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AIA/Connecticut 2000 Design Awards
Fourteen projects cited for architectural distinction
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Business New Haven
1/8/2001
By: Priscilla Searles
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Each year architects eagerly anticipate the awards bestowed upon leading architectural firms by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This year AIA/Connecticut recognized 14 projects in six categories.
Connecticut winners included Herbert S. Newman & Partners of New Haven; Centerbrook Architects & Planners, Centerbrook; Austin Patterson Disston Architects of Southport; Lindroth & Newick of New Haven; Dean
Sakamoto of New Haven; Beinfield Wagner Architects of Norwalk; and Charney Architects of New Haven.
Jurors responsible for the difficult decisions were: John W. Cook, executive director of the Luce Foundation in New York; Andrea Leers of Leers Weinzapfel Associates Architects, Boston; and James Timberlake of the Philadelphia-based Kiran Timberlake Associates.
The Summer Place Parking Garage, proposed for Stamford, received a Honor Award for an Unbuilt Project. Designed by Herbert S. Newman & Partners of New Haven. The goal of this project, according to Newman, was “to transform a functional structure and create an architecturally dynamic facade that will enliven and energize an important urban intersection and demonstrate that a prosaic program of car storage (by necessity at the confluence of pedestrian and vehicular paths) can evoke a sense of wonder and delight.”
One juror asserted that the project was “a real slam dunk. It is conceived of as sculpture, as environmental art. We hope it gets built.”
The Garde Arts Center in New London received the “Architecture in the Community” honor award. Designed by Chad Floyd with Stephen B. Holmes of Centerbrook Architects & Planners, the project combines newly completed and future phases of restoration, renovation and additions to an historic theater and three adjacent buildings in downtown New London.
According to the firm, the objective was to link them all into a lively complex devoted to the arts and to help stimulate revitalization of the surrounding downtown. Jurors commented that the project “animates and opens its lower level to public and street in crisp, modern contrast to renovation and saves a significant corner of New London. The transformation turns the theater into a community center with energy and direction.”
A Japanese bathhouse, part of a new pool house on a large estate in Greenwich, received an Honor Award in the category of Architecture: The Encompassing Art. Designed by McKee Patterson of Austin Patterson Disston Architects, the bathhouse includes a custom-made soapstone tub and a limestone floor set with brook stones and pebbles.
Jurors commented that “this silent, meditative space captures the spirit of a Japanese bath. It is a place of restoration; it is not antiseptic. The tradition of craft has been interpreted by contemporary materials and controlled and diffused light. It captures the essence of its category, Architecture: The Encompassing Art.”
The Nighswander/Sudick Handrail, designed by Craig D. Newick of Lindroth & Newick of New Haven, received an Honor Award for Architecture: The Encompassing Art. Designed for a photographer and a graphic artist who were renovating their home, the rail is finished with black automobile lacquer, the newels are finished in black oxide and the stainless pieces are shot blasted.
“This is a beautiful piece of industrial design, a light, dimensionless solution. It is well crafted in scale and articulation.”
Hull's University Art Supply in New Haven received an Honorable Mention for Architecture: The Encompassing Art. Designed by Dean B. Sakamoto of New Haven, the project included renovating the existing facade, general building repairs and designing the interior architecture of the 1938 building. Partially vacant for approximately eight years, the project has given new life to a section of Chapel Street. Jurors commented that “The materials and color and simple ideas are carried through into the cabinets and walls.”
The Ross residence in Westport, designed by Beinfield Wagner & Associates of Norwalk, received an Honorable Mention for a Residential Project. The 4,500-square-foot, five-bedroom house, designed as a weekend home, embodies influences ranging from a '50s Modernist house in Houston, the utilitarian buildings of the Texas plains and the architecture of Luis Barragan.
Jurors stated that “The house strongly reacts to a restrictive residential environment. It has taken the risk of defining a polemic and stands alone above its landscape.”
The Guyott House on the Connecticut coast (the architects will not divulge the municipality, but an Internet search suggests that the home is in Southport), designed by Mark Simon with Dennis Dowd of Centerbrook Architects & Planners, received an Honorable Mention for a Residential Project. Local pink granite was used for site walls and steps, which on the ocean side surround a plunge pool just above the beach and then step upward to terraces. Jurors observed that the project was “crafted in a conservative vocabulary but sufficiently inventive to move beyond it. The jury appreciated the inventive details throughout.”
The David & Fanny Luke Building, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. received an Honor Award for Built Project. Designed by James C. Childress of Centerbrook Architects & Planners, the building, erected in 1913 to house the steam plant for a biology station of the Carnegie Institution, has had numerous incarnations. The Luke Building was designed to enhance the history and permanence of the laboratory as well as reinforce its international reputation for advanced biological research among donors, scientists and the public. The renovation included maintaining the work-a-day quality of the original structure.
Jurors stated that the project “works hard at reinterpreting existing fabric for new use rather than throwing the old away. The research facility shows refinement and delicate scale. It shows a clear intent to edit. There are no wasted gestures.”
Wilson Elementary School located in Wilson, Wy., received an Honor Award for Built Project. Designed by Charney Architects of New Haven, the 43,880-square-foot, geothermally heated and chilled neighborhood school for 240 children retains the local character, iconic color and belfry of the original school it replaces. “The cruciform plan with pods follows well-known school precedents, dating back to the 1960s,” said jurors. “It is simply detailed, compositionally balanced.”
Stepping Stones Museum for Children, designed by Jefferson B. Riley with Charles G. Mueller of Centerbrook Architects & Planners, received an Honor Award for Built Project. The museum was designed to encourage wonder and independent inquiry in children ages one to ten. “The museum has playful forms and a purposeful program,” said jurors, “It has delight, wit, charm and is engaging for children. It uses the building elements as part of the museum. It has tectonic clarity that is expressive of material and its big and little motor spaces.”
The Athletic Center at Simon's Rock of Bard College in Great Barrington, Mass., designed by Chad Floyd with Susan E. Wyeth of Centerbrook Architects & Planners, received an Honor Award for Built Project. The 58,000-square-foot recreation center houses a 25-yard pool, basketball court, running track, squash courts, a climbing wall, juice bar, fitness center and a multi-purpose room long with lockers, offices and storage spaces.
The project is “elegantly clear and simple,” wrote jurors. “The vernacular exterior forms are reinterpreted as crisp volumes and long span space for which scale is gracefully handled.”
Projects designed by out-of-state architects earning honors included Honorable Mention for Preservation of Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University designed by Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott of Boston. According to jurors, the project is “a workmanlike, craft oriented, very good restoration.”
The Trumpf Customer & Technology Center, located in Farmington, received an Honor Award for a Built Project. It was designed by Barkow Leiberger Architects of Berlin, Germany. Jurors felt the project was “tectonically ideal. The durability and timelessness of the well crafted Miesian pavilion is proven again. The insertion of structural plates and tension members updates a basic tectonic ideal.”
The Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center in Mashantucket received an Honor Award for Built Project. Designed by Polshek & Partners of New York, it was described by jurors as “not gimmicky, not pandering to Native American abstract ideas about culture. Rather than imitating forms, the idea is translated to realized forms with power and details which are elegant. The landscape completely integrates with the building, seamlessly making a whole.”
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