AIA National Design Awards

8 House, Copenhagen — The Standard, New York — 41 Cooper Square, New York | Poetry Foundation, Chicago — Pittman-Dowell House, La Crescenta | Gates Center for Computer Science, Pittsburgh — Rhode Island Hall, Providence — Ruth Lilly Visitors Pavilion, Indianapolis | Integral House, Toronto — Milton Miller House, Owings Mills — And More...

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The building called the Integral House in Toronto, Ontario, is both a residence and a public space. The owner, mathematician James Stewart — an emeritus professor, author of popular calculus textbooks, and accomplished violinist — approached Shim-Sutcliffe Architects with his wish for a curvilinear, spatially complex home that contained its own a concert hall.

The resulting 18,000-square-foot (1,700-square-meter) house, which reportedly cost around $30 million (Canadian dollars), perches at the edge of a ravine, its many rooms distributed across five levels. In addition to five bedrooms, the home contains spaces such as an exercise room, an indoor pool, and its showpiece: a double-height performance space that can seat 150 people, with standing room for 50 more. Praised for its acoustics, the hall has already hosted a range of performers, such as the St. Lawrence String Quartet.

From the street, only the building's top two curving stories are visible: the fifth floor, with its skin of greenish-blue etched glass, and the fourth floor, with its clear glass and vertical oak-clad fins. The fins continue to the lower levels, creating rhythmically modulated views out to the wooded ravine beyond. Wood, glass, and concrete dominate the interior, and patterned light enters between the fins. Varied details, such as folded stainless-steel mesh and blue glass shingles, are introduced at the stairs.

The wooden fins shade the building exterior and contribute to the acoustical performance of the concert space. The home also includes a planted roof on the second level, and a ground-source heating and cooling system.

"The relationship of the home to both its musical program and its surrounding environment was superbly articulated," the jury noted.

More than four decades ago, Mr. and Mrs. Milton H. Miller commissioned Fisher Nes Campbell and Partners to design a home for a sloped site in Owings Mills, Maryland. The architects divided the program into two linked pavilions, with the building's second floor at street level. The Miller House was chosen by Architectural Record as one of the 20 "Record Houses" for 1969.

The Miltons recently sold their home to Greg and Lorena Andon with the condition that they would respect its character while retaining the option to improve the visual connectivity between the interior rooms and the home's wooded site.

The Andons enlisted David Jameson Architect for just such a renovation. A truss roof system allowed the removal of several interior walls, providing open-plan living spaces in the 3,000-square-foot (280-square-meter) home. The original interiors contrasted white brick walls with dark wood trim; new walnut casework helps create a connection to the existing elements.

"An excellent example of new work within a significant mid-century modern structure," lauded the jury. "The interventions appear to reinforce the original design concept."

Two of the more experimental honorees in this year's AIA Institute Honor Awards are the Ghost Architectural Laboratory and Lumenhaus.

Located in Upper Kingsburg, Nova Scotia, the Ghost Lab is the research facility of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited. There principal Brian MacKay-Lyons, Hon. FAIA, leads summer design-build internships. The permanent structures that now stand on the site, among the existing historic ruins, are in part products of the design-build curriculum itself.

Lumenhaus is the house that a team from Virginia Tech designed and built as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's 2009 Solar Decathlon. The solar-powered home achieves a positive energy balance partly through a contemporary reinterpretation of the architectural shutter and screen. The "Eclipsis System" is made of two exterior layers: laser-cut stainless-steel shutter screens and aerogel-filled polycarbonate insulation panels.

Interior Architecture

In the interior architecture awards category, seven additional projects were recognized:

The Wright restaurant at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, by Andre Kikoski Architect

David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, New York, New York, by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

Children's Institute, Inc. Otis Booth Campus, Los Angeles, California, by Koning Eizenberg Architecture

Kent Bellows Studio and Center for Visual Arts renovation ("ARTifacts"), Omaha, Nebraska, by Randy Brown Architects

HyundaiCard Air Lounge at Incheon International Airport, Incheon, South Korea, by Gensler

Memory Temple installation at SCI-Arc Gallery, Los Angeles, California, by Patrick Tighe Architecture

Prairie Management Group offices, Northbrook, Illinois, by Goettsch Partners

Regional and Urban Design

One of the honorees in the category of regional and urban design, the Portland (Oregon) Transit Mall Revitalization by ZGF Architects LLP, was previously published in ArchitectureWeek as the recipient of a 2011 ASLA Professional Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

In the 2012 AIA Institute Honor Awards, seven additional projects were recognized in the regional and urban design category:

Fayetteville 2030: Transit City Scenario, Fayetteville, Arkansas, by University of Arkansas Community Design Center

Grangegorman Master Plan, Dublin, Ireland, by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners and DMOD Architects

Jordan Dead Sea Development Zone Master Plan, Amman, Jordan, by Sasaki Associates, Inc.

Master Plan for the Central Delaware, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by Cooper, Robertson & Partners, KieranTimberlake, and Olin, with Kelly/ Maiello Inc. Architects & Planners

Miami Beach City Center Redevelopment Project, Miami Beach, Florida, by Gehry Partners, LLP, West 8, and Hines Interests Limited Partnership

Reinventing the Crescent: Riverfront Development Plan, New Orleans, Louisiana, by Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, with Hargreaves Associates, Chan Krieger Sieniewicz, and TEN Arquitectos

SandRidge Energy Commons, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, by Rogers Marvel Architects

The American Institute of Architects announced the 2012 AIA Institute Honor Awards on January 9, 2012, and will present the awards at the AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in Washington, D.C., May 17 to 19, 2012.

The jury for the 2012 awards, by category:

Architecture: chair Rod Kruse, FAIA, BNIM Architects; Barbara White Bryson, FAIA, Rice University; Annie Chu, AIA, Chu & Gooding Architects; Dima Daimi, Assoc. AIA, Rossetti; Harry J. Hunderman, FAIA, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.; Scott Lindenau, FAIA, Studio B Architects; Kirsten R. Murray, AIA, Olson Kundig Architects; Thomas M. Phifer, FAIA, Thomas Phifer & Partners; and Seth H. Wentz, AIA, LSC Design, Inc.

Interior Architecture: chair Elizabeth Corbin Murphy, FAIA, CMB Architects; Robert Allen, Jr., AIA, Metalhouse; Mark Jensen, AIA, Jensen Architects; David Lenox, AIA, University Architect/ Director of Campus Planning, Stanford University; and Erick S. Ragni, AIA, MaRS Architects.

Regional and Urban Design: chair Bruce Lindsey, AIA, Washington University in St. Louis; Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, AIA, Catherine Seavitt Studio; and Martha Welborne, FAIA, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE The Ghost Architectural Laboratory, in Upper Kingsburg, Nova Scotia, is the research facility of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited. The structures are, in part, products of the design-build internships that Brian MacKay-Lyons leads onsite. Photo: Manuel Schnell Extra Large Image Lumenhaus, the Virginia Tech entry in the U.S. Department of Energy's 2009 Solar Decathlon, has sliding glass walls on its long sides, and a rooftop photovoltaic array that generates electricity on both sides of each silicone panel. Photo: Jim Stroup Extra Large Image

Andre Kikoski Architect designed The Wright, a colorful new restaurant at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, with interior forms that gently echo those of the museum. Photo: © Peter Aaron/ Esto Extra Large Image Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects designed the new David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, a visitor and ticketing facility for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts that is located across Manhattan's Columbus Avenue from the center's main complex of buildings. Photo: © Nic Lehoux Extra Large Image

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