As part of its 2016 Housing Awards program, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) named five recipients in the Multifamily Housing and Specialized Housing categories. The program also honored five projects in the One/Two Family Custom Housing category.
The jury for the AIA Housing Awards was comprised of Jamie Blosser, AIA (Chair), Atkin Olshin Schade Architects; Ariella Cohen, Editor-in-Chief, Next City; Kevin Harris, FAIA, Kevin Harris Architect; David Lee, FAIA, Stull and Lee, Inc.; and Suman Sorg, FAIA, Sorg & Associates, P.C.
Here's a look at the winners in the Multifamily and Specialized Housing sectors:
Multifamily
1180 Fourth Street | San Francisco | Architect: Mithun | Solomon (initiated as WRT/Solomon E.T.C.) | Associate Design Architect: Kennerly Architecture & Planning
Photo: Bruce Damonte/Mithun
Completed in 2014, the mixed use1180 Fourth Streetcomplex contains 150 low-income and formerly homeless households. It sits on a 1.4-acre site at the entrance of San Francisco’s Mission Bay South neighborhood. Mithun designed the building to bring residents together with common rooms, community gardens, and a daycare center. The layout includes 10,000 sf of commercial space.Jury member comment: “San Francisco sorely needs affordable housing, and this is a perfect location re: transit and accessibility.”
Cloverdale749 | Los Angeles | Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects
Photo: Lawrence Anderson/LOHA
Decks, windows, patios, and walkway placements allowed Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects (LOHA) to merge private and public space in theCloverdale749. The 10,500-sf building was completed in 2014. Passively sustainable elements in the exterior white form cladding reduces the solar heat load on the building and makes it easier to cool.Jury member comment: “Very well thought out, detailed, and elegant resolution from a simple, rather banal ships container reference.”
Specialized Housing
Commonwealth Honors College, University of Massachusetts, Amherst | Amherst, Mass. | William Rawn Associates, Architects
Photo: Robert Benson Photography/William Rawn Associates, Architects
The 500,000-sf Commonwealth Honors College Community has seven new buildings and added 1,500 total beds in single-rooms, double-rooms, suites, and apartments. The buildings are situated around hillside courtyards. Students that live there can socialize in open outdoor quads. The $192 million LEED Silver project also has classrooms, offices, and a 24-hour cafe. Jury member comment: “They spent so much time on careful spaces for social engagement.”
Homeless Veterans Transitional Housing, VA Campus | Los Angeles | Leo A Daly
Photo: Lawrence Anderson/Leo A Daly
Architecture firm Leo A Daly took a long-vacant building on VA’s West Los Angeles medical campus and repurposed it into a home for 65 homeless veterans. The three-level complex has 45 single apartments, 10 double apartments, a kitchen, fitness room, and communal sitting areas. One wing has access to a “serenity garden.” The renovations to the 51,000-sfBuilding 209 cost $20 million and took two years to finish (it was completed in 2015).Jury member comment: “Spaces, landscaping, and rooms afford a believable sense of importance of and gratitude towards the residents."
Whitetail Woods Regional Park Camper Cabins | Farmington, Minn. | HGA
Camper cabins at Whitetail Woods Regional Park. Photo: Paul Crosby & Peter VonDeLinde/HGA
Threecamper cabinsare built into the crest of a hill at Whitetail Woods Regional Park in Minnesota. Even with only 227 sf, the cabins have two full-size bunk beds, dining and sitting areas, a sleeper sofa, and floor-to-ceiling glass doors. The cabins forgo mechanical cooling because they receive enough shade from the surrounding trees. Each cabin has a 80-sf deck made of red cedar glulam chassis, cedar and pine framing, and red cedar cladding.Jury member comment: “The light footprint is lovely and the low impact on the environment is wonderful.”
Related Stories
| Nov 3, 2014
Novel 'self-climbing' elevator operates during construction of high-rise buildings
The JumpLift system from KONE uses a mobile machine room that moves upward as the construction progresses, speeding construction of tall towers.
| Nov 3, 2014
Cairo's ultra-green mixed-use development will be topped with flowing solar canopy
The solar canopy will shade green rooftop terraces and sky villas atop the nine-story structure.
| Oct 31, 2014
Dubai plans world’s next tallest towers
Emaar Properties has unveiled plans for a new project containing two towers that will top the charts in height, making them the world’s tallest towers once completed.
| Oct 29, 2014
Better guidance for appraising green buildings is steadily emerging
The Appraisal Foundation is striving to improve appraisers’ understanding of green valuation.
| Oct 27, 2014
Studio Gang Architects designs residential tower with exoskeleton-like exterior for Miami
Jeanne Gang's design reinvents the Florida room with shaded, asymmetrical balconies.
| Oct 21, 2014
Passive House concept gains momentum in apartment design
Passive House, an ultra-efficient building standard that originated in Germany, has been used for single-family homes since its inception in 1990. Only recently has the concept made its way into the U.S. commercial buildings market.
| Oct 21, 2014
Perkins Eastman white paper explores state of the senior living industry in the Carolinas
Among the experts interviewed for the white paper, there was a general consensus that the model for continuing-care retirement communities is changing, driven by both the changing consumers and more prevalent global interest on the effects of aging.
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 15, 2014
Final touches make 432 Park Avenue tower second tallest in New York City
Concrete has been poured for the final floors of the residential high-rise at 432 Park Avenue in New York City, making it the city’s second-tallest building and the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere.
