

Castcon Stone Inc., Saxonburg, Pa., by Perkins Eastman Architects, for Castcon Stone Inc.
This new facility for a concrete company challenges conventional approaches of applying ornament to industrial architecture as a way of “resolving the brutality of the forms and materials.” The design embraces the simple elements of industrial vocabulary—siding, window openings, garage doors, mechanical vents, flues, and conveyors. The architect supplied the offices with energy-efficient lights, HVAC systems, and spectrally selective glass. Roof water drains into a 2,500-gallon holding tank and is used for landscape watering via a solar pump. The jury appreciated the way the architects have inventively used industrial materials for an industrial plant with a straightforward site plan. The limitations of the continuous metal skin are used in a positive way with a sculptural quality, they said. They also liked “the warm and appropriate gathering and workspaces” and believe that this must be a positive place to work.
Photo © Linda Jeub

Stapleton Neighborhood Park Bath House, Denver, by Semple Brown Design PC, for Forest City Stapleton Inc.
This 2,400-square-foot neighborhood park pool-house prototype includes a swimming pool, playground, and park and will serve as a key feature throughout future public parks planned within this new development in Colorado. The site, located on 4,700 acres in the heart of the Denver metropolitan area, is part of a plan that calls for 17 million square feet of new commercial space and 10,000 housing units. One-third of the property is being preserved for parks and open space. The jury appreciated the “small, but lovely and inventive use of materials.” They liked the sense of place, and felt that it was a bold statement in the context of the new development. They particularly enjoyed the layering in the design and the transition from the streetside to poolside.
Photo © Ron Pollard

Education Place and Visitor Facilities at Wyck, Philadelphia, by Lawrence D. McEwen Architects, for The Wyck Association
This project reconciles the planning and design of a new education place and accessible visitor facilities within a sensitive historic setting. The education place provides a flexible environment for activities that communicate the nature of Quaker family life to school groups and the community, as well as a meeting place for committees and community groups. The education place opens out toward the inner lawn and home garden areas, bringing visitors into direct visual connection with Wyck’s “inner sanctum.” The jury said unanimously that the scale of this project is magnificent. They also found the consistent, limited palette to be nicely detailed. One of the jury members said “of all of the projects submitted, this is the one that I want to visit the most,” while another described it as a “gentle bit of shelter.”
Photo © Catherine Tighe Photographer

Citations of Merit

Apple North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, for Apple Computer Inc.
This new store reflects Apple’s revitalized commitment to design excellence and launch to build a network of direct retail outlets. Prototype stores have stone floors, maple fixtures, and an elegant integrated ceiling system, creating an opportunity for consumers to have an up-close, tactile encounter with Apple products in an environment that supports the corporate identity of elegance and excellent interface design. The Michigan Avenue store opened in June 2003 and currently is the largest of Apple’s “high-profile” stores. The architect organized this two-story, 28,000-square-foot store around a 15-foot-tall clear-glass staircase, glass bridge, and a 70-foot skylight. The jury viewed this building as “fascinating, detailed, minimal but rich.” They remarked that it is beautifully crafted, with an appropriate application of light, glass, and high-tech sensibility. The exterior is simple and, even without signs, offers a visible, understandable marker, according to the jury.
Photo © Peter Aaron, Esto Photographics

Doherty Hall West Addition/Renovations, Pittsburgh, by Burt Hill Kosar Rittleman Associates, for Carnegie Mellon University
This project consists of a 47,000-square-foot addition and 56,000 square feet of renovations to the historic 1906 Doherty Hall, designed by Henry Hornbostel. It houses interdisciplinary science teaching laboratories, classrooms, and support spaces for chemistry, physics, biology, and science outreach, as well as new mechanical, electrical, and data infrastructure. Both the exterior and interior compliment—but don’t copy—the historic architecture, using materials and regulating lines that follow the original building. The jury recognized the project’s complexity, which provides a modest addition that gives new life to the building. They also appreciated the way that the Modern addition complements the existing building, yet is still bold in its expression.
Photo © Massery Photography and Jeff Swensen Photography

Loft Studio, Philadelphia, by Wesley Wei Architects
This architect’s studio space occupies an 1856 building in Philadelphia’s Old City. After a fire in 1946 virtually destroyed the building, it stood abandoned for many years. The architects grafted new construction with spare details onto the texture and patina of the existing structure. They introduced an outdoor area at the rear to bring in light and offer a setting for reading and contemplation. The jury felt that results are “stunning and lovely, it’s an amazing space for an architectural studio.” The place is calm and almost museum-like, they felt, with memorable Modern views. “It is highly personal space, almost the way that a house would be,” the jury said. “It is executed well and economically.”
Photo © Catherine Tighe Photography

Philadelphia Navy Yard—Building 10, Philadelphia, by Susan Maxman & Partners, Architects, for the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, on behalf of the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development
This project uses renovation and adaptive reuse to turn a historic shipyard fabrication building into speculative office space. Building 10, a two-story 1903 Renaissance Revival brick building, originally served as a workshop for the Bureau of Equipment. On the exterior, the architect repointed the brickwork and used salvaged brick from the demolition to construct the missing walls on the west elevation. Missing historic exterior architectural details, including windows, terracotta, and egg-and-dart molding were restored, repaired, or replaced in kind. The interior lobby and vestibules reflect the industrial feel of the former use, retaining elements of shipbuilding use. The jury saw this project as a delicate recreation of a building that had had a number of additions. They liked the decisions that were made. This building has handsome qualities; a strong feature is the detailing of the windows. The jury commended the architect and contractor for this pure preservation project.
Photo © Gregory Benson Photography

Roberts Hall Renovation/Addition to the U. of Penn. Law School, Philadelphia, by Susan Maxman & Partners, Architects, for the University of Pennsylvania
This project encompassed a 6,200-square-foot renovation and a 3,200-square-foot addition for 20 faculty offices, two student lounges, and extensive site improvements. The client charged the design team with transforming the existing law-school office wing from a business handicap to a benefit. The architect reports that the major design challenge was to establish a new identity that defers to the existing neighboring façades while creating a new quiet streetscape. The jury liked the way the small addition between the two existing buildings adds to the street, calling it “an elegant improvement.” They particularly liked the opening up of the corner.
Photo © Barry Halkin Photography

SmartWrap, New York City, by KieranTimberlake Associates LLP, for Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, a Smithsonian Institution
SmartWrap™ shows us a building envelope of the future: It integrates the currently segregated functions of a conventional wall and combines them into one advanced composite. SmartWrap replaces the conventional bulky wall with a composite of millimeter scale that can be erected in a fraction of conventional building time and with greater ease. It uses products rolled and printed onto fabrics and plastic films. To moderate temperature, it contains micro-capsules of phase change materials. The jury liked the way that SmartWrap looks to the direction of what is coming. It provokes the imagination as to how this could be used as a wrapper, insulator, and vision panel, they said.
Photo © Barry Halkin Photography and Elliott Kaufman Photography

Architectural Photography Competition

The new Architectural Photography Competition judges images of interior or exterior views of structures taken by Associate and student members of AIA Pennsylvania within the last five years. Serving as jurors were Chair Robert H. Crites, academic department director of Photography and Video Production Programs and senior instructor, the Art Institute of Philadelphia; Howard Brunner, teacher of photography at the institute and Temple University; and architectural photographer Barry Halkin, who has educational and work experience in interior design and architecture. The jury awarded the 2004 Citation of Merit to Jennifer Spencer, an AIAS member from Drexel University, for her photograph, “Rural Pods,” taken in Newbern, Ala. The jury felt that the photographer “displays the ability to look at something for not what it is, but what it could become.”

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