AIA Maryland honored 26 projects at its 2005 Design Awards celebration September 28, at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Md. The awards program celebrates the design accomplishments of architects in Maryland and is open to individual members and firms whose principals are members of the chapter. The 2005 AIA Maryland Design Awards recognize and encourage distinguished architectural achievement and focus public attention on the architect’s role in shaping the quality of life through design excellence.

This year’s competition jury was composed of representatives from AIA Connecticut and included Chair Richard G. Turlington Jr., AIA, Albis Turlington Architects; David D. Harlan Jr., AIA, David D. Harlan Architects LLC; Patricia A. Myler, AIA, Fletcher Thompson; and Leonard J. Wyeth, AIA, Wyeth Architects LLC. In addition to selecting the chapter’s Public Building of the Year, the jury also bestowed 4 Honor Awards, 12 Merit Awards, and 9 Awards of Citation. The winning projects were selected from a total of 121 project entries submitted by 51 architecture firms.

Public Building of the Year

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History & Culture, Baltimore, by Freelon/RTKL, A Joint Venture, for the Maryland African-American Museum Corporation
Jury Comments: The power of this project transcends the notion of building and, through the celebration of its program and urban fit, becomes architecture with a capital A. The careful editing of a simple box animates an opaque structure so that both the passerby and occupant can appreciate from clearly different perspectives what the building is and does while maintaining an intentional monumental scale. The use of powerful colors imbues a dialogue and complexity within the building and applies a two-dimensional context that allows for many different interpretations about surface and meaning that get to the core of this building’s role within our society. Photo © RTKL Associates Inc. and James West/Jwest Productions.

Honor Awards

The Breer Residence, Washington, D.C., by Muse Architects PC, for Anonymous
Jury Comments: This project was a joy to spend time with. The longer you look at each image, the more you appreciate the subtle cultural intertwining of form, detail, and spatial relationships. The New England material palette and apparent symmetry belies a complexity that can only be appreciated through an awareness of and attention to eastern detailing and proportions. Photo © Maxwell MacKenzie.

GKD—USA Headquarters, Cambridge, Md., by Ziger/Snead LLP Architects with associate architect Dominique Perrault Architects, for GKD, Inc.
Jury Comments: This is a great project that illustrates the fun an architect can have when the client is willing and, this is our assumption, committed to creating a responsive environmental design. The power of the building’s simple solution is born from an architect willing to explore non-traditional building solutions and a client willing to take the risk. The multi-layered screen wall is made from simply composed products and provides a rich elevational tapestry for many adjustable environmental responses as well as creates a controlled context for the building’s occupants. Photo © Alain Jaramillo.

Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda, Md., by William Rawn Associates, Architects with associate architect Grimm + Parker Architects, for Montgomery County, Division of Capital Development
Jury Comments: The dynamic nature of the program for this project is beautifully represented in a clear and well-integrated form and plan. The articulation of many parts builds on and supports an overall whole, which is merely a thin, flowing container for an impermanent, creative media. The tightness of the envelope and the two-dimensional representation of skin further reinforces the fluidity of movement. The simple detailing of the main performance space creates a volume apparently free of the stuff we all attribute to the complexity of today’s theaters. Photo © Alan Karchmer Photography; Kenneth Wyner Photography; Ron Solomon Photography.

The Stewart’s Building, Baltimore, by Design Collective, Inc., for The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
Jury Comments: This renovation project resolves many contextual challenges while respecting, even celebrating, an historic building with the insertion of a new, modern language without apology. The renovation to the street façade is a great example of how a new enclosure can acknowledge the original structure and actually redefine the scale of the building as it meets the streets. The new addition is a modern interpretation of the adjacent street fabric, which reinforces the continuity of the street and pedestrian scale. Photo © Anne Gummerson; Bob Creamer.

Merit Awards

Benchmark School Performing Arts Center & Middle School, Media, Pa., by Kirby Mehrhof Architects, PC with Lawrence D. McEwen Architect, for Benchmark School
Jury Comments: This is an elegant solution born from a straightforward program and a topographically challenging site. Compositionally, the environment is celebrated within the building through a light structural expression and use of daylight that children can relate to. The enclosure successfully combines a contemporary and traditional vocabulary, which provides a general comfort level for students while introducing a new way of considering space and enclosure. This is a school within which I would enjoy learning about my environment. Photo © Kirby Mehrhof, AIA.

Burning Tree Residence, Bethesda, Md., by David Jameson Architect Inc., for Anonymous
Jury Comments: The best of a series of submitted houses that uses a dialogue between forms to tell a story . . . its composition is elegant and restrained. Photo © Steve Howard/Gibson Builders, LLC.

