BD+C's 28th Annual Reconstruction Awards

PLATINUM AWARD
The Hinman Research Building at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga.

‘Theater of Imagination’
After a historic renovation, the Hinman Research Building at Georgia Tech transforms from an engineering research laboratory into an oasis for architectural education.

In 1938, P.M. Heffernan, a recent arrival to the faculty of the College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology and its future director, finalized designs for the college’s first freestanding research facility: the Hinman Research Building.

Built to house the newly formed Engineering Experiment Station, Hinman was a living-learning laboratory for engineering students and faculty to conduct research and fabrication experiments that spanned from packaging to radar. An expansive interior space marked with mid-century modern aesthetics proved an invaluable addition to the campus and academic curricula.

By 2001, with the building’s use for industrial fabrication no longer appropriate to its now central location on the campus, the university decided to repurpose Hinman as the locus of the College of Architecture’s graduate and research programs. It took a decade to do so, in the course of which the Building Team, led by local design firm Lord, Aeck & Sargent, preserved the 34,500-sf building’s significant historic features, while adapting it to serve a new function.

More than 70 years later, the revitalized Hinman Building has reshaped its legacy of creative technical education and research and regained its standing as a centerpiece of campus life and culture.

“Even before the rehabilitation, it was my favorite building on campus,” architecture graduate student Nick Kahler said. “The success of the rehabilitation has increased my awareness of the importance of historic preservation and the contingencies involved in respecting the past as well as engaging the future.”

AN UPSIDE-DOWN STRATEGY
In 2008, collaborating architecture firms Lord, Aeck & Sargent and Boston-based Office dA were hired to produce a design for the building, a remnant of mid-20th-century industrial boldness. Steel and concrete mold most of the structure, while a large crane used for heavy-duty engineering experiments spans across the 50-foot-tall barrel-vaulted ceiling.

In 2008, collaborating architecture firms Lord, Aeck & Sargent and Boston-based Office dA were hired to produce a design for the building, a remnant of mid-20th-century industrial boldness. Steel and concrete mold most of the structure, while a large crane used for heavy-duty engineering experiments spans across the 50-foot-tall barrel-vaulted ceiling.

“Deciding to preserve the building was a no-brainer,” said Howard Wertheimer, the university’s Capital Planning and Space Management Director. “It is one of the most sustainable things we can do, and it is important to celebrate and preserve our cultural heritage.”

Upon surveying the space, the Building Team noted that historically significant elements of the building were hung in the domineering high bay space. Working with a budget of just over $9 million, the team decided to use these features to their advantage. Constructing outriggers from which thin rods hang and cradle a tapered floor structure, the structural engineer, Uzun & Case, and the Atlanta office of contractor HC Beck Ltd. turned the crane into a hanging mezzanine.

Click here for a list of Products and Materials used as well as exclusive "before and after" images of the Hinman Research Building.

“The original office areas were small and lacked vitality, and daylight was very limited,” Wertheimer said, noting the original building was retrofitted to meet LEED Gold-standard sustainability. “The renovation provides a technically rich environment flooded with natural light and very conducive to active learning, research, collaboration, and innovation.”

Adding 3,000 sf of usable space, the hanging mezzanine, dubbed “The Hammock” by students, houses graduate-level architecture studios, computer labs, interdisciplinary research labs, high-fidelity simulation and planning labs, offices, galleries, and space for large-scale events.

According to grad student Kahler, who has a prized desk location on the mezzanine, the Building Team “created the sense of a stage-in-the-round to further the concept of the space as a theater for the generation of an infinite number of architectural designs. The entire high-bay area maximizes the space for individuals to spread out their work and display their drawings in a close-knit environment.”

PROJECT SUMMARY
The Hinman Research Building at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga.

Building Team
Submitting firm: Lord, Aeck & Sargent in collaboration with Office dA
Owner/developer: University System of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology
Structural engineer: Uzun & Case Engineers
Mechanical/electrical engineer: Eaton/EMC Engineers Inc.
General contractor/construction manager: HC Beck Ltd.

