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Because of its remote location, the environmental education center needed to be almost self-sufficient. A sloping roof captures rainwater for use in toilets and in the greenhouse. Efficient heating and cooling are provided by a geothermal heat pump, its well field located under the gravel parking lot.

"The siting is good," jurors said of the building, located below the crest of a knoll. Its north face is built into the earth for insulation and wind protection, while its south face provides views and solar exposure. The roof shades the building from the summer sun but allows sunlight penetration in winter.

AIA Chicago also honored John Holabird, FAIA, firm principal emeritus, with a lifetime achievement award.

The only residential project to receive a 2007 honor award in any category was Alys Beach Courtyard House A-5 by Farr Associates, recognized for its environmentally friendly design. Located in the Florida Panhandle, the house is part of a master-planned community that requires traditional architecture like that of Antigua, Guatemala, and Bermuda. The project translated design challenges into opportunities for energy efficiency, achieving a reduction of energy use of 71 percent beyond code, and exceeding the targets of the Architecture 2030 Challenge.

Jurors praised the "great design," which uses a traditional arcade to help cool the house. Operable clerestory windows provide daylight and ventilation to interior rooms. Well-insulated concrete walls and geothermal heating and cooling improve energy efficiency. The rooftop hides a shaded summer kitchen and a 4.8-kilowatt photovoltaic array.

The Kresge Foundation Headquarters in Troy, Michigan, won another honor award for Valerio Dewalt Train Associates and Farr Associates. The 26,000-square-foot (2,400-square-meter) office building is located on the landmarked 19th-century Brooks Farm, and the firms were charged with preserving the old while integrating the new.

The low-profile building is embedded into the landscape. With both northern and southern exposure, the interiors are amply daylit. "It's a beautiful building," jurors said.

This project, too, incorporates a geothermal-well system, comprising 40 wells located 400 feet (122 meters) under the parking lot. Gabions constitute the retaining walls, filled mostly with paving and foundation rubble from the site, iced with a layer of crushed Michigan blue granite. Green roofs, stormwater recharge, and underfloor air supply were among the other strategies submitted for 52 LEED points plus four innovation points.

Honorable Interiors

The grandest of the honor-award-winners for interior architecture is a major renovation project at the Illinois State Capitol, by Vinci | Hamp Architects and Evan Lloyd Associates. The restoration of the House and Senate chambers reverted ill-considered changes from the 1970s.

The work scope included restoration of original millwork, construction of period-accurate member desks, and reconstruction of elaborate paneled doors, press boxes, and glazed side walls. Interior finishes, including plaster moldings, etched glass, decorative painting, and marble bases, were restored or replicated. Historic light fixtures were recreated from photographs of originals. In the House chamber, a long-destroyed laylight was reconstructed in the chamber's ceiling. State-of-the-art audio and video, data/electrical, and voting systems were integrated into the period finishes.

Jurors pronounced the finished product "beautiful, and well-done."

Another interiors award went to Touch Salon in Chicago, by Mark A. Cuellar, AIA, and Sylvia Helen Billisics, Assoc. AIA. The project is the first realization of their nail salon prototype design.

The indirect lighting and material palette — wood, upholstery, tile, and resin panels — were intended to create a sense of calm. An upholstered pocket creates a protected pedicure area. Sparse, minimalist waxing rooms are located off a private corridor. A waiting bench is cantilevered from an advertising light wall.

Jurors appreciated the details, materials, and strong concept for the salon, and they particularly liked the ribbon of wood that morphs from manicure bar into reception desk, into a light soffit, and ultimately into outdoor signage.

The Garmin International Flagship Store in Chicago's "Magnificent Mile" shopping district received another of the interior architecture honor awards. Valerio Dewalt Train Associates enclosed the two-story store, which sells GPS-based navigation devices, within an intentionally ambiguous molded wooden surface. Loosely suggestive of rock walls or manufactured metal forms, the wall's open-endedness is intended to imply the uncertainty of the world that the client's technology can help explore. The devices are on display within a nested perimeter of glass and metal.

Jurors appreciated that the architects "took the concept of the company and created an architectural metaphor that isn't literal."

Divine Detail

Rain screens were the divinest details of the year, it seems. The State Emergency Operations Center in Springfield, Illinois, by DeStefano and Partners, received the other of the two divine-detail honor awards for its copper rain screen, like the Gary Comer Youth Center (mentioned above).

While emergency operations are a far cry from youth programming, this rain screen provided some of the same benefits that the youth center sought: protection of windows, which can be a security vulnerability, while allowing natural light in and providing views out — especially helpful for a high-pressure work environment. The nonferrous copper screens also isolate sensitive components from electromagnetic pulses during storms.

The perforated rain screen unifies the facade, its lightness masking the high-security nature of the building to some extent. "There's some innovation there," jurors said. "It integrates with the massing of the major components."

This is the 52nd year that AIA Chicago has given its Design Excellence Awards. In addition to the 13 honor awards and special recognition award mentioned above, the awards included 26 citations of merit and six other special recognitions.   >>>

The jury for AIA Chicago's 2007 Design Excellence Awards comprised separate teams for the four categories.

Divine Detail: Catherine Baker, AIA, Landon Bone Baker Architects, Chicago; F. Christopher Lee, FAIA, Johnson & Lee Ltd., Chicago; W. Stephen Saunders, Eckenhoff Saunders Architects, Chicago.

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The Mannheimer 2 Corporate Headquarters in Mannheim, Germany, designed by Murphy/Jahn, received a distinguished-building honor award from AIA Chicago. Photo: Roland Halbe The new Mannheimer 2 Corporate Headquarters building meets its older counterpart at a 90-degree angle, enclosing an orderly courtyard. Photo: Roland Halbe The LEED-Silver-rated Access Living headquarters building in Chicago, by LCM Architects, combines principles of green design and universal design. Photo: George Lambros Holabird & Root designed the environmental education center for Grinnell College, one honor-award recipient in AIA Chicago's sustainable-design category. Photo: Courtesy Grinnell College The Grinnell College Conard Environmental Research Area Education Center in rural Iowa employs a number of energy- and water-conservation strategies. Photo: Courtesy Grinnell College The Alys Beach Courtyard House A-5, an AIA Chicago sustainable-design award-winner, is part of a planned community in the Florida Panhandle that requires buildings to draw on the traditional architecture of the Caribbean. Photo: Alan Shortall In the Alys Beach Courtyard House, architects Farr Associates sought to provide sensory delight, even in the rainwater-handling and -collection systems. Photo: Alan Shortall The Kresge Foundation Headquarters is built on the site of the historic Brooks Farm in Troy, Michigan. Photo: Barbara Karant Site diagram drawing of the rainwater management system at the Kresge Foundation Headquarters. Image: Valerio Dewalt Train Associates A constructed wetland serves as the major surface-water retention area at the Kresge Foundation headquarters, by Valerio Dewalt Train Associates and Farr Associates. Photo: Barbara Karant   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.