The American Institute of Architects has selected the six recipients of the 2013 Housing Awards. The AIA’s Housing Awards Program, now in its 13th year, was established to recognize the best in housing design and promote the importance of good housing as a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit and a valuable national resource.
The jury for the 2013 Housing Awards includes: Kathleen Dorgan, AIA, Chair, Dorgan Architecture & Planning; John Isch, AIA, RWA Architects, Inc.; R. Thomas Jones, AIA, California Polytechnic State University; Stephen Sharpe, Hon. AIA and Charles L. Travis, AIA, The Housing Studio, P.A.
The jury recognized projects in four award categories: One/Two Family Custom Housing, One/Two Family Production Housing (none selected this year), Multifamily Housing and Special Housing.
Here's a recap of the winners (all images and descriptions courtesy AIA):
Multifamily Living Category
Via Verde - The Green Way; Bronx, New York
Dattner Architects and Grimshaw Architects
This mixed-use complex provides healthy, affordable urban living for low- and middle-income residents of the South Bronx. Built on a former brownfield site, the project comprises three building types: a 20-story tower, a 6- to 13-story midrise duplex apartment component, 2- to 4-story town houses, 222-unit complex includes.
Large windows, typically on two exposures, allow cross-ventilation and provide abundant daylighting. The garden begins as a courtyard on grade and steps up through a series of south-facing roof terraces. The terraces, many of which are accessible to residents, feature a small apple orchard and plots for growing vegetables while also providing storm water control, enhanced insulation, and mitigation of the urban heat island effect. Rainwater is collected and recycled for irrigation.
Specialized Housing Category
West Campus Housing - Phase I; Seattle
Mahlum Architects
Providing housing for 1,650 students in five buildings this project is the first phase of a student housing expansion for the university. The project has created a new walkable, transit-oriented neighborhood. To ensure the project is woven into the fabric of the city, it includes a number of publicly accessible spaces, including a 116-seat restaurant, 7,000-square-foot grocery store, café, conference center, academic support center, health and wellness center, and two retail spaces.
The exterior material palette was kept simple and economical: imperial-sized brick, white vinyl windows, wood, and weathering steel. Interior materials—mostly recycled, with no VOC content—were selected on the basis of reducing the energy required for shipping and manufacture.
One/Two Family Custom Housing Category
Eagle Ridge; Eastsound, Washington
Gary Gladwish Architecture
This project consists of a combined kitchen-dining-living area, study, master suite, art studio, and storage area, with the flexibility to add bedrooms or an apartment. To meet the client’s requirement that the house be highly efficient, it is constructed of structural insulated panels (SIPS). This method allows for a faster construction time, less waste generation, tighter construction, and better insulation. All the windows and doors are designed to surpass energy code requirements, and all of the lighting is either LED or compact fluorescent to reduce energy consumption. The siting and design of the house maximize passive solar benefits to reduce the energy load.
Halls Ridge Knoll Guest House; San Francisco
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
The building is carefully detailed in stone, timber, and glass to respond to the site’s rolling topography, a forest of ancient live oaks and manzanita, and panoramic views of the San Clemente Mountains and Los Padres National Forest beyond. A stone wall anchors the building to the sloping site and screens the house and pool. A simple timber-framed shed roof springs from the stone wall, supporting naturally weathered zinc roofing over cedar-clad volumes. Expansive windows provide natural lighting throughout the house, and a broad overhanging roof provides shade from the intense summer sun. Sliding doors and operable hopper windows throughout the house use the prevailing winds for natural ventilation, while also providing expansive views of the mountain range.
House in the Mountains; Colorado
GLUCK+
Roof planes appear as native mountain meadows, making the structure practically invisible from the road above. These green roofs not only provide a super-insulated envelope but also preserve and highlight the original view from the existing house. Continuous clerestory windows wrap around the interior, screening out the road and revealing a spectacular mountain panorama. This clerestory creates a completely daylit space, with lighting necessary only at night. Solar panels are incorporated in the building façade. A retaining wall, clad in Cor-ten steel and cement board, slices diagonally across the site, capturing one side of the solar courtyard and, on the other, forming a private sunken court adjacent to the main living area.