General Information
Size: 34,500 sf
Construction cost: $9.1 million
Construction period: February 2010 to January 2011
Delivery method: CM at risk

Photo: Jonathan Hillyer/Jonathan Hillyer Photography

CREATING AN ACTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
“There are not many spaces that serve so clearly as didactic tools,” College of Architecture Dean Alan Balfour said of the Hinman building. “We want students to take away the importance of 20th-century history, including how structural loads are transferred poetically from the roof to the ground, and how mechanical and electrical systems can be intelligently woven into an existing shell.”

The top-down design of the interior left the floor plane clean and unobstructed, allowing for the Building Team to expose most of the existing structure. A bare concrete floor and visible engineering and lighting systems are meant to engage students in their three-dimensional learning environment.

“The willful approach to exposing the layers of history and structure throughout the building present many opportunities for faculty and students to discuss strategies of preservation and restoration,” Balfour said.

New additions, including a spiral staircase enclosed in mesh and a 40-foot-wide guillotine door, serve to ignite the imagination of student architects, while reminding them of the importance of maintaining historical integrity.

“The spiral staircase is a cocoon that celebrates the vast, beautiful structure,” Wertheimer said, noting the staircase gives the illusion of being suspended from the ceiling. “It is very tectonic in design, and people want to know how to build it.”

Retractable pendant lights hung from the high-bay ceiling are adaptable for film screenings, large-scale model buildings, and other activities. Never underestimating the importance of educational space, the Building Team designed the guillotine door as an added area for exhibitions.

“As a student, I feel constantly challenged to develop the details of my project to that high level of craft achieved by the Building Team,” Kahler said, adding that the team truly kept its audience in mind when developing the space.

Well-placed acoustical treatment absorbs sound that may rebound off the high-bay areas, providing a hushed environment for research and study, while strategically placed glass walls welcome natural light, illuminating spaces that originally lacked vitality.

“Studios are at the center of the facility, which is extremely valuable to the students’ creativity and peer-to-peer relationships,” Balfour said. “We never imagined that the building would so quickly become the theater of our imagination.”

CELEBRATING THE GRANDEUR OF SIMPLICITY
Since its opening in January, students and faculty alike have enjoyed learning and creating in what Balfour deems a “theater of imagination,” gaining inspiration from the dynamic and unique space around them.

“The [original] interior was obviously not configured for architectural education,” said Kahler. “But the project engaged a multiplicity of design challenges and offers remarkable solutions to each condition.”

Reusing much of the existing structure to create a vastly different atmosphere for architectural education, the Building Team never overcomplicated the design, keeping the space as true to its original functionalism as possible. This dedication to simplicity, Wertheimer said, is an invaluable tool for any fledgling architect.

“I think the students will realize they can do more with less,” he said. “Great architecture can be done with something simple. If they pay attention to their surroundings, they will realize everything is no more than it needs to be.” - LS

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PLATINUM AWARD
Genetics Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C.
Constructed in 1970, the 4,150-sf Genetics Laboratory at the National Zoological Park had become inadequate for researchers’ needs because the existing floor area was inefficient for their multi-step research and documentation processes. Collaborating researchers were also located more than a mile away, and the building was situated within the flood plain of Rock Creek. Periodically, flooding would close the lab, endangering collections and equipment, while disrupting experiments.

In 2008, Smithsonian officials decided to relocate the lab to a vacant animal holding facility nearer to colleagues on Research Hill. The proposed facility was structurally solid, and above the flood plain. However, the building’s interiors and systems were in disrepair, and the available floor area was much less than in the previous facility.

Click here for exclusive images, and an UPDATED version of the Genetics Laboratory project, which appeared in the January 2012 issue of Building Design + Construction.

When the facility was reconstructed, only the retaining walls, foundation concrete columns, beams, and roof slab remained. The new design included exterior enclosures consisting of insulated metal panels, channel glass with translucent insulation, and perforated screens that provide a thermally efficient envelope, while also reducing glare.

“The channel glass and screens are really state-of-the-art details. It will help attract world-class scientists who might have been drawn to other national laboratories,” said BD+C Reconstruction Awards Honorary Chair Walker Johnson, FAIA.

