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A reinforced cast-in-place concrete frame supports the structural steel framing system of a "flying" roof form. Light metallic walls of glass contrast with masonry elements that visually ground the structure. The building's modern lines and crisp detailing are meant to express the forward-thinking ideologies of the client.

Building occupants enter on the primary ground plane, at the south end of the site, into an open two-story lobby. A sophisticated material palette — including Brazilian cherry, thermal quartzite tile with accents of polished black granite, hand-applied integral-color plaster walls, and machined stainless steel — subtly restates the client's concern with the visual and the tactile. At night, the glass-enclosed space glows like a lantern, positioning the building among its many peers.

The main workspaces are situated on a floor plate elevated on pilotis above ground-level parking. This elevation provides dynamic views of the city's park and urban landscape while, to the interstate side, solid elements provide an acoustic shield.

The central workspace is a soaring open studio, daylit by a cathedral-like clerestory. Glass-walled perimeter offices flank the open studio. Employee amenities include lounge spaces overlooking the lobby and an open-air roof terrace next to a glass-enclosed cafeteria. A variety of conference rooms and a state-of-the-art research suite are also available to the company's clients.

With its dynamic contrasts, the building seeks to express the kinetic, visual, dynamic, and creative nature of the work that goes on inside.

Bringing Nature Inside

An interior architecture project by idea/span was also a winner with a corporate office design, a 130,000-square-foot (12,000-square-meter) lease-hold space for Merial, an international veterinary pharmaceutical company. When the client relocated their North American headquarters from New Jersey to Georgia, they saw an opportunity for their new workplace to help them refocus their vision and unify their corporate culture.

Idea/span responded with an open environment that supports a collaborative idea about doing business. Multiple task settings allow staff to work not only at their primary workstations, but also at "touchdown" stations, privacy rooms, team rooms, and ad hoc informal settings dispersed around the space.

Flexibility to meet organizational change comes from using only two basic concepts for workspaces and deploying them in a "universal" design which allows for a variety of specific uses.

Animal imagery is used throughout to brand the space, helping to forge a single culture that spans the client's range of markets, from production animals to companion animals. Natural materials and objects are layered into the space, referring to the important role of nature in the company's work, while ductwork, piping, and wiring, visible through gaps in the ceiling, expand the volume of the space, and refer to the company's scientific and technical ethos.

Modern Vernacular

In contrast to the corporate scale of these two winners, Robert M. Cain, AIA was awarded for a modestly sized rural house. The clients, a couple starting a landscape nursery near Gilsville, Georgia, gave the architect two core design parameters: an open plan and a tight budget. Cain's solution reinterprets plain-style southern farm vernacular and "shotgun" housing in a contemporary way.

A simple, repetitive framing system forms two gable-end sheds. These are linked by a circulation corridor — an adaptation of the once-common vernacular "dog-trot," now almost extinct. Much of the structure is exposed. Finishes are simple and inexpensive, overhangs deep and sheltering. Rafter tails are bare, details derive from the simplicity of the framing system, and the trim is direct and purposive.

The living/ kitchen/ dining area forms the house's center, with views and outdoor living areas extending from there. A bath/ storage/ utility core with an interior clerestory floats in the high-ceilinged interior of the main shed. Its mass and opacity, rather than walls, separate the main bedroom from the living area.

The dog-trot and the house's linear form allow for natural ventilation, while additional indoor/outdoor spaces expand the house's 2010 square feet (190 square meters) to maximize year-round enjoyment of the high-Piedmont climate.

Acute Care Plus Wellness Center

The collaboration of a forward-thinking client, a representative group of community members, and the design team of Perkins & Will has produced an unusual hospital in Florida.

The Heartland Medical Center is a three-story, 101-bed, acute-care hospital. Its 86-acre (35-hectare) site has been developed to include fitness trails, lakes, and meditative spaces. The hospital hopes these site amenities will serve patients, their families, and the community as a whole, while helping to promote the hospital as a place of well-being.

In addition to familiar hospital services, such as surgery, imaging, diagnostics, emergency room, and lab, the hospital also provides a fitness facility, a conference center, a chapel set in a meditative courtyard, retail shopping, and dining. Daylight is the hospital's primary design element, with extensive glazing in all program areas.

A large building with a complex program, the hospital's massing is broken into smaller components. This makes the hospital more inviting by reducing its scale and assisting with visitor wayfinding. A two-story, 400-foot (122-meter) "mall" serves as the hospital's principle organizing element, providing a direct link between all patient services and facilities, as well as serving as the primary waiting space for clinical services.

The facility represents a decisive move away from traditional hospital design, which has often resulted in intimidating and confusing buildings that separate patients from daily living, toward a service-oriented design that more fully integrates the hospital into patient and community life.

The Georgia AIA subtitled this year's awards program "Built to Last." If these examples are an indication, the program could equally have been dubbed "Built to Inspire."

The jury for the 2001 Design Awards Program of AIA Georgia included architect and journalist Stephen A. Kliment, FAIA; Lewis Goetz, AIA, CEO and a founding principal of Group Goetz Architects, PC; Carl Krebs, AIA, a partner of Davis Brody Bond, LLP; Coren D. Sharples, RA, partner in the firm ShoP (Sharples Holden Pasquarelli); and Jefferson Riley, FAIA, a founding partner of Moore Grover Harper, PC, the predecessor firm to Centerbrook Architects.

A rural Georgia residence by Robert M. Cain, AIA won an Award of Excellence from AIA Georgia. Photo: Robert M. Cain, AIA Florida's new Heartland Medical Center by Perkins & Will. Photo: Jonathan Hillyer Photography Corporate headquarters for Earthlink in Atlanta, by ASD, Inc. Photo: Thom Williams A residence in Seattle, by the Georgia firm Surber Barber Choate & Hertlein Architects, Inc. Photo: James Frederick Housel Georgia Public Health Laboratory in Decatur by Lord Aeck & Sargent. Photo: Jonathan Hillyer Photography The Crane and Cherokee Cottage renovations for the Jekyll Island Club by Smith Dalia Architects, LLC. Photo: Lauren Ashley The Lumberyard Lofts office building was adapted from an old warehouse by Brock Green Architects and Planners. Photo: Eric Kronberg, Brock Green Architects An interior courtyard of the Lumberyard Lofts. Photo: Eric Kronberg, Brock Green Architects   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.