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Michigan AIA Awards 2009 | |
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Buildings and the Climate Bill | |
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AIA Housing Awards 2009 | |
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American Landscape Awards 2009 | |
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AIA Convention 2009 | |
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Michigan AIA Awards 2009 Other sustainable features include an onsite stormwater management system and a rain garden. "This project shows a great sensitivity towards the timeless hallmarks of great design: space, materiality, lighting, form," lauded the awards jury. "The detailing is excellent; inventive design combined with rigorous execution." Rochester Church The new sanctuary at the First Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) in Rochester, Michigan, allows the congregation to be no further than 40 feet (12 meters) from the communion table and chancel. Daylight enters the relatively intimate 375-seat space through high clerestories and other glazing. Designed by Constantine George Pappas AIA Architecture/ Planning, the church expansion includes a sanctuary and associated lower-level community spaces — 14,000 square feet (1,300 square meters) of space divided between two floors. The main box is divided into three tiers. One tier represents the support area and seating of the church, and another the chancel (religious activity area). The third tier allows northern light into the worship space from above the pipe organ platform. The exterior of the new wing subtly expresses the program inside. Horizontal lapboard siding marks the raised tier of the sanctuary, while vertical siding clads the protruding pipe organ platform, intended to signify the pipe organ's vertical nature. Two colors of masonry represent the boundaries of the spaces inside, and a 57-foot- (17-meter-) high steel cross rises from the chancel through the roof. Lansing College Center For Lansing Community College, SHW Group designed the new University Center to serve as a satellite facility for the six four-year institutions that partner with the community college to expand access to advanced degrees. Sited adjacent to a historic Carnegie Library on the edge of the urban campus, the center serves as both a literal and figurative gateway. The client requested a sustainable building that would be iconic and stand out among very strong architectural styles and large-scale buildings. The architects chose simple forms and scales for contrast. Glass encloses the first floor and connecting atrium, while brick on the upper floors adds a sense of solidity. Detailing subtly relates the building to its context: stone banding on a concrete cantilever refers to the Carnegie Library, and copper detailing refers to the nearby State Capitol. Landscape on the ground plane softens the transition from the urban surroundings to the campus. The new center and the reused Carnegie Library contain space for faculty and recruiting programs, as well as a variety of flexible classrooms designed to accommodate future changes in partnerships and degree offerings. Royal Oak Lofts McIntosh Poris Associates transformed a lumber warehouse in Royal Oak into the Lofts at 400 Parent Avenue. The project converted the 40-year-old, 9,400-square-foot (870-square-meter) commercial building into a 14,000-square-foot (1,300-square-meter) structure containing eight two-level residential units with attached garages. Due to the lack of windows in the existing masonry-block exterior facade, the front wall was articulated with doors, windows, and canopies. Inside, industrial elements include 21-foot- (6.4-meter-) high ceilings; open, flexible spaces; and exposed duct work, metal-roof trusses, and cement flooring on the ground level. To confer warmth, orange-colored wooden box-bay windows were added on the second level. The AIA Michigan awards jury praised the adaptive reuse: "The beauty of the finished product relies on the simple use of materials; nothing over-done, nothing gratuitous." The units feature private front entries, skylights, metal railings, south window walls that bathe the open living and dining spaces with daylight, exposed-wood framing over the kitchen, and a mezzanine level with wood flooring. To ensure privacy, the master bedroom and bathroom are located toward the front of each unit's second floor, away from the single-family homes to the rear of the site. Compuware in Detroit The Compuware World Headquarters in Detroit, designed by Rossetti, received the AIA Michigan "steel award." Compuware moved 3,000 employees from multiple suburban sites to the new one million-square-foot (93,000-square-mter) facility in downtown Detroit in 2003. The design balances monumentality and security with penetrability and connections to the urban public realm. The 15-story structure rises from a 40-foot- (12-meter-) high base of retail and amenity uses. Its envelope maximizes all perimeter lot lines; materials include Mankato stone, glazing, and aluminum. A soaring 15-story atrium was conceived of as an extension of the public park across the street, with a reflecting pool and bamboo trees. The jury commented, "The use of architectural cross bracing and steel detailing in the lobby and, to a lesser extent, in the exterior facades is a nod to Detroit's past, present and future relationship to the steel industry." House in Sawyer Allegretti Architects received AIA Michigan's 25-year award for the Allegretti Residence in Sawyer, Michigan, now owned by Fred and Kay Eck. The jury recognized the house as an early example of sustainable building: "designed with nature, a pre-LEED pacesetter, imbedded in a dune and invested with southeast exposure. An organic sustainable home for the eons." >>> Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...
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