The Building Team, which consisted of Quinn Evans Architects (architect), McMullen & Associates (structural engineer), James Posey Associates (MEP engineer), and K-Lo Construction (general contractor), also faced the task of reducing the interior space to a 2,922-sf area to make the researchers’ workspace more efficient.

“Their difficulty was taking a small building, 3,000 sf, and making it usable, which they did,” said BD+C Reconstruction Awards Judge Martha Bell, FAIA.

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GOLD AWARD
Presidio Landmark, San Francisco, Calif.

Originally built in 1932 by Treasury Architect James Wetmore, the Presidio Landmark served as a public health service hospital specializing in plague diseases and sanitation. Decades later, the six-story, steel-frame, brick, terra cotta, and limestone building was sitting vacant and derelict.

Click here for updated content on the Presidio Landmark project, which appeared in the February 2012 issue of Building Design + Construction.

In the mid-’90s, Presidio became part of the National Park system, and Congress established the Presidio Trust to preserve the landmark. Local groups questioned the rehabilitation at first, citing possible increases in traffic and light pollution. But after establishing a public-private partnership between Presidio Trust and Forest City Residential West, architecture firm Perkins+Will began the complicated design process.

Construction commenced October 2008 and was completed nearly two years later. The Building Team, which included Nabih Youssef + Associates (structural engineering), Donald F. Dickerson Associates (MEP engineering), Sherwood Design Engineers (civil engineering), and Plant Construction Co. (general contractor), revitalized the 220,000-gsf structure by integrating seismic and structural upgrades, converting hospital wings into marketable apartments, reversing seasonal groundwater intrusion, and designing unobtrusive shear walls to maintain historical integrity.

Contemporary apartment additions include wood floors, plaster walls, modern light fixtures, a fitness center, a wine cellar, a message room, a bicycle workshop, a spa and hot tub, a yoga room, expansive basement storage, two garden courtyards, and an outdoor grilling area.

“This was a solid project,” BD+C Reconstruction Awards Judge Martha Bell, FAIA, said. “It met stringent city and commission rules while overcoming community opposition.”

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GOLD AWARD
Falls Center Heritage Building, Philadelphia, Pa.
Designed by the architecture firm of Ritter and Shay, original construction on the Heritage Building began in 1926. The building eventually became part of the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania Falls Center, a complex of six separate buildings, including the most recent addition, a laboratory annex constructed in 1995. Despite the many changes throughout the life of the complex, the Heritage Building remained a teaching and clinical facility that housed hospital rooms, classrooms, and administrative offices.

Click here for a list of Products and Materials used as well as additional images of the Heritage Building.

Faced with demanding historic preservation renovation standards, as well as budget and time constraints, the Building Team initially transformed the Heritage Building into 50,000 sf of commercial office and retail space, including a gym, a retail pharmacy, and two pediatric offices. After a series of financial hurdles, zoning approvals were finalized to transform the remaining structure into a mixed-use development, including a medical office, light manufacturing, retail, and residential components. Upon completion last July, 170,000 sf of space was also dedicated for use by nearby Philadelphia University, which included 132 student residence units, an auditorium café, and in-house design studios for the university’s architecture, design, and fashion majors.

The Building Team, led by submitting firm Iron Stone Real Estate Group (CM), included Wulff Architects (architect), Morrissey Design (interior architect), Digenova Sam (structural engineer), Direct Air Design and Build (mechanical engineer), Mirarchi Brothers (electrical engineer), Bofinger Plumbing Contractors (plumbing engineer), and Axis Construction Management (GC). “They finished under budget and ahead of schedule despite meeting many obstacles. The Building Team really persevered,” said BD+C Reconstruction Award Judge Steve Martinez.

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GOLD AWARD
Hiawatha Maintenance Facility, Minneapolis, Minn.
Minneapolis Public Works has been located along Hiawatha Avenue and 26th Street since 1914. Over the years, 18 buildings, including the original warehouse and garage and some ramshackle sheds, were scattered on 10 acres directly across from a politically active residential neighborhood and within sight of a major thoroughfare to downtown. The site was a loud, smelly eyesore.

