AIA Kansas City reports that competition was keen and the awards highly coveted during the chapter’s 2004 Design Awards program, as Kansas City’s best architectural work was judged by nationally acclaimed architects and designers. The competition encourages and recognizes design excellence in several categories, and the chapter notes happily that this year’s competition attracted an unprecedented 82 entries from 26 top design firms. This year, the chapter chose to give out three Honor Awards and five Merit Awards.

Honor Award

Flex Storage Systems, Topeka, Kan., by el dorado inc, with contractor Kelley Construction, for Botwin Family Partners LP
After taking over a family-owned property management company, the owner decided to redevelop an inherited “strip” center in Topeka, Kan. Refusing to give up on a once thriving retail center and an enthused surrounding neighborhood improvement association, the owner assembled a professional team to design a flexible building system that could evolve to commercial or retail uses, should the economy allow. The jury admired the project’s “crisp, taut language beautifully put together.” They called out its “clever, legible economy of means,” as well as its presentation.

School of Nursing and Student Community Center, Houston, by BNIM Architects + Lake/Flato Architects, with contractor Jacobs Vaughn Inc., for The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
The School of Nursing and Student Community Center establishes benchmarks for healthy buildings, daylight, pedagogy and the capacity to learn and collaborate, flexibility, durability, and reduced operating costs. Using the LEED™ rating system as a platform, this building achieves the highest levels of sustainable design, resulting in practices that are well beyond the LEED guidelines, the architects report. They used extensive computer modeling to test performance of façade designs incorporating different fenestration and sun-screening combinations. Additionally, rainwater is collected and stored onsite for flushing toilets and minimal site irrigation. The jury pronounced the project “well-detailed and well-composed,” as well as “skillfully managed.”

Richard Bolling Federal Building Renovation—First Impression, Kansas City, Mo., by BNIM Architects, with contractor J.E. Dunn Construction, for the U.S. General Services Administration
The alterations and renovations to the Bolling Federal Building near the Civic Center of downtown Kansas City, Mo., part of the GSA’s First Impressions Program, strive to enhance the basic urban-design elements, such as scale, detail, and massing. The architects chose to align the design upon the axis of a major cross street, as a “gesture re-establishing a larger urban connection.” The jury particularly liked the use of “clever, overlapping planes to lead one into the building … while ensuring security.” They deemed the project “courageous.”

Merit Award

gilbertBARKER Pod, Jericho, Vt., by el dorado inc, with contractor Dusty Paradee, for Monique Gilbert and Todd Barker
This detached home office structure “makes the most out of a backyard and looks like a fun place to be,” the jury observed. “It takes a very small space and adds inventive materials.” The connected getaway creates a place for an international environmental dispute-resolution facilitator to work at home. Construction and materials used reflect the family’s desire for low-impact living, reflected in the project’s use of cross ventilation, photovoltaic panels, natural lighting, and super-insulation. Building on a tradition of rural architecture rooted in common sense and frugality, it points towards a sensible way of living: using only enough to meet real needs and paying attention to how natural resources are consumed.

Board of Public Utilities, Kansas City, Kan., by BNIM Architects/360 Architecture, with contractor J.E. Dunn Construction, for Kansas Board of Public Utilities
The architects report that the owner, the Board of Public Utilities, embraced a new paradigm for office buildings that includes: ample daylight via open perimeters, an egalitarian plan with management in the core, an in-house health facility, and efficient indirect lighting and displacement air systems in a 12-inch-deep access floor. The project is an unprotected, exposed-steel loft building. This building together with a new courthouse and government office building establish a new gateway for the city. The jury liked the building’s “inventive, simple palette, different flavor of facades, and strong civil presence.”

Paragraph Gallery, Kansas City, Mo., by BNIM Architects, with Mid America Contractors, for the Urban Culture Project
The jury enjoyed this “playful architecture,” in which the “minimal and reductive space modestly touched.” The Paragraph Gallery is one of a series of temporary art galleries operated by the Urban Culture Project (a program through the Charlotte Street Fund) in downtown Kansas City. The galleries’ close proximity to one another allows patrons to travel this circuit of galleries on foot, reinforcing the project’s intent to stimulate activity in blighted or unused downtown spaces. “The social function of the space is the architecture,” the jury said.

Boulevard Brewing Company Cellar 3 Addition, Kansas City, Mo., by 360 Architecture, with contractor Rau Construction, for the Boulevard Brewing Company
“A simple brew of materials that is hoppin’ good,” quipped the jury about the Cellar 3 Addition for Boulevard Brewing Company, which provides space for nine additional fermenting tanks for an existing brewery. The 1.8 million pound liquid load required 30-inch-diameter columns, 15-inch-thick walls, and a 3-foot-thick flat-plate roof. The architects report that the decision to expose the concrete structure, rather than clad it in brick to match the adjacent buildings, came from a desire not only to express the industrial function of this new use, but also to give this small but critical element of the brewery its own unique visual identity.

Lenexa Conference Center Thompson Barn Rehabilitation, Lexana, Kan., by Rafael Architects Inc., with contractor McCown Gordon Construction, for the City of Lenexa
After standing vacant for many years, the Thompson Barn received a new life after the City of Lenexa, Kan., decided to rehabilitate the structure into a high-tech conference and long-distance learning center. To limit the potential harm that a renovation would inflict on the historic structure, the design team determined that a building addition would be necessary. To minimize impact on the landscape and exterior appearance of the barn, they placed it below grade. This solution allowed for a visual link to the prairie that once was and continues to be a significant part of the Thompson Barn history. The jury admired the project for its sense of craft. The thoughtful landscape is a contributor to the architecture, they commented, and the design is not overwhelming.

Other Awards

After a 10-year hiatus, the AIA/KC Design Awards Committee reinstated the Architectural Excellence in Retrospect Award, honoring a building in the Kansas City metro area that is at least 25 years old and whose significance in the community has stood the test of time. The membership at the chapter’s annual meeting voted to honor the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex, 1972–1973, by architect Charles Deaton with Kivett and Myers, with this year’s award.

Also this year, the AIA/KC Committee on the Environment (COTE) introduces the COTE Award to recognize design excellence in the integration of architecture, technology, and natural systems. This year’s jury, composed of AIA New York Chapter COTE Committee members, chose to recognize:

• School of Nursing & Student Community Center, Houston, by BNIM Architects + Lake|Flato Architects, with contractor Jacobs Vaughn Inc., for The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (built category)
• Implement Seattle Sustainable Building Tool, by BNIM Architects + Elements, for the City of Seattle (research category)
• Missouri Department of Conservation Discovery Center and Urban Conservation Campus, Kansas City, by BNIM Architects, with Titan Construction Company, for the Missouri Department of Conservation (sustainable landscaping category).

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