The AIA Triangle Awards for design excellence offer an annual glimpse into the latest trends in building design in the region. This year’s winning architectural firms were honored at a gala reception and lecture held April 10 at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. AIA Triangle — with 600 members in Wake, Durham, Orange, Lee, Chatham, Franklin, Warren, Vance, Granville and Person counties — is a chapter of the American Institute of Architects, founded in 1857 to promote more humane built environments and to encourage standards of professionalism for architects, largely through its member chapters.
The awards ceremony is the culmination of an extensive process of submission and evaluation of architectural projects defined by category: Built, Un-built Commissioned, Interior, Preservation/Renovation, and Detail. The ceremony includes the presentation of the AIA Triangle Isosceles Award, recognizing individuals, associations or companies outside the profession of architecture who — in collaboration with AIA Triangle members — have made significant contributions to the improvement of the built environment.
Coleman Coker, AIA, of the Building Studio was the event’s keynote speaker. A nationally recognized architect and former director of the Memphis Center for Architecture, Coker was one of four New Orleans and Tulane University-based jurors who evaluated 78 submissions from the AIA Triangle. Other members of the jury were Mona El Khafif, Doug Harmon and Cordula Roser. The submissions were critiqued during two sessions held in New Orleans, where Coleman has recently opened an office to aid in the restoration of the devastated city. “We are honored to have Coleman Coker speak at this year’s Awards ceremony,” said Irvin A. Pearce, AIA, president of AIA Triangle and a principal in Raleigh’s Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee PA. “AIA Triangle is fortunate to have extremely talented firms and individuals,” said Pearce, “and these awards are our way of recognizing design excellence within our community.”
The 2007 AIA Triangle Awards, both Honor and Merit, recognize an array of compelling projects in diverse settings. There are two Un-built Commissioned museums: The Afro-American Cultural Center in metropolitan Charlotte draws inspiration from the Meyers Street School that once served the historically black Brooklyn neighborhood; the other, located in the small city of Whiteville, NC, is dedicated to the history of forestry and is suitably “green,” conceived and executed to perform like a living tree. Still another award-winning project, a newly built private residence located in the South Carolina low country, uses extreme weather-worthy materials and integrates successfully with the fragile coastal environment. There are five Preservation/Renovation award winners, including the painstaking restoration of historic Leazar Hall on the North Carolina State University campus, featuring exterior additions that provide access and connectivity to the campus quad, and the creation of a new outdoor centered living space for a 1972 hexagonal residence in a Raleigh suburban neighborhood. The ingenuity and sophistication of these 10 award-winning projects attest to the creativity of AIA Triangle’s architects.
Honor Award
(Un-built Commissioned)
Charlotte, NC
Afro-American Cultural Center
The Freelon Group in Association with
Neighboring Concepts
Nicknamed the “Jacob’s Ladder School” due to prominent fire escapes, the historically black Meyers Street School was an inspiration to generations of African-American children for whom the school and its fire escapes were symbolic of the importance of education to future success and advancement. Now the memory of the school and its fire escapes lives on in the dramatic escalator and public stair leading to the second level lobby of the un-built 45,940-square-foot Center. Vertical stitching on the exterior’s metal rain screen is reminiscent of quilt patches through which intricate parallel lines and random dots of patterned concrete are visible.
Honor Award
(Built)
Raleigh, NC
Leazar Hall Addition and Renovation,
NCSU College of Design
Cannon Architects
Originally constructed circa 1912 as a dining facility, Leazar Hall, located in the oldest campus precinct, became a maze of office and classroom spaces over the years. The complete interior demolition and renovation of the structure allowed its transformation into a studio/classroom building for the College of Design. The architects reintroduced a cross-axial path between two existing formal porticos, which now intersect at a gallery/review space. Interior spaces were opened up to create studios, a materials lab, seminar rooms, review spaces and offices.
Honor Award
(Built)
Raleigh, NC
Hudson (Formerly Hudson-Belk Department Store)
Clearscapes PA
An important element in the renaissance of downtown Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street, Hudson is a successful mixed-use development featuring residential and commercial uses in a structure that had become a rusted, obsolete eyesore. The addition of two floors to the original box-like building allows for a U-shaped courtyard one level above the street, and a clever 12-foot-wide canopy cantilevered over Fayetteville Street lends visual excitement to the live television studio and retail establishments at street level.
Honor Award
(Preservation/Renovation)
Raleigh, NC
Barker Residence
Vernacular Studio
A large two-story addition to the rear of this modest Five Points shotgun house is scaled to allow the front façade to maintain its historic integrity and relationship to the street and neighboring residences. The home’s entry is now to the side and rear of the property through a courtyard and glass connector linking the old and new portions of the house. The new addition accommodates an open-space with living room, dining room and kitchen, while the original structure houses guest rooms and an office. The master suite and nursery occupy the second floor of the new addition.