The Building Team, led by local firm RSP Architects (with structural engineer Palanisami and Associates, ME engineer Paulson & Clark Engineering, and general contractor Knutson Construction) redefined the entire site. Creative new uses for historic elements—metal beams, old switchboards, crane rails, even pieces of a demolished bridge—found their way into the final work. New construction added needed space without inflating the mass of the original structure. A circulation spine of clear glass curtain wall now brings natural light deep into the facility. The building displays bold gestures and industrial materials on the side facing the highway, yet respects the scale and cadence of its residential neighbors via the historic brick structure.

Click here for a list of Products and Materials used, exclusive images of the Hiawatha Maintenance Facility, and a UPDATED profile of the facility, which appeared in the March issue of Building Design + Construction.

The result—33,000 sf of office space, a 28,000-sf maintenance bay, and 20,500 sf of storage—is, according to the designers, purposely not precious. Rather, it is a “tough facility” designed to maximize efficient, responsive work, employee comfort, and sustainability. It is the first city-owned facility in Minneapolis and the first such public works maintenance facility in the country to reach LEED Platinum status.

“They did a standup job of preserving the building’s function,” said Reconstruction Awards Judge Tom Brooks.

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SILVER AWARD
Ka Makani Community Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
In 1935, Captain Howard B. Nurse devised a master plan for a Non-Commissioned Officers’ Open Mess Building for servicemen and their spouses. Dutch-born architect Jozef B. A. Van Oort eventually designed the single-story, cement building, which opened in 1941. Nicknamed the NCO Club, the building housed a dining room, library, lounge, bar, and card room, showcasing subtle Art Deco and Moderne details with a prominent Hawaiian motif.

Decades later, the building’s location was no longer convenient for service families, and in 2008 U.S. Air Force officials decided to repurpose the building as a community center for the new Hickam Communities housing privatization: the Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam.

Click here for exclusive "before and after" images of the Ka Makani Community Center.

Removing all post-1941 additions to the exterior and reducing the square footage from 26,000 to the original 10,000, the Building Team, led by submitting firm Lend Lease (CM), with Mason Architects Inc. (architect), Shigemura, Lau, Sakanashi, Higuchi & Associates (structural engineer), Lincolne Scott (mechanical/electrical engineer), and KPRS Hawaii Construction (GC), created an ideal social spot for local families. A new library and media center, fitness facility, and meeting and party rooms are among the amenities available.

“The Building Team took an old building and made it old again,” said BD+C Reconstruction Awards Judge Steve Martinez. “They took an abused building and rejuvenated it to benefit the community.”

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SILVER AWARD
Seegers Student Union, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa.
Constructed in the 1960s when enrollment at Muhlenberg College was 1,200 students, the 66,000-sf Seegers Student Union reflected the English and German architecture traditions incorporated in other buildings on campus. Despite being outdated and undersized, the campus center hosted 3,300 guests per day.

In 2009, the college chose to renovate and expand the facility by 30,000 sf to centralize its Student Life and Student Organization offices, expand informal social space, and develop a 600-seat dining facility. The dining room is the hearthstone, a focal point visible even from the opposite end of the building. The Light Lounge serves as an active living room, while an outdoor terrace overlooking Brown Mall rounds out the new amenities of the structure. The Seegers Student Union completes a new quadrangle on the campus, providing students with an important connection to the outdoors.

Click here for a list of Products and Materials used as well as exclusive "before and after" images of the Seegers Student Union.

Designs for the new facility benefited from feedback from focus groups and informal discussions with students, staff, and faculty.

“They took a shell of a building and crafted it into something much more pleasant,” said BD+C Reconstruction Awards Judge Walker Johnson, FAIA.The Building Team—submitting firm Bruner/Cott & Associates (architect), Barry Isett & Associates (structural engineer), Snyder Hoffman Associated (mechanical engineer), and Alvin H. Butz (general contractor)—redesigned the structure into a modern and sustainable facility.

“The building goes with the rest of the campus now. They took a sore thumb and made it blend in,” said BD+C Reconstruction Awards Judge Martha Bell, FAIA.

