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Coproduced by Traditional Building and Period Homes magazines, the awards recognize designers whose work in restoration, adaptive reuse, and new design "enhances the beauty and humane qualities of the built environment through creative interpretation or adaptation of design principles developed through 2,500 years of the Western architectural tradition."

Sustainable School

At the Millbrook School in Millbrook, New York, another new educational building achieves a high level of sustainability while blending in with traditionally styled campus architecture. The Math & Science Center by Voith & Mactavish Architects LLP combines neo-Georgian wood facades with glazed corridors that serve as passive solar collectors.

Also targeting LEED Gold certification, the 24,000-square-foot (2,200-square-meter) facility includes labs, classrooms, offices, and a freestanding greenhouse. Several sustainable features were implemented conspicuously to serve as teaching tools: a solar hot-water system, photovoltaic array, rainwater collection tank, no-flush urinals, and a partial green roof.

With large windows delivering light from at least two directions into every educational space and office, the design maximizes daylighting and views to improve both energy efficiency and the learning environment. Materials range from carpets and ceilings of wool fiber to recycled-glass tiles and FSC-certified woods.

Restoring a Capitol

The recent restoration of the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, a stone-clad concrete structure built between 1912 and 1916 near a geologic fault, included the challenge of seismically upgrading the building to prevent major damage from earthquakes of up to 7.4 magnitude.

The solution, undertaken jointly by MJSA Architecture, VCBO Architecture, and Schooley Caldwell Associates, was to completely replace the foundation and install a base-isolation system. The system includes 265 large base isolators made of steel and rubber with an energy-dissipating lead core, allowing the building to move up to 24 inches (61 centimeters) in any direction.

The project also included a full building restoration inside and out. The exterior terra cotta and stone were repaired and replaced, and reinforced for seismic stability. Interior elements were restored or recreated, including the rotunda floorlight and over 8,000 square feet (740 square meters) of historic patterned glazing in laylights.

Replacing and updating building systems with minimal visual impact proved challenging. In many areas, new mechanical systems run through unused historic chases flanking columns at the exterior walls, and new data systems in the house and senate chambers travel through an underfloor plenum created without changing the floor elevation.

Transforming a Dairy

Urban Design Associates adapted a collection of historic agricultural buildings in Warm Springs, Virginia, to create the Old Dairy Community Center for the Homestead Preserve residential development. Built in the 1920s in colonial revival and craftsman styles, the complex was rehabilitated in compliance with state and national preservation standards.

The main barn, which originally stored feed and hay, now houses community offices arranged in new "stalls" on the ground floor. The two silos were fully stabilized to provide exhibit and conference space. A stair rises through them to the barn loft, now a gathering and performance space defined by its restored open truss framework.

Other buildings formerly used for milking, bottling, and ham-curing contain a general store, fitness center and spa, meeting rooms, and a teen game space. Most stately is the milking barn, with its beaded board ceilings and preserved paneled walls.

The community center is the signature civic structure in the development master plan, also designed by UDA, which specifies preservation for 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) of an 11,000-acre (4,500-hectare) valley in the Allegheny Highlands of Virginia, focusing new development in selected areas.

Victorian Multifamily

Victoria Commons at Sherwood Place is a small multifamily development just north of the Greenwich Avenue Historic District in Greenwich, Connecticut. Gardiner Larson Homes designed the five-unit townhouse project in Victorian and post-Victorian styles to fit into a neighborhood of modest single-family homes built in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Two of three existing buildings were preserved and rehabilitated, and their foundations rebuilt beneath them. While maintaining those buildings' appearance as single-family homes, the architects designed additional attached rear dwellings for two of the structures, with exterior massing that suggests separate houses.   >>>

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SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Voith & Mactavish Architects designed the Math & Science Center at the Millbrook School in Millbrook, New York. Photo: Jeffrey Totaro Extra Large Image The names of noted mathematicians and scientists adorn the interiors of the Millbrook Math & Science Center. Photo: Jeffrey Totaro Extra Large Image Three firms undertook a massive seismic retrofit and restoration of the Utah State Capitol (1912) in Salt Lake City. Photo: Michael Dunn Extra Large Image At the Utah State Capitol, interior details of the senate chambers were restored. Photo: Michael Dunn Extra Large Image The historic Homestead Dairy Barns in Warm Springs, Virginia, were converted into a community center by Urban Design Associates. Photo: Courtesy Urban Design Associates Extra Large Image The upper floor of a barn at the Old Dairy Community Center serves as a multipurpose event space. Photo: Courtesy Urban Design Associates Extra Large Image The forms of the Caliza Pool in the New Urbanist development of Alys Beach, Florida, were inspired by Greek and Roman precedents. Photo: Courtesy Khoury & Vogt Architects Caliza Pool by Khoury & Vogt Architects includes a rooftop patio and other areas for sunbathers. Photo: Courtesy Khoury & Vogt Architects Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.