GREEN TOP TEN - OFFICE BUILDINGS When Perkins + Will recently sought to move its Atlanta offices, the firm wanted the new facility to serve as a case study for sustainable design. So, the multidisciplinary design firm purchased a 1986 office building down the street, retained as much of the structure as possible, and improved the energy-using systems. The renovated six-story, 79,000-square-foot (7,300-square-meter) building at 1315 Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta meets the 2030 Challenge and recently earned LEED Platinum certification. — Published 2012.0502
	AIA EDUCATION DESIGN AWARDS When Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music set about expanding its midtown Toronto campus, a careful balancing act was required. The project combined construction of the new Telus Centre for Performance and Learning with the progressive restoration of historic McMaster Hall. The conservatory also sought to energize a new cultural district for the city in conjunction with major cultural facilities nearby, such as the Royal Ontario Museum and Gardiner Museum. — Published 2011.1116
	LEED FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS The Empire State Building made headlines recently for achieving LEED Gold certification following a major green retrofit project that will reduce the skyscraper's energy consumption by more than 38 percent. The building's electric chiller plant was rebuilt, electric meters were installed at the tenant level, and all 6,514 window units were removed, refurbished to improve their energy efficiency, and reinstalled. — Published 2011.1012
	AIA MICHIGAN AWARDS 2010 The Richmond Center for Visual Arts in Kalamazoo is striking, with building forms tied to its arts hub functions. Copper cladding, curving in two dimensions, wraps the lobby and front exhibit areas, setting off a large glazed facade section that allows natural light deep into the space. The lightness of the glass and copper, and of zinc that wraps the lecture areas, contrasts with the visual weight of the precast concrete panels cladding the rest of the building. — Published 2010.0811
	NEW SAN FRANCISCO ARCHITECTURE SFMOMA commissioned a new sculpture garden for the top of its parking structure, with provisions to connect to the main San Francisco Museum of Modern Art building — a late-20th-century classic that prefigured the wave of museums constructed following the Guggenheim Bilbao in 1997. Jensen & Macy Architects conceived of the garden, which was completed by successor firm Jensen Architects, as a gallery without a ceiling. — Published 2010.0609
	CHRISTMAN BUILDING For the new Christman Company headquarters in downtown Lansing, Michigan, SmithGroup set out to design modern, high-end offices within a historic building. What resulted, somewhat surprisingly, was a sustainable exemplar. Christman, a Lansing-based construction company, had purchased a 1928 building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and set a modest goal for sustainable renovation: basic certification under LEED for Core & Shell. — Published 2009.1216
	SAN FRANCISCO AIA AWARDS 2008 With 40 different awards given by the San Francisco chapter of the AIA, and only a few repeat winners among them, there were plenty of happy architects by the Bay this year. Pritzker Prize-winner Thom Mayne and his Santa Monica firm, Morphosis, received one of four honor awards for excellence in architecture. Morphosis shared the award for the San Francisco Federal Building with the local office of SmithGroup. — Published 2008.0528
	LIVABLE BUILDINGS AWARDS The inaugural Livable Buildings Awards spotlight buildings that excel not only in design and resource efficiency, but also in user satisfaction. Initiated in 2007 by the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) at the University of California, Berkeley, the awards program recognizes buildings that have been evaluated using CBE's Occupant Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Survey and received one of the topmost scores. — Published 2008.0312
	MICHIGAN AIA AWARDS In May 2006, in its annual awards program, the Michigan Chapter of the American Institute of Architects cited sixteen projects for design excellence and creativity. Many of these fall, coincidentally, into pairs of similar building types, inviting design comparisons. — Published 2006.0816
	150 YEARS OF SMITHGROUP The Detroit-based SmithGroup turns 150 this year, making it the oldest architecture firm in the United States. It is also the country's fifth largest, according to a 2002 report from Building Design & Construction. A look back at past successes and recent innovations — such as in the McNamara Terminal and Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters — and a look ahead to projects still on the boards demonstrate that the SmithGroup continues to reinvent itself. — Published 2003.0806

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