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.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Nation's first multi-story green industrial facility opens in Brooklyn
The $25 million Perry Avenue Building at Brooklyn Navy Yard is the nation's first multi-level green industrial facility and the first building in New York City to incorporate building-mounted wind turbines. The wind turbines, along with rooftop solar panels, will provide electricity for the building's lobby and common areas.
| Aug 11, 2010
AAMA leads development of BIM standard for fenestration products
The American Architectural Manufacturers Association’s newly formed BIM Task Group met during the AAMA National Fall Conference to discuss the need for an BIM standard for nonresidential fenestration products.
| Aug 11, 2010
HGA creates greener outlook with print systems from Océ
Since its founding in 1953, HGA Architects and Engineers (HGA), a full service integrated architectural and engineering firm, has operated with an unwavering belief that good design is sustainable. HGA takes its environmental responsibility seriously, both in the buildings the firm designs, its internal operations and its vendor partnerships. Therefore, when HGA decided to investigate new options for its printing and scanning needs, the firm wanted a vendor who shared its values.
| Aug 11, 2010
Report: Building codes and regulations impede progress toward uber-green buildings
The enthusiasm for super green Living Buildings continues unabated, but a key stumbling block to the growth of this highest level of green building performance is an existing set of codes and regulations. A new report by the Cascadia Region Green Building Council entitled "Code, Regulatory and Systemic Barriers Affecting Living Building Projects" presents a case for fundamental reassessment of building codes.
| Aug 11, 2010
PSA-Dewberry designing new Baltimore youth detention center
A consulting team led by PSA-Dewberry has been selected by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to design the new Baltimore Youth Detention Center in downtown Baltimore, Md. The $80-million facility will accommodate youths who have been criminally charged as adults, and will enable the state to increase its educational, counseling, and healthcare services for youth offenders.
| Aug 11, 2010
Lincoln High School
Tacoma, Wash.
Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Wash., was built in 1913 and spent nearly a century morphing into a patchwork of outdated and confusing additions. A few years ago, the Tacoma School District picked Lincoln High School, dubbed “Old Main,” to be the first high school in the district to be part of its newly launched Small Learning Communities program.
| Aug 11, 2010
CampusBrands Inc., NYLO Hotels team to launch student housing franchise brand
Which would you choose: the cramped quarters, thin mattresses, and crowded communal bathrooms of dormitory life or a new type of student housing with comfortable couches, a game room, fitness center, Wi-Fi in every room, flat-screen televisions and maybe even a theater?
| Aug 11, 2010
Perkins Eastman awarded Indian School of Business campus
The New York office of international design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman has been commissioned by the Indian School of Business for a 70-acre, 1.5 million-sf new business school campus as part of a 300-acre “Knowledge City” in Chandigarh, Mohali, India. The sustainable campus will accommodate four centers of excellence: healthcare management, public policy, manufacturing/ operations, and physical infrastructure management.
