Celebrating design in 2018: Awards abound in first half

The Alfred R. Goldstein Library enhances Ringling’s reputation as a design school, and sets a new direction for future campus design. Serving as a new nexus of community, the lively space draws students, faculty, and the public together with flexible classrooms, group study areas, makerspace, a café, the academic resource center, a rare books collection, multiple terraces, and an iconic staircase that weaves through the library’s center as a connection between floors with visibility to the outdoors from every level. Open 24 hours a day, the library has become the most popular meeting place on campus, bringing life to a once vacant part of the college.

In the past six months, Goldstein Library has been recognized with an ALA/IIDA Library Interior Design Award and AIA Gulf Coast Honor Award. It was also a 2017 SRQ Magazine Best of the Year recipient.

Every element of the new Oishei Children’s Hospital was designed with patients and families in mind, creating an environment that is welcoming, interactive, and allows for relief in times of stress. Oishei Children’s Hospital won the Golden Brick Award this year from Buffalo Business Journal.

“Shepley Bulfinch has helped us achieve our vision to create an innovative, high-quality, and self-sufficient facility that, through its design elements, offers comfort to families that walk in with a sick child.”

The Austin Central Library, a joint venture with Lake|Flato Architects, is a building shaped by light and designed to respond to the context of its place. Known to locals as “Austin’s Living Room,” the facility is based in flexible, blended spaces that promote life-long learning and reinforce the resilient, active culture of the city.

So far, this year, Austin Central Library has received an AIA/ALA Library Building Award, ALA/IIDA Library Interior Design Award, AIA Austin Design Award, APWA Texas Chapter Project of the Year Award, Architizer A+ Award Special Mention, and been selected as an IFLA Top 5 Finalist for 2018 Public Library of the Year.

Life Lab is the newest addition to Harvard University’s Innovation  ecosystem, supporting students and alumni in their quest to create ventures that improve the world. The 15,000-sf, two-story building is a combination of wet labs and co-working space for biotech and life science start-ups. Using modular building—a first for a wet lab building—traditional construction time was cut in half. The project received an AIA/CAE Education Facility Design Award this year.

Reinforcing East Tennessee Children’s Hospital’s mission and status—to provide patient- and family-centered care delivery, as a leader in pediatrics and neonatal medicine—the new Scripps Networks Tower connects to and elevates the existing campus. Through thoughtful design—access to natural light, designated indoor and outdoor family spaces for respite, private patient rooms organized in neighborhoods, and a new material palette that gives a nod to previous hospital buildings while advancing the brand—the high-acuity facility transforms the way medical care is delivered, and recognizes the role of the family as a partnership to support the child’s holistic wellbeing.

The project was awarded an AIA East Tennessee Design Merit.

This major addition to the Cabell Library engages VCU’s urban surroundings as a prominent piece of the civic landscape. Creating a robust research library, the new space features a dedicated faculty and graduate research center, 300-seat event space, a ground-floor café, and a range of reading rooms and collaborative spaces.

Cabell Library was recognized as an ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries award winner.