Guest House in Dutchess County, Millbrook, N.Y., by Meditch Murphey Architects, for Anonymous
Jury Comments: This pavilion is simply a piece of seductive sculpture. The power of the site, the composition of forms and the incredibly controlled details create a sense of stasis and peace . . . it’s the perfect guest house. Photo © Maxwell MacKenzie.

Jim Rouse Visionary Center (AVAM), Baltimore, by Cho Benn Holback + Associates Inc., for American Visionary Art Museum
Jury Comments: The container for this building is a relatively unassuming box. However, the intriguing piece centers on the reusing of found materials to develop an evocative language that tells a story about the program. However, the straightforward plan, simple interior forms, expression of the original heavy timber frame, and raw wall textures create an understated presence as a backdrop to the displayed collection. Photo © Alain Jaramillo.

Larson Student Union, Messiah College, Grantham, Pa., by Cho Benn Holback + Associates Inc., for Messiah College
Jury Comments: This building is well suited to the immediate site. The building is an internal success with a section and form composition that promotes interaction and awareness of movement throughout its diverse program of spaces. The simple material palette and arrangement of program is well suited to promoting a dialogue among form, light, and social interaction. Photo © David Sundberg, Esto.

Peabody Institute, Baltimore, by Quinn Evans | Architects, for Johns Hopkins University
Jury Comments: This is apparently a whimsical project in content but has a very positive and strong urban solution that creates a wonderful connection to the site and community. This project is about gluing two buildings together to create a project that is larger than the sum of its independent pieces. The result is a primary interstitial space with a delicate character that facilitates movement, interaction, and urban responsibility. Photo © Alan Karchmer; Michael Dersin; Quinn Evans | Architects.

School of Natural Resources & Environment, Ann Arbor, Mich., by Quinn Evans | Architects with associate architect William McDonough + Partners and University of Michigan, Architectural & Engineering Services Office, for the University of Michigan
Jury Comments: It is great to see a renovation project achieve a Gold LEED™ certification while effectively remaining respectful of its original design. Photo © Christopher Campbell and Quinn Evans | Architects.

Ssamzie Gil, Seoul, Korea, by Kroiz Architecture + Ga.A Architects, for Ssamzie Co., LTD
Jury Comments: Programmatically, this is a great project. The solution for serving an urban environment that respects vehicular and pedestrian access is a positive alternative to the sea of parking and enclosed mall-like environments that often plague our landscape. It would be great to see more progressive projects like this in our country’s urban landscapes. Photo © Yongkwan Kim.

Taste Restaurant, Baltimore, by Riley & Rohrer, for Taste Restaurant
Jury Comments: This restaurant project celebrates movement through the use of simple material, color, and a well integrated lighting design that create a series of interior landscapes. Photo © Thomas Arledge.

Terminal A/B @ BWI Airport, Linthicum, Md., by URS Corporation, for Maryland Aviation Administration
Jury Comments: Movement and technology drive this project, which serves a simple civic need to move from point A to B. The fluidity of form is apparent in section, and the clarity of the primary form’s scale imbues a disconnection from our simple need to get to where we are going, which results in the celebration of transition. Photo © Greg Pease.

University Suites at Fayette Square, Baltimore, by Marks, Thomas Architects Inc., for Maryland Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO) University of Maryland, Baltimore A&R Development
Jury Comments: The building mass of this project effectively accommodates a very large and diverse program within a fairly low-scale but dense urban context. Aside from providing the primary solution of housing students, the building really feels like it is an environment designed to facilitate student interaction through a collection of fun spaces. Photo © Ron Solomon.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington, D.C., by McInturff Architects, for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Jury Comments: This is a very challenging project, fitting a performance theater within a found space. The new work is set in tension to the heavy toughness of the existing structure. Photo © Julia Heine/McInturff Architects.

Awards of Citation

Beall’s Hill Master Plan and Guidelines, Macon, Ga., by Ayers/Saint/Gross, Architects + Planners

Center for Aquatic Life & Conservation, Baltimore, by Ziger/Snead LLP Architects, for National Aquarium in Baltimore

Furbish Residence, Pasadena, Md., by Allbright & Hansen Architects Inc., for Michael Furbish and Heather Bathon

Korean National Science Museum, Seoul, Korea, by RTKL Associates Inc. with associate architect Junglim Architecture, for Korean Ministry of Construction and Transportation

New Edward T. Lewis Quadrangle Residence Hall, St. Mary’s College, St. Mary’s City, Md., by Muse Architects PC, for Anonymous

Pierce Winter House, Shepherdstown, W.Va., by McInturff Architects, for Anonymous

The Lofts on George Street, York, Penn., by Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects, for Susquehanna Real Estate

Urban Dwelling 21, Baltimore, by Swanston & Associates, for Anonymous

Western Maryland Low Impact Visitor Center, Frederick County, Md., by Cho Benn Holback + Associates Inc. with associate architect Bloomberg Design Studio, for State Highway Administration, Maryland Department of Transportation.

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