AIA selects small project award winners for 2010

Washington, D.C. – July 15, 2010 – The American Institute of Architects have selected the 10 recipients of the 2010 Small Project Awards. The AIA Small Project Awards Program, now in its sixth year, was established to recognize small-project practitioners for the high quality of their work and to promote excellence in small-project design. This award program emphasizes the excellence of small-project design and strives to raise public awareness of the value and design excellence that architects bring to projects, no matter the limits of size and scope.

The jury for the Small Project Awards includes: Tom Howorth, FAIA, Howorth & Associates; Kevin Harris, FAIA, Kevin Harris and Associates; Camilo Parra, AIA, Parra Design Group LTD; Thomas Fisher, Assoc. AIA, Dean, University of Minnesota College of Design and David Miller, FAIA, Miller Hull Partnership.

Award recipients are categorized into three groups; Architecture in the Public Interest, Small Project Objects (up to $50,000 construction budget) and Small Project Structures (up to $500,000 construction budget).

Architecture in the Public Interest

Art as Shelter; Raleigh, North Carolina
Tonic Design
Designed and built as an integral component of the North Carolina Museum of Art Park’s ‘art-in-service’ projects program, ‘Art as Shelter’ offers visitors a sheltered place to sit and reflect upon the museum sculpture park and public greenway. Viewed as an object in the landscape or experienced from within, the pavilion offers magnificent veiled panoramic views of the surrounding landscape.

SplitFrame; Portland, Connecticut
North Studio at Wesleyan University
SplitFrame is a wildlife viewing structure designed and constructed to maximize environmental exposure while minimizing impact, both in construction and over the projected life of the structure. Sited in a publicly accessible wildlife sanctuary, the core of the project consists of two integral pieces - a floating Observation Deck and an elevated viewing station - connected via a hinged staircase, allowing the observation Deck to rise and fall with the seasonal change in water levels.

Small Project Objects

Shadow Pavilion; Ann Arbor, Michigan
PLY Architecture
The Shadow Pavilion explores the paradox of a perforated structure where the removal of material makes a structure lighter and weaker. The Shadow Pavilion, is both a structure and a space made entirely of holes. The pavilion surface is made with over 100 aluminum laser cut cones that vary in size. Beyond testing the limits of sheet aluminum, the cones funnel light and sound to the interior space, offering visitors a space to take in the views and sounds of the surrounding landscape.

plug-in satellite office – ASU; Phoenix
mark ryan studio
When not in use the steel tube frame enclosure can compact to 7’ x 14’ and can be moved as necessary throughout the studio. When fully deployed it occupies a floor space that is 14’ square feet and accommodates one to four persons. It can be ‘plugged-in’ as needed around the entire studio perimeter where data and electrical services are located. The specific site for the satellite inside this historic warehouse was chosen for its active, energetic atmosphere within the emerging downtown arts district that sits adjacent to the university’s downtown campus in process.

Prospect.1 Welcome Center; New Orleans
Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
The Welcome Center for Prospect.1 (P.1), which is the largest biennial of international contemporary art in the U.S. is housed in the historic Hefler Warehouse – and serves to orient visitors to the city and the biennial. The design was inspired by the shape and scale of shipping containers, a nod to the significance of the port to the city’s economy and a reference to the nature of delivery for much of the art exhibited for the biennial. Due to constraints of time and budget – the entire project was designed and constructed in 6 weeks at a total cost of $28,000 – a single construction material, plywood, was selected that was both inexpensive and readily available.