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AIA Selects 11 Projects for 2014 Design Awards

WASHINGTON — The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) selected 11 educational and cultural facilities for this year’s CAE Educational Facility Design Awards. The CAE Design Excellence Award honors educational facilities that not only serve as exceptional examples of learning environments, but also further their individual clients’ missions, goals and educational programs. These projects feature responsive and responsible programming, planning and design, while also taking regional and community context into account.

The 2014 CAE Educational Facility Design Awards jury includes John R. Dale, FAIA (Chair), Harley Ellis Devereaux; Claire Gallagher, Assoc. AIA, Georgian Court University, School of Education; Fred Dust, IDEO; Dutch MacDonald, AIA, MAYA Design; and Marsha Maytum, FAIA, Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects.

2014 CAE Educational Facility Design Award winners:

Baltimore Design School; Baltimore;  Ziger/Snead Architects  
The new Baltimore City Public Schools facility combines middle and high school with a focus on fashion, architecture and graphic design. The school was created from an abandoned historic factory building dating back to 1915. The architect transformed the facility in the confines of a minimal budget by using best practices for historic renovation, adaptive reuse, educational design and sustainable design. A driving force in creating the school was the desire to develop creativity and design-informed critical thinking skills for public school students.

Buckingham County Primary & Elementary Schools at the Carter G. Woodson Education Complex; Dillwyn, Va.; VMDO Architects, P.C.  
Two Virginia mid-century schools were transformed into a cutting-edge, holistic learning environment for K-5 students. Evidence-based healthy design principles — integrated into the campus landscape — promote healthy eating, nutrition education, physical activity and well-being as a response to the national childhood obesity epidemic. The K-5 campus includes a teaching kitchen, nutritional displays, open servery, food lab, scratch bakery, dehydrating food composter and student gardens.

Drexel University College of Media Arts and Design (CoMAD) URBN Center; Philadelphia; MSR (Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd.)  
The repurposing of a landmark Venturi, Scott Brown decorated shed provides a new location for Drexel University’s College of Media Arts and Design. The new school brings together different departments into one location, encouraging collaboration across multiple disciplines. The design of the new space focuses on the original “do more with less” concept of the four-story commercial building by creating adaptable spaces for learning.

University of Chicago Child Development Center – Stony Island; Chicago; Wheeler Kearns Architects  
The University of Chicago Child Development Center design does away with primary colors and synthetic play equipment used in most child development facilities. Instead, it offers children an opportunity to discover nature by emphasizing the natural landscape. The facility is centered on two playscapes that have a footprint larger than the building itself. The playscapes conceptually graft onto the historic Frederick Law Olmstead landscape located across the street in Jackson Park. Materials constructed by nature either from the atmosphere (trees, plants, wood) or from the earth (boulders, rocks, sand) dominate.

Wilkes Elementary School; Bainbridge Island, Wash.; Mahlum  
The new Wilkes Elementary School was designed around four intimate learning communities that support different styles of teaching and learning. Classrooms are located at the heart and linked on each end, providing a circulation pattern that prevents both the feeling and effect of isolation. The design also creates opportunities for variation in scales of learning from multi-classroom gatherings to intimate individual experiences.

Central Arizona College, Maricopa Campus; Maricopa, Ariz.; SmithGroupJJR  
The creative, wide-ranging design of the new campus promotes cross-disciplinary learning and provides a model for arid-region sustainable development. The plan, called the Genome Project, creates a complete genetic blueprint for the new campus that promotes collaboration as well as celebrates local heritage and vernacular.

Coastline Community College, Newport Beach Campus; Newport Beach, Calif.;  LPA Inc. 
The new interdisciplinary, 66,800-square-foot Newport Beach Campus of Coastline Community College includes sustainability features such as stormwater management, natural ventilation, green roofs, living walls, maximized daylight and views of the ocean. The project was designed to achieve LEED Gold rating and exceeds the California Title 24 energy code by 33 percent.

James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University; Raleigh, N.C.; Architect: Clark Nexsen, Associated Firm: Snohetta  
Large open spaces connect all floors of the library, and staircases are emphasized to ensure an interactive and social environment between more focused study areas. Designed to achieve LEED Silver, the building features abundant natural light and expansive views of the nearby lake. Fritted glass and a fixed external aluminum shading system help diminish heat gain and maximize views and ambient natural light.

Nathan Hale High School Modernization; Seattle;  Mahlum  
Nathan Hale is a progressive, public high school known for its collaborative, presentation-based curriculum and strong community connection. This facility modernization and addition to the 1960’s structure creates a flexible teaching facility that unites the campus community. Light-filled halls and classrooms, as well as the building transparency, express the school’s values while creating a healthy environment.

PAVE Academy Charter School; Brooklyn, N.Y.;  Mitchell | Giurgola Architects, LLP  
PAVE Academy is a 450-seat, K-8 public charter school located on an isolated corner lot in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. The PAVE leadership team’s goals included creating a community-friendly school that would support significant parent involvement and the needs of a particularly high-needs population living in poverty. Children arrive early for a quiet breakfast and stay well into the afternoon with learning and play to fill a void many face at home.

Raisbeck Aviation High School; Tukwila, Wash.; Bassetti Architects  
Raisbeck Aviation High School was created because of Highline School District’s proximity to the aviation industry in conjunction with the school’s desire to give students access to college and engineering professions. The new 400-student STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) school enables students to learn through co-location with the Museum of Flight and immersion in aerospace and aviation. The design supports this program physically, visually and symbolically with project labs for aircraft and robotics construction, state-of-the-art science labs, classrooms and a multi-purpose gathering space.

