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San Francisco AIA Awards 2004 | |
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Going Green in New England | |
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Learning from Pierre Koenig | |
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San Francisco AIA Awards 2004 Rebuilding San Francisco's Fabric Page & Turnbull served as preservation architect on another award-winning project: the renovation of the Ferry Building in San Francisco, built in 1898. SMWM led the team which also included BCV Architects, and Tom Eliot Fisch. The building had survived the 1906 earthquake and indignities of earlier, insensitive modernizations. The team rebuilt the Ferry Building's great skylit public space, a 660-foot (200-meter) long by 45-foot (14-meter) wide by 45-foot (14-meter) high "nave" and opened it visually to the floor below. Now, daylight floods down to the ground level, where a large public space is lined with small shops. Outside, the formal Colusa sandstone facade was seismically braced and restored, and the revitalized building contributes to the rebirth of the city's historic waterfront. One of the new projects selected for an AIASF design award is "251 South Van Ness," by Pfau Architecture. This new home of graphic design firm Damore Johann and Mark Johann Photography is a 6,000-square-foot (560-square-meter), three-story building, designed from the inside out as an "integrated workplace environment." The interior offers a variety of materials and colors, while expansive north glazing optimizes city views and provides balanced daylight to all levels of the building. Also new is the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View, by Mark Cavagnero Associates. In addition to housing music classrooms and studios, the 25,000-square-foot (2300-square-meter) building provides visual arts studios, a recital hall, and an outdoor performance area. The music school is surrounded by busy arterial roadways, so acoustical considerations were critical in its design. The building's mass buffers the outdoor courtyard from traffic noise, and the concrete structure provides isolation between rehearsal and performance spaces inside. The structure is carefully detailed with wood to provide visual and tactile relief to the concrete. Another residential project is the Lieff House, by Stanley Saitowitz Office/ Natoma Architects Inc. Sited on a wooded hill overlooking the Napa Valley, the house is clad in corten steel, with its rusty appearance matching colors in the seasonally changing landscape. Glazed openings in the steel walls open to views of the vineyards below. Graduate Studios for the California College of the Arts were the work of Jensen & Macy Architects. The 10- by 20-foot (3- by 6-meter) studios were built into a formerly dilapidated warehouse. While providing seismic stability and amenities, the architects were also challenged to provide interior daylight and an exterior urban presence. To make toilet facilities that would be low in cost and accessible by Americans with Disabilities standards, Jensen & Macy worked with the Kohler Company to develop an entirely prefabricated restroom. It was factory-built in a shipping container, shipped across country, lifted with a crane into place, and "plugged in" on site to utility connections. Exposed concrete, unfinished plywood, and cement siding also served to keep construction costs low and to help the art center blend with its industrial neighborhood. Honoring Sustainability There were three award recipients in the "green design" category. One of these was the Audubon Center at Debs Park by EHDD Architecture. Appropriate both to its function and its Southern California site, the project successfully combines outdoor space and semienclosed space to expand the functional area beyond the fully enclosed space. Other sustainable features of the nature center are a photovoltaic system and support for alternative transportation. One of the selected "green" projects is a master plan for several buildings. Gelfand RNP Architects have developed a plan for the Los Altos School District that sets the stage for future energy savings and environmental education. Recommended green standards, which have already been implemented in several new and remodeled schools, include improving multifunction community use of spaces, limiting areas of asphalt, filtering storm water runoff, planting native and water-saving vegetation, replacing electric lighting with daylighting, optimizing fresh air use, and making such measures visible, so the school buildings themselves become tools for environmental learning. The third "green" award went to a historic preservation project: the renovation of San Francisco's Pier 1 by SMWM, Page & Turnbull, and Tom Bloszies Aguila. With introduced natural ventilation and daylight, the building is predicted to exceed California's Title 24 standards by 20 to 30 percent. Pier 1's original fixtures and materials were reused, donated to historical societies, or sent to wood reclamation companies. "New" materials included recycled glass and sustainably harvested Douglas fir. The waterfront location allows the building to take advantage of San Francisco's mild climate and consistent breezes to produce low-energy, healthy indoor environments. Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum... The 2004 jury for AIASF was chaired by Sandra Vivanco, AIA, A+D, Architecture + Design, and also included Craig Hodgetts, AIA, Hodgetts + Fung Architects; Carlos Jimenez, Jimenez Design Studio; Lisa Iwamoto, IS. Ar Iwamoto Scott Architecture; Zahid Sardar, San Francisco Chronicle; Julie Eizenberg, Koning Eizenberg Architecture; Mabel Wilson, KWA; Robert Levit, University of Toronto; Jerry Lum, AIA, City College of San Francisco; James Stefanski, AIA, SPACE; Lynn Simon, AIA, Simon & Associates; Bill Burke, AIA, Pacific Energy Center; Rodolphe El-Khoury, California College of the Arts; and Kathrin Moore, Associate AIA, AICP, Moore Urban Design.
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