PROVIDENCE – The 2018 Design Awards Program of the American Institute of Architects Rhode Island chapter has recognized the work of several Rhode Island-based architects.
Announced in December, the most significant awards, or Honor awards, were bestowed to the following projects. The quotations are comments by jurors, who represented the AIA Akron, Ohio, chapter.
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Lincoln School STEAM Hub for Girls in Providence, by Pawtucket-based LLB Architects. “This addition takes an existing underdeveloped façade and provides an aesthetic terminus to Blackstone Boulevard while creating a progressive image for the Lincoln School. The project reconfigures a ‘back door’ and transforms it into a place of presence through an innovative and well-calibrated gradient façade of variable vertical fins and glazing, while mostly respecting existing site setbacks with a slight arc forward.”
229 Waterman in Providence, by Providence-based ZDS Inc. “This exciting mixed-use development and adaptive reuse looks poised to stimulate the revitalizing of its neighborhood by providing an asset instead of a large, vacant facility. This project took a mundane and frankly ‘pedestrian-unfriendly’ old Factory Mutual building and while maintaining its basic form, historic features and materials, the design extends and expands both up to a diverse set of intriguing rooftop spaces and out to a raised terrace toward Waterman Street.”
Robert J. Higgins Welcome Center in South Kingstown, by Providence-based DBVW Architects, was awarded in the Education/Instructional category. “With a unique floorplan that successfully amalgamates two contextual grid orientations, while allowing for resolved spaces offset in intriguing conflict. The building is slyly contemporary yet provides a direct nod to local historic buildings.”
Dune House in Chatham, Mass., by Newport-based Estes-Twombly Architects Inc. “This is simply an elegant contemporary home that respects the traditional forms and materials of New England’s saltbox architecture. The house takes advantage of a magnificent site taking in all the opportunities for views and environment through its siting.”
Low Impact/High End, a house in Jamestown by c&h architects, based in Amherst, Mass., also received an Honor award, in the Residential category. “A house that is vibrant in its composure, energy efficient with its super-insulated walls and roof, and reaches outward to capture views of its site. The house not only recycles an existing foundation; it upcycles it.”
For a full list of projects recognized by the chapter awards, visit aia-ri.org/design-awards-portfolio/2018-design-awards.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
