by ArchitectureWeek

The Tennessee chapter of the American Institute of Architects recently announced 16 projects in its annual awards program. These projects from the U.S. heartland represent a diversity of traditional and modern, of modest and monumental.

One of the seven AIA Tennessee Award of Excellence recipients is the Akhriev-Hefferlin Williams Street Studio in Chattanooga, designed by Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects PLLC. The mixed-use project combines two residences with a painting studio and art gallery, all fitting tightly into a urban slot in the city's redeveloping Southside District.

The residences are entered via an external metal stair in a central courtyard that separates the gallery and apartments from the painting studio to the rear of the property. The designers carefully considered the separation of uses, security, privacy, anad accessibility in the way the three disparate uses coexist on the narrow site.

The painting studio is designed for work on very large canvasses and has a fifty-foot- (15-meter-) long north-facing skylight. The structure is of steel frame, heavy timber, and conventional framing, with floors of heart pine and bamboo and exterior cladding of zinc and stone.

The jury remarked: "Working with an informed client to develop a sophisticated live/work program, the architect contrasts the spatial qualities of the narrow site with a design that explodes with light, resulting in a surprisingly open and welcoming solution."   >>>

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One of the seven AIA Tennessee awards of excellence recipients is the mixed-use Akhriev-Hefferlin Williams Street Studio in Chattanooga, designed by Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects PLLC. Photo: Tim Street Porter Workspace in the Akhriev-Hefferlin Williams Street Studio. Photo: Tim Street Porter   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.