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SILVER AWARD
Modern Theatre, Suffolk University , Boston, Mass.
Designed and constructed in 1876 by architect Levi Newcomb, the three-story Modern Theatre originally housed two cast iron storefronts and a carpet storage warehouse. In 1913, architect Clarence Blackwell converted the building into a theater—the first structure in Boston designed and built specifically to show motion pictures. After a minor rehabilitation in the 1970s, the structure was sold in the 1980s, and it remained vacant and neglected for more than 20 years.

When Suffolk University acquired the structure, most of the facility was in disrepair. Only the limestone façade and a few fragments of the auditorium’s treatments could be saved.

Click here for a list of Products and Materials used, exclusive images of the Modern Theatre, and an UPDATED version of the Modern Theatre story, which appeared in the Feb. 2012 issue of Building Design + Construction.

Work on the building began in November 2008 and was completed in October 2010. The Building Team, which included submitting firms CBT Architects (architect) and Suffolk Construction Co. (general contractor), as well as McNamara/Salvia (structural engineer), Zade Associates (MEP engineer), and Structures North Consulting Engineers (structural engineer), rebuilt the entire 70,000-sf structure. A new stage and auditorium were nestled into the modernized space, fronted by a two-story lobby space, which doubles as a gallery. A 10-story residence hall was built above the theater to encourage more students to live on campus. The restoration of the façade, a condition of purchase when Suffolk University bought the structure, was accomplished largely by hand, block by block.

“With 10 stories of resident housing above, the recreation makes the building more functional while also making it look like a late 19th-century theater,” said Walker Johnson, FAIA, BD+C Reconstruction Awards Honorary Chair.

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SILVER AWARD
John W. McCormack, Post Office and Courthouse, Boston, Mass.
This 1933 Art Deco federal building, designed by Cram & Ferguson, was the site of many judicial decisions on New Deal legislation. In 1972 it was renamed for the former Speaker of the House from Boston.

The goal of the Building Team—led by local design firm Goody Clancy, with Weidlinger Associates (SE), Cosentini Associates (MEP), Suffolk Construction (GC), and Tishman Construction Corp. of Massachusetts (CM/PM)—was to achieve “world-class sustainable preservation” for the client, the U.S. General Services Administration, and major tenant, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The 701,896-sf, $160 million project took advantage of numerous green opportunities: 17,000 sf of green roofs, photovoltaics for pumping rainwater, green procurement, enhanced water efficiency, construction waste management, and improved indoor air quality. A new skylight brings light and views into the cafeteria. Marble paving was made from salvaged toilet stall partitions. All this resulted in LEED Gold certification.

Click here for a list of Products and Materials used as well as exclusive "before and after" images of the McCormack Post Office and Courthouse.

Restored colors were chosen with paint analysis and clues from original drawings. “Every room was sensitively carried out, and the best features were focused on,” said Reconstruction Awards Judge Martha Bell, FAIA.

According to John Buckley, the GSA project manager, “This project has changed me. Investing in our historic buildings is something everybody should be looking very hard at.”

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BRONZE AWARD
Juilliard School, New York, N.Y.
Largely unchanged since its construction in 1969, in more recent years the Juilliard School in New York City was in need of expansions and upgrades. The school was originally designed by Pietro Belluschi to house the international conservatory of music, dance, and drama. In order to keep up with an expanding student enrollment and educational opportunities, the school decided to add 39,000 sf of classrooms, musical practice rooms, rehearsal space, and two performance venues.

Led by FXFOWLE Architects, the Building Team of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (co-architect), Arup (structural/electrical engineer), Langan Engineering & Environmental Services (site/civil engineer), and Turner Construction Co. (GC/CM) began construction in 2005 and completed the project five years later. A three-story entry lobby was carved from underused circulation spaces, providing a prominent entryway to the school. A new box office with backlit glass and an innovative staircase that links rehearsal space to classrooms help bring the building into the 21st century.

Click here for a list of Products and Materials used as well as exclusive "before and after" images of the Juilliard School.