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Baltimore Design School Revives Dilapidated Building

BALTIMORE — The architects of Ziger/Snead have revived a once derelict, abandoned factory building into a modern space for innovative education.

With a mere $25 million budget, the Baltimore-based firm transformed the four-story, 120,000-square-foot building into a middle school and high school to serve students in fashion, architecture and graphic design programs.

“This building had been abandoned for over 30 years and it was really a blight on the neighborhood,” said Steve Ziger, AIA, partner at Ziger/Snead. “There’s been a number of attempts to renovate it, none of which came to fruition — that is until we made this school work.”

The building dates back to 1915 and carries with it a long history. First a warehouse to serve Crown Cork and Seal Company, the inventor of the bottle cap, the school became a factory for the men’s suit designers Lebow Bros. in the 1970s. The building was shuttered in 1985.

The long-abandoned building took on somewhat of a spooky ambiance over the years, Ziger said. The design team first entered the building to find old polyester suits still hanging on clothing racks and coffee cups left on ruined tables.

“When people first went through that building they thought we were crazy,” Ziger said.

But it is in the nature of architects to see potential in almost anything, Ziger said. So, with high hopes and an extremely limited budget, the design team began to find benefits and challenges in the nearly 100-year-old building.

The structure was badly deteriorated, Ziger explained; because of this the building required a lot of concrete repair. All new windows were designed because of missing windows throughout the original building. However, the extensive use of windows became a major benefit in the finished product.

“The bones of the building were really great and we have a really high ceiling height. Since it was designed as a factory building, natural light was such an important component of the original design,” ZIger said. “We really celebrated that with the new windows and it brings incredible light into the classrooms and throughout the building. It’s just phenomenal the quality of daylight in this school.”

Located in the Station North Arts District, the building began construction in May 2012 and opened in late August 2013. Southway Builders Inc., based in Baltimore, served as the project’s contractor. The location was a very important element of the project, Ziger said. In close proximity to the Maryland Institute and within the city’s arts district, the Baltimore Design School is in a developing area that spurs artistic inspiration.

Because the school is based in a nontraditional curriculum, the school’s design allows students to showcase their creativity through numerous exhibition spaces as well as flexible, multiuse spaces.

For example, the infrastructure of the dining hall allows for students to utilize the space as a fashion show runway complete with stage lighting and the necessary equipment. The school also features classrooms, student galleries, studio spaces, materials laboratories, media center, workout room and a courtyard performance space.

“The concept for the building was pretty much just a blank canvas for them to transform and we built in the infrastructure for them to use their imaginations in transforming the building,” Ziger said.

Throughout the public spaces and corridors, young designers will have the ability to showcase their work in a space that promotes creativity and transformation.

“Everywhere throughout the school we’ve taken opportunities to really demonstrate the power of design and design thinking,” Ziger said.

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Construction Continues on UConn’s New Basketball Arena

STORRS, Conn. — A new basketball court is in the works at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. The two-floor, 78,200-square-foot court will feature a new basketball Hall of Fame open to the public. Highlights of the Hall of Fame will include three men’s and eight women’s NCAA championship trophies.
The new court comes as a long-awaited reward for one of the best programs in the country, which has stayed among the top teams despite the lack of a practice facility. After two years of funding and an ever-increasing need for state-of-the-art, modern facilities, the university’s program is finally getting its wish.
Plans for the construction project includes two new practice courts for the men’s team and women’s team, new locker rooms, weight rooms, classrooms, an athletic health and training center and offices for the staff. The facility will be open 24/7, allowing athletes access to the court whenever they need it.
The final construction budget for the University of Connecticut’s new basketball facility was approved on Sept. 26. The university’s board of trustees set the budget at $33.3 million, which is approximately $300,000 more than was anticipated in the original budget proposal. UConn’s operating funds will provide about $231,300 for the project, with the rest stemming from a series of private donations.
Of the private donations, Peter and Pam Werth pledged the largest single gift ever presented to the university’s Division of Athletics, donating $4.5 million to the facility back in 2011. “We are proud to make this commitment to UConn and its outstanding basketball program,” the Werths said in a statement at the time of their donation. “UConn basketball is part of the fabric of our state, and we know that this facility will help the men’s and women’s teams be successful for years to come.” Other donors include Mark Shenkman, chair of the UConn Foundation Board of Directors, and his wife Rosalind. They contributed $2 million to the new facility.
Walter Manuel, athletic director for UConn, stated that the finished court is expected to be one of the best in the country. The teams’ hard work is paying off with the new state-of-the-art facility comparable to their history of championship successes, he explained.
This new budget does not include the cost of furniture, fixtures or equipment. These additional expenses are expected to increase the total cost of construction to about $40 million, which will be the absolute cap for the budget. Manuel expects to raise an additional $7 million to $8 million. “We’re about 75 to 80 percent there,” he said.
Kevin Ollie, the men’s basketball coach, explained that the new facility would help promote the school’s success and foster the continued success of the basketball program. While the team itself provides an incentive for prospective athletes to go to UConn, the prospect of a brand-new facility helps boost the university’s image.
Construction on the facility is currently ahead of schedule. Work on the facility began earlier this year and is expected to be complete by May 2014. The project team expects to open the facility to the basketball teams in the same month. Construction may be halted, however, with the impending threat of harsh Connecticut winters quickly approaching. The project team is currently working on erecting the frame of the building and enclosing it before harsh weather hits. They expect to work extensively on interior construction during the winter months.
The new basketball court will be located next to the existing Gampel Pavilion on Jim Calhoun Way — formerly Stadium Road. The road was renamed to honor the Hall of Fame ex-coach, who retired last year.

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