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"It's impressive that a wealthy client would take that older fabric and invest in it rather than tearing it down, a valuable sustainable agenda," added the jury.

Branch Library in Montlake

Both Portland and Seattle have made substantial commitments to new and renovated libraries in recent years. The Seattle Public Library's Montlake Branch, a modest affair at 8,800 square feet (820 square meters), includes a reading room with adult, teen, and children's areas, and a community meeting room.

The design by Weinstein AU Architects + Urban Designers created a public gathering place that has become a focal point for the community. The steeply sloped site located on a busy arterial road posed additional challenges, as did a budget of just $2.75 million — relatively small for a public project like this on a difficult site.

"This fine little building has a strong civic presence," lauded the AIA Seattle jury. "It successfully integrates the varying scales of its neighborhood location, richly fulfilling the program of the community library. The simple spatial agenda, clarity of organization, and remarkable diversity of space render a civic building that, while not innovative in terms of its risk or ambition, is remarkably thorough and cleanly expressed."

Teen Center in Federal Way

Weinstein AU was also recognized for another public building, the EX3 Ron Sandwith Teen Center in suburban Federal Way, Washington, for the Boys & Girls Club of King County. The 16,000-square-foot (1,500 square-meter) campus, part of a public-private partnership with the Federal Way school district, includes a gymnasium, art studio, tech lab, and other facilities that are shared with an alternative high school and Head Start program.

The architects worked for sustainability on several levels. They sought not only to maximize daylighting, but also to enable people to control their own environments. The project also features a kit-of-parts approach that should assist future owners and occupants of the building in adapting the facility to their needs — a notion sometimes overlooked in green-building circles.

"This project is distinguished by its strong conceptual approach to materials," the jury wrote, noting the center's translucent flexible spaces that complement the building's heavy, durable core functions in a public space intended to evolve over time.

The jury for the AIA Portland 2008 Design Awards included Marlon Blackwell, Marlon Blackwell Architect and University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Ron Radziner, Marmol Radziner and Associates, Los Angeles; and Rob Rogers, Rogers Marvel Architects, New York City.

The jury for AIA Seattle's 2008 Honor Awards for Washington Architecture included Susan Szenasy, editor-in-chief, Metropolis magazine; Patricia Patkau, Patkau Architects, Vancouver, Canada; Nader Tehrani, Office dA, Boston, Massachusetts; and David Baker, David Baker + Partners, San Francisco, California.

Brian Libby is a Portland, Oregon-based freelance writer who has also published in Metropolis, Architectural Record, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New York Times.   more from this author...

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SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE In the Woodway Residence remodel, expansive glazing and accessible outdoor living spaces blur the boundary between inside and out. Photo: Nic Lehoux Extra Large Image The massing of the Woodway Residence is stepped, matching the gradual slope of the site. Photo: Nic Lehoux Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE The Montlake Branch of the Seattle Public Library was designed by Weinstein AU Architects + Urban Designers. Photo: Lara Swimmer Photography Extra Large Image The reading room of the Montlake Branch library, honored by AIA Seattle. Photo: Lara Swimmer Photography Extra Large Image Weinstein AU also designed the EX3 Ron Sandwith Teen Center in Federal Way, Washington. Photo: Benjamin Benschneider Photography Extra Large Image The EX3 gymnasium. Photo: Chris Meeks Extra Large Image 1310 Condominiums ground-floor plan drawing. Image: Brett Crawford Architecture + Planning Extra Large Image Woodway Residence ground-floor plan drawing Image: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Extra Large Image Montlake Branch ground-floor plan drawing. Image: Weinstein AU Extra Large Image EX3 Ron Sandwith Teen Center ground-floor plan drawing. Image: Weinstein AU Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.