Lake View Residence; Austin, Texas
Alterstudio Architecture LLP
The 5,900-square-foot house emphasizes views and a dynamic spatial sequence. A rich palette of materials on the interior, including mahogany cabinetry and longleaf pine floors, combines to create a warm environment. Oriented for optimal cross-ventilation and protection from the sun without eschewing the view westward, this project also features geothermal HVAC systems, a photovoltaic array, reflective TPO roofing, cellular foam insulation, tankless water heaters, and FSC-certified and reclaimed woods. The house also takes advantage of the tree canopy to provide additional shading, and carefully placed skylights bring diffused daylight to the interior and help reduce reliance on electric lighting.
Related Stories
| Jan 19, 2011
Extended stay hotel aims to provide comfort of home
Housing development company Campus Apartments broke ground on a new extended stay hotel that will serve the medical and academic facilities in Philadelphia’s University City, including the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The 11,000-sf hotel will operate under Hilton’s Homewood Suites brand, with 136 suites with full kitchens and dining and work areas. A part of the city’s EnergyWorks loan program, the project aims for LEED with a green roof, low-flow fixtures, and onsite stormwater management. Local firms Alesker & Dundon Architects and GC L.F. Driscoll Co. complete the Building Team.
| Jan 19, 2011
New Fort Hood hospital will replace aging medical center
The Army Corps of Engineers selected London-based Balfour Beatty and St. Louis-based McCarthy to provide design-build services for the Fort Hood Replacement Hospital in Texas, a $503 million, 944,000-sf complex partially funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The firm plans to use BIM for the project, which will include outpatient clinics, an ambulance garage, a central utility plant, and three parking structures. Texas firms HKS Architects and Wingler & Sharp will participate as design partners. The project seeks LEED Gold.
| Jan 19, 2011
Museum design integrates Greek history and architecture
Construction is under way in Chicago on the National Hellenic Museum, the nation’s first museum devoted to Greek history and culture. RTKL designed the 40,000-sf limestone and glass building to include such historic references as the covered walkway of classical architecture and the natural wood accents of Byzantine monasteries. The museum will include a research library and oral history center, plus a 3,600-sf rooftop terrace featuring three gardens. The project seeks LEED Silver.
| Jan 19, 2011
Architecture Billings Index jumped more than 2 points in December
On the heels of its highest mark since 2007, the Architecture Billings Index jumped more than two points in December. The American Institute of Architects reported the December ABI score was 54.2, up from a reading of 52.0 the previous month.
| Jan 19, 2011
Large-Scale Concrete Reconstruction Solid Thinking
Driven by both current economic conditions and sustainable building trends, Building Teams are looking more and more to retrofits and reconstruction as the most viable alternative to new construction. In that context, large-scale concrete restoration projects are playing an important role within this growing specialty.
| Jan 10, 2011
Architect Jean Nouvel designs an island near Paris
Abandoned by carmaker Renault almost 20 years ago, Seguin Island in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, is being renewed by architect Jean Nouvel. Plans for the 300,000-square-meter project includes a mix of culture, commerce, urban parks, and gardens, which officials hope will attract both Parisians and tourists.
| Jan 10, 2011
Michael J. Alter, president of The Alter Group: ‘There’s a significant pent-up demand for projects’
Michael J. Alter, president of The Alter Group, a national corporate real estate development firm headquartered in Skokie, Ill., on the growth of urban centers, project financing, and what clients are saying about sustainability.
| Jan 7, 2011
BIM on Target
By using BIM for the design of its new San Clemente, Calif., store, big-box retailer Target has been able to model the entire structural steel package, including joists, in 3D, chopping the timeline for shop drawings from as much as 10 weeks down to an ‘unheard of’ three-and-a-half weeks.
| Jan 7, 2011
How Building Teams Choose Roofing Systems
A roofing survey emailed to a representative sample of BD+C’s subscriber list revealed such key findings as: Respondents named metal (56%) and EPDM (50%) as the roofing systems they (or their firms) employed most in projects. Also, new construction and retrofits were fairly evenly split among respondents’ roofing-related projects over the last couple of years.
