Amongst the most prestigious and competitive awards programs for architecture in the United States, the annual AIA Design Awards honor excellence in built work, unbuilt work and built work with a high level of sustainable and environmental performance. These awards celebrate the spirit of innovation and creativity of practitioners with the vision to take chances and make design achievement a reality.
Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College:
With its inherently passive design and extensive natural landscape, the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College is recognized with an AIA Design Award (Citation Level) in the category for sustainability (COTE). Amongst the most prestigious and competitive awards programs for architecture in the United States, the annual AIA Design Awards honor excellence in built work, unbuilt work and built work with a high level of sustainable and environmental performance. These awards celebrate the spirit of innovation and creativity of practitioners with the vision to take chances and make design achievement a reality.
Following a year-long renovation of the historic Claremont Colleges infirmary, “this formerly abandoned, nearly 90-year-old facility is now a showcase for responsible, collaborative green building,” according to Pitzer College. The former infirmary building has been renovated and repurposed as an environmentally sustainable academic facility containing classrooms, offices, laboratories, meeting rooms, and an art studio. The renovation also stabilized and adapted the surrounding 12 acres on Pitzer College’s North Campus for the Redford Conservancy’s use in promoting its mission of sustainability – which is the cornerstone of the conservancy’s mission and a fundamental premise of the project’s design. Careful consideration was taken into the development of the program planning with an emphasis on natural and low impact design.
In addition to receiving the AIA COTE award, the Redford Conservancy has achieved LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and is on track to become the first Net Zero Energy certified academic building at the Claremont Colleges.
This is the third construction project between Carrier Johnson and Pitzer. Carrier Johnson also designed Phase I and Phase II of Pitzer’s Housing Plan which includes LEED Certified East, West, and Skandera Halls launched in 2012.
Point Loma Nazarene University Science Center – Sator & Latter Hall:
The state-of-the-art science center at Point Loma Nazarene University is also recognized with an AIA Design Award. Completed in 2015, the 36,000 square-foot science center is the campus’s first major project in decades, built to accommodate a rapidly growing interdisciplinary science program. The highly sustainable and innovative design is marked by a curved stainless-steel environmental screen that reduces solar heat gain in the building, filtering sunlight and providing shade. The screens also artfully evoke the greek letters alpha and omega, symbols with both religious and scientific significance to allude to the institution’s dual mission of faith and academic pursuit.
In addition to receiving an AIA Design Award, the PLNU Science Center has received an American Architecture Award, the Grand Award from the PCBC Gold Nugget awards program, and has achieved LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
