2009 AWARD WINNERS:

Architecture

Honor Award
Tepper West Addition
Client: Carnegie Mellon University
Architecture Firm: EDGE studio
Contractor: Jendoco Construction Corporation

Jury comments: This is an extraordinary example of a small addition that accomplishes great things functionally, urbanisticly and architecturally. It is subtle, complete and sophisticated and so intelligent in its respect of the existing building. The responsibility to complete this campus space was key for this project. The "porch" presentation to the quad is beautifully scaled and makes inviting a building that was previously probably quite mute.

Honor Award
South Side Courtyard House
Client: Client Name Withheld
Architecture Firm: studio d’ ARC architects, P.C.
Contractor: Prime-1 Enterprises

Jury comments: Very mature work that layers day light, volumes and planes to establish a successful and consistent dialogue between inside and outside, a concept unusually indoor / outdoor for a Pittsburgh home. The existing masonry wall engages in this dialogue to define space. It is a terrific example of warm livable modernism

Certificate of Merit
Yale University Chemistry Research Building
Client: Yale University
Architecture Firm: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson/Cannon Design
Contractor: William A Berry & Son, Inc.

Jury comments: The jury appreciated the simple ways in which the building engages at scale of campus to create a well scaled courtyard and a dialogue among the parts addressing the incremental growth of a campus. The way the building expresses the promise of an ambiguous language that resides between the historic campus and its future (best exemplified in the facade) is the strength of this project. The jury also appreciated the handsome laboratory spaces.

Certificate of Merit
Eastside Phase 2 – Building B
Client: The Mosites Company
Architecture Firm: The Design Alliance Architects
Contractor: Mosites Construction Company

Certificate of Merit
Eastside Phase 2 – Building D
Client: The Mosites Company
Architecture Firm: The Design Alliance Architects
Contractor: Mosites Construction Company

Jury comments: The building mediates between the pedestrian and vehicular experiences successfully. It is a very courageous project and an heroic attempt to make the alienating pattern of drive in, big box retail an urban and perhaps a more public experience.

Certificate of Merit & Green Design Citation
Fred M. Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media and Conference Center
Client: St. