Bostonians voted the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's new wing the People's Choice Award winner for 2012, honoring the project as the city's "most beautiful new building" for the calendar year. The new wing, designed by Renzo Piano and Stantec, beat out three other projects on the short list: Fumihiko Maki's MIT Media Lab; the restoration of Alumnae Valley at Wellesley, led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates; and Temple Beth Elohim by William Rawn Architects. The winning team was honored at the annual Boston Society of Architects Awards Gala on Jan. 31.
The museum expansion provides spaces for specific programming, including a 296-seat performance hall and a 1,500-square-foot, three-story special exhibition gallery. The glass-enclosed first floor includes a new entry, a café, gift shop, greenhouses and education spaces. Administration offices, lab-quality restoration spaces, and accommodations for two Artists-in-Residence are also included in the new wing. The design team relied on BIM to coordinate the building’s many complex systems, and the new wing achieved LEED Gold certification last fall.
For more on the award, including a photo gallery of the finalists, visit: http://boston.com/advertisers/bsa/2012/index.html.
Related Stories
| Nov 4, 2014
Zaha Hadid's first building in Shanghai debuts
Sky SOHO is the third in a trilogy of SOHO China developments designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.
| Nov 4, 2014
HOK breaks ground on colossal research complex for LG in Seoul
Located in Seoul’s Magok District, the LG Science Park provides facilities to support innovative research and industrial prototyping. HOK designed phase one of the master plan and six of the laboratory and office buildings.
| Nov 3, 2014
IIT names winners of inaugural Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize
Herzog & de Meuron's iconic 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage in Miami Beach, Fla., is one of two winners of the $50,000 architectural prize.
| 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.
| Nov 2, 2014
Top 10 LEED lessons learned from a green building veteran
M+W Group's David Gibney offers his top lessons learned from coordinating dozens of large LEED projects during the past 13 years.
| 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 30, 2014
CannonDesign releases guide for specifying flooring in healthcare settings
The new report, "Flooring Applications in Healthcare Settings," compares and contrasts different flooring types in the context of parameters such as health and safety impact, design and operational issues, environmental considerations, economics, and product options.
| Oct 30, 2014
Perkins Eastman and Lee, Burkhart, Liu to merge practices
The merger will significantly build upon the established practices—particularly healthcare—of both firms and diversify their combined expertise, particularly on the West Coast.
| 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 29, 2014
Increasing number of design projects meeting carbon reduction targets, says AIA report
Of the 2,464 projects accounted for in AIA's 2030 Commitment 2013 Progress Report, 401 are meeting the 60% carbon reduction target—a 200% increase from 2012.
