The People's Choice Award for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) I Look Up Film Challenge is ARCH 335: Rebuilding Medcamps, which was also the selection for the juried portion of the film challenge. Brad Deal, Robert Brooks and Michael Tolar submitted the short film, which garnered 46,339 votes. It explores the important work of the Design Build Studios of Louisiana Tech University to provide Medcamps of Louisiana, a non-profit organization that offers free summer camp to children with chronic illnesses and disabilities. The camps provide spaces for gathering, learning, and adventure.
The second place film, Timeless Innovation, received 40,701 votes. This film, submitted by Minji Kim, Seth F. Johnson, and Shawn Griffin, looks at the importance of General James Oglethorpe’s original design of Savannah, Ga., and how it is blending with modern elements. Savannah is considered the first planned city in the U.S. and largely retains the original town plan Oglethorpe developed.
Brandon Brown submitted the third place film, Renewal: The Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility. This film received 11,062 votes and focuses on the largest commingled recycling facility in the U.S. The Sims Municipal Recycling facility, designed by Selldorf Architects, not only employs sustainable design concepts, but it serves as an educational facility to groups interested in learning more about how recycling works.
The films placing four through 10 are listed below.
4. Scale – In Austin, Texas, affordability and accessibility are an essential component to a thriving entrepreneurial environment. By rethinking the office typology to better accommodate a start-up friendly landscape, architects are stimulating innovation.
5. A Home – Tells the story of how an ambitious project transformed the lives of the residents of East Harlem, by creating Harlem RBI, a multi-purpose building that includes Harlem RBI's offices, DREAM Charter School, a new community center, 89 affordable housing units, and a beautiful public park.
6. HOME – The Dr. Davis Senior Center in the Bayview neighborhood outside of San Francisco provides housing for low-income seniors, but more importantly provides a thriving community for its residents.
7. Precipitating Change – By integrating an air-to-water technology called 'Skysource', up to 300 gallons of water can be produced per day. The water is offered free to the public in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, as well as to Community Healing Gardens.
8. Urban Frontier House – High Plains Architects had a vision to create a comfortable, affordable, and low maintenance house that is also almost entirely self-sustaining.
9. Intervention Whispers – The renovation of a series of adjacent modest historic structures in downtown San Antonio has had a large cultural community impact. Architects discuss their process and challenges, such as a lack of interior historical documentation, in this adaptive reuse.
10. ALBIZIA – An invasive tree specimen in the state of Hawaii that has caused damage to both the built and natural environment is now being repurposed as a building material to address housing for the homeless.
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2009 Judging Panel
A Matthew H. Johnson, PE Associate Principal Simpson Gumpertz & HegerWaltham, Mass. B K. Nam Shiu, SE, PEVP Walker Restoration Consultants Elgin, Ill. C David P. Callan, PE, CEM, LEED APSVPEnvironmental Systems DesignChicago D Ken Osmun, PA, DBIA, LEED AP Group President, ConstructionWight & Company Darien, Ill.
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29 Great Solutions
1. Riverwalk Transforms Chicago's Second Waterfront Chicago has long enjoyed a beautiful waterfront along Lake Michigan, but the Windy City's second waterfront along the Chicago River was often ignored and mostly neglected. Thanks to a $22 million rehab by local architect Carol Ross Barney and her associate John Fried, a 1.
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High-Performance Modular Classrooms Hit the Market
Over a five-day stretch last December, students at the Carroll School in Lincoln, Mass., witnessed the installation of a modular classroom building like no other. The new 950-sf structure, which will serve as the school's tutoring offices for the next few years, is loaded with sustainable features like sun-tunnel skylights, doubled-insulated low-e glazing, a cool roof, light shelves, bamboo tri...
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Inspiring Offices: Office Design That Drives Creativity
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Special Recognition: Pioneering Efforts Continue Trade School Legacy
Worcester, Mass., is the birthplace of vocational education, beginning with the pioneering efforts of Milton P. Higgins, who opened the Worcester Trade School in 1908. The school's original facility served this central Massachusetts community for nearly 100 years until its state-of-the-art replacement opened in 2006 as the 1,500-student Worchester Technical High School.
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Silver Award: Palmer House Hilton Hotel & Shops Chicago, Ill.
Chicago's Palmer House Hilton holds the record for the longest continuously operated hotel in North America. It was originally built in 1871 by Potter Palmer, one of America's first millionaire developers. When it was rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire it became the first hotel in the U.S. to put a telephone in every room.
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BIM school, green school: California's newest high-performance school
Nestled deep in the Napa Valley, the city of American Canyon is one of a number of new communities in Northern California that have experienced tremendous growth in the last five years. Located 42 miles northeast of San Francisco, American Canyon had a population of just over 9,000 in 2000; by 2008, that figure stood at 15,276, with 28% of the population under age 18.
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Platinum Award: The Handmade Building
When Milwaukee's City Hall was completed in 1896, it was, at 394 feet in height, the third-tallest structure in the United States. Designed by Henry C. Koch, it was a statement of civic pride and a monument to Milwaukee's German heritage. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2005.
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Gulf Coast Hotel's Stormy Road to Recovery
After his initial tour of the dilapidated 1850s-era Battle House Hotel, Ron Blount, construction manager with Retirement Systems of Alabama, said to his boss: “You need a priest more than you need a contractor.” Those words were more prescient to RSA's restoration of the historic Mobile landmark than he could have known at the time.
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Great Solutions: Products
14. Mod Pod A Nod to Flex Biz Designed by the British firm Tate + Hindle, the OfficePOD is a flexible office space that can be installed, well, just about anywhere, indoors or out. The self-contained modular units measure about seven feet square and are designed to serve as dedicated space for employees who work from home or other remote locations.