Merit Award
(Un-built Commissioned)
Whiteville, NC
North Carolina Museum of Forestry
Cherry Huffman Architects
This 56,670-square-foot addition to the existing museum, a former bank building in downtown Whiteville, is conceived as providing the visitor “a long walk in the woods.” Entered through a Great Hall of Trees, the museum experience reflects the living systems of a tree through interactive exhibits. A large canopy structure provides shading and protection, and the north-south orientation allows maximum use of photovoltaic panels to collect sunlight and convert it to electricity. The museum addition was designed to be a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) project.
Merit Award
(Un-built Commissioned)
Raleigh, NC
Wake Technical Community College Northern Wake Campus Phase 1B
Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee PA
The master plan for the new Wake Tech campus’ 125-acre site in Northeast Raleigh calls for an equal balance between architecture and landscape. Parking for the entirely commuter student body is around the perimeter of the campus, allowing for pedestrian pathways that intersect open space, and lush wetlands and meadows that form naturalistic college quadrangles. The Phase 1B Building acts as a threshold to the campus. Its large framed opening defines the entry and allows for pedestrian movement from the parking areas to the meadow and wetlands.
Merit Award
(Built)
Charleston, SC
Low Country Residence
Frank Harmon Architect
Combining strength and beauty, this contemporary house is constructed largely of steel and laminated Southern yellow pine framing resting on concrete footings. The expansive roof, a simple plane, shelters the house from low country downpours and collects rainwater in cisterns for irrigation. The view of the creek, a plus for the birdwatcher and nature loving client, is through hinged hand-fabricated, perforated metal screens that can be easily lifted by hand and arranged to shade the house in the spring and fall. When closed, they create a shaded porch.
Merit Award
(Built)
Apex, NC
St. Mary Magdalene Catholic School — Phase 2
Roger H. Clark, FAIA, and Cannon Architects
This two-story 38,000-square-foot building completes Phase 2 of the master plan for a parish Catholic School serving pre-kindergarten through 8th grade students. The building houses the school’s gymnasium, a cafeteria, a small chapel, and rooms for the school band and art programs. It forms a courtyard with the existing classroom wing and works in concert with the steep site to provide an amphitheatre and a sloping outdoor lawn area for overflow groups and other activities. The building’s lobby, an informal gathering place with a monumental stair, connects the upper and lower public entrances and affords views through the building. Large light towers extend above the roofline to delineate both the lobby and the 50-seat chapel.
Merit Award
(Preservation/Renovation)
Raleigh, NC
Collins Residence
Tonic Design, PC
The project integrated the existing 1972 hexagon plan cabin, sited on a peninsula in a neighborhood lake, with a new irregular L addition. The two-story addition houses studio and living space and a two-car garage. The addition provides a structural element for an interior courtyard shared by the new and old portions of the residence. The courtyard contrasts well with the outward-facing view of the lake. By using simple, inexpensive materials — concrete block for the foundation, wood framing for large openings, plywood shear walls for structure and standing seamed sheet galvalume roofing — the addition and remodeling cost $125 per square foot.
Merit Award
(Built and Interior)
Garner, NC
News & Observer Inserting
Facility Renovation
KlingStubbins
This new workspace environment, located in an existing warehouse in a fringe industrial area, has been renovated to create new employee office and amenity space, including conference areas, a break room, lavatories and lockers. Interlocking planes of primary colors — red for office space, yellow for amenity space — are formed of corrugated metal and cement board panels. The majority of the building’s high-bay industrial interior houses the bright blue inserting machines. A metal stair and alternating tread ladder located at the rear of the office and amenity space provides access to the roof for maintenance.
2007 AIA Triangle Isosceles Award:
Jim Goodmon, president and CEO of Capitol Broadcasting Company
Jim Goodmon, known for his leadership in communication and broadcast technology, heads a privately held company, which owns and operates more than a dozen news and media organizations throughout North Carolina. WRAL-TV in Raleigh broadcast the first digital and high definition signals in the country and was the first to convert its local news operation to HD. One of his most impressive projects is spearheading and underwriting much of the support to rehabilitate the historic American Tobacco Campus into a multi-faceted, mixed-use development in downtown Durham. Carrboro-based architect Phil Kiester, Tise-Kiester Architects PA, nominated Goodmon for the 2007 AIA Isosceles Award and credits the American Tobacco Campus project with creating the ground swell that was required to propel the Durham Renaissance underway. “It was complex and required a true commitment, but Jim was up to the challenge,” says Kiester. “He put his resources to work for the betterment of the built environment and for the history of Durham.”