Engaging with the surrounding urban environment, the building features glass curtain walls along Broadway, providing views of the life within. Previously dark, labyrinthine interiors are exposed to natural light, optimizing learning spaces and warming wood and textile interiors. “This was a really good effort to reuse space and expand the use of the building,” BD+C Reconstruction Awards Judge K. Nam Shiu said. “The spaces are very compelling.”

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BRONZE AWARD
B. Thomas Golisano Hope Lodge, Hospitality House, Rochester, N.Y.
Hope Lodge, a spartan 1930s-era dormitory located on the edge of the Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School campus in Rochester, N.Y., lay vacant for many years and was becoming a drain on the Divinity School’s finances.

Three years ago the American Cancer Society offered to relocate its overtaxed nearby patient residence facility to the Divinity School campus. With a donation from philanthropist B. Thomas Golisano, $8 million was raised to provide temporary housing for out-of-town patients seeking long-term treatment at area hospitals.

The existing layout was narrow and cramped. Rooms were small. Plaster finishes tested positive for asbestos. The Building Team— local firms Bergmann Associates (submitting firm/architect), Torchia Structural Engineering (SE), and LeChase Construction (CM)— added a modern touch to the interiors while keeping the exterior respectful of the building’s historic context. Irregular shell space resulted in numerous unique layouts for the 30 guest rooms.

Click here for a list of Products and Materials used, exclusive images, and UPDATED editorial coverage of the Hope Lodge, which appeared in the January 2012 issue of Building Design + Construction.

The American Cancer Society gained 8,000 sf of office space in the 28,000-sf design-build redevelopment, which received a Citation Award in the 2011 AIA Rochester Design Excellence Program.

Hope Lodge provides more than 9,000 overnight stays a year, saving patients and their families an estimated $32 million a year in lodging costs. “It’s a comforting atmosphere,” said Reconstruction Awards Jurist Martha Bell, FAIA. “They did a good job of not making it look institutional.”

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SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Atlantic Wharf , Boston, Mass.
The 1.185-million-sf Atlantic Wharf mixed-use project is being hailed as the flagship development for the new Boston downtown, enabling local developer Boston Properties to bring urban activity to the Fort Point Channel water’s edge. Led by local design firm CBT Architects, the Building Team—including structural engineer McNamara/Salvia, mechanical engineer TMP Consulting Engineers, and general contractor John Moriarty & Associates—preserved the historic seven-story Peabody & Stearns Atlantic Building (1899) and created 86 loft apartments.

The maritime-themed high-rise, with 30 floors of office space, ground-level retail, a six-deck underground garage, a new glass-enclosed atrium, and a two-story civic space with multimedia center, public galleries, and performance space, is the Hub’s first LEED Gold skyscraper.

Click here for a list of Products and Materials used as well as exclusive images of the Atlantic Wharf.

Reconstruction Awards Judge Tom Brooks praised the project for seamlessly integrating new and old: “It doesn’t distract the eye. It has a well-defined separation.”

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SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Two North Riverside, Chicago, Ill.

Two North Riverside is a 26-story Art Deco building by Holabird & Root that for years housed the Chicago Daily News. It was the first air-rights structure in Chicago, and its plaza was the first to be planned as part of a privately owned office building.

In mid-2008, Equity Office Properties retained Chicago design firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz to lead the renovation of two Art Deco lobbies, a retail concourse, 13 passenger elevator cabs, and multi-tenant common areas.

Click here for a list of Products and Materials used as well as exclusive "before and after" images of Two North Riverside.

Two-phase construction, led by Skender Construction (GC) and McGuire Engineers (ME engineer), included historical replication of original nickel-silver elevator door jams and headers, repairs to original marble floors, installation of hand-carved glass accent walls in the lobby, and fabrication of new nickel and frosted glass sconces adjusted to meet energy-conservation goals.

“They preserved the historical design integrity and made it functional for today,” Reconstruction Awards Honorary Chair Walker Johnson, FAIA, said. BD+C

To view the 2010 winners of the BD+C Reconstruction Awards, click here. Also, to view Reconstruction Award winners from 2009 and earlier, please click here.
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Reconstruction Judges 2011