An adaptive reuse to create LEED Platinum offices in Georgia, an Ohio park that honors veterans, and a grand national plaza are among the seven projects named winners of the 2013 Great Places Awards. The Environmental Design and Research Association recognize professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design, with special attention paid to the relationship between physical form and human activity or experience.
2013 Place Design Award Recipients
1315 Peachtree Street, Atlanta
Perkins + Will
This LEED Platinum project transformed a 1986 office structure into a "living laboratory" and educational tool for sustainable design. Rigorous research was conducted in pre- and post-occupancy evaluations.
Dublin Grounds of Remembrance
PLANT Architect Inc.
Located in Dublin, Ohio, this one-acre park honors the service of veterans and celebrates the city's heritage. The project examined how architecture can be used to "frame, reveal, and engage the landscape while connecting people to the site and navigating their experience of place." Designers chose not to provide a traditional monument, instead promoting the acts of walking and social gathering.
Place Planning Award Recipients
Northerly Island Park Framework Plan
SmithGroupJJR and Studio Gang Architects
This plan, for an island linked to Chicago's existing lakefront Museum Campus, extends green and sustainable design principles to the waterfont in an ecologically driven plan. The framework establishes zones ranging from urban/active to natural/passive, and includes woodland and waterfront ecology.
Unified Ground: National Mall Competition, Union Square
Gustafson Guthrie Nichol
This plan overlays and enriches the Union Square plaza in the nation's capital with spaces for informal activities. New features and textures respond to the underlying natural landform, daily patterns of movement, and the diverse needs and desires of the users. The plan extends the formal Mall axis to Union Square, including a pool, plaza, and additional pathways.
Place Research Award Recipient
Pop Up City: Temporary Use Strategies for a Sinking City
Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
Pop Up City is an action-based research program that implements temporary projects as a means of urban reinvention. The research is part of the graduate architecture curriculum at Kent State University, encompassing design-build exercises that culminate in deployment and assessment of temporary projects. (The photo is of Hipp Deck, an outdoor performance venue temporarily created at a parking deck that was once the site of the city's famous Hippodrome Theater.)
Place Book Award Recipient
"Urban Composition," by Mark Childs
This book, which addresses designers but also serves as a teaching tool for urban design, discusses how architects, landscape architects, civil engineers, public artists, city council members, and other participants can caollaborate to create environmentally sound, socially resilient, and "soul enlivening" settlements.
Placemaking Award: Providence
WaterFire Providence
WaterFire Providence, a nonprofit arts organizaton, manages an evolving public art installation of music, floating fires, art, and dance along three rivers in downtown Providence. The project continually changes in response to citizen participation and ongoing expansion of the river park system.
Jurors for the 2013 Great Places Awards:
- Julian Bonder, Principal, Wodiczko + Bonder
- Gayle Epp, Partner, EJP Consulting
- Valerie Fletcher, Executive Director, Institute for Human Centered Design
- Peter M. Hourihan, LEED®AP, Principal & Director of Research, Cannon Design
- Mikyoung Kim, Principal & Design Director, Mikyoung Kim Design.
Related Stories
| Mar 21, 2012
Clary, Hendrickson named regional directors for HDR Architecture
New directors will be responsible for expanding and strengthening the firm throughout the central region.
| Mar 20, 2012
FMI releases 2012 first quarter construction outlook
The last time construction put in place was at this level was 2000-2001.
| Mar 20, 2012
Ceco Building Systems names Romans marketing director
Romans joins Ceco Building Systems with over 15 years in marketing and customer service.
| Mar 20, 2012
UT Arlington launches David Dillon Center for Texas Architecture
Symposium about Texas architecture planned for April.
| Mar 20, 2012
Stanford’s Knight Management Center Awarded LEED Platinum
The 360,000-sf facility underscores what is taught in many of the school’s electives such as Environmental Entrepreneurship and Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers, as well as in core classes covering sustainability across the functions of business.
| Mar 20, 2012
New office designs at San Diego’s Sunroad Corporate Center
Traditional office space being transformed into a modern work environment, complete with private offices, high-tech conference rooms, a break room, and an art gallery, as well as standard facilities and amenities.
| Mar 19, 2012
Obama’s positioned to out-regulate Bush in second term
Proposed ozone rule would cost $19 billion to $90 billion in 2020, according to the White House.
| Mar 19, 2012
Skanska promotes Saunders to VP/GM of Bayshore Concrete Products
During his more than 13 years with Bayshore, Saunders has provided products for Victory Bridge in New Jersey, Route 52 Causeway in Ocean City, N.J., and for numerous piers at Naval Station Norfolk and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
| Mar 19, 2012
Smith Carter joins forces with Genivar
Smith Carter has a workforce of some 190 employees and designs complex buildings in challenging environments.
| Mar 19, 2012
HKS Selected for Baylor Medical Center at Waxahachie
Baylor Medical Center at Waxahachiewill incorporate advanced technology including telemedicine, digital imaging, remote patient monitoring, electronic medical records and computer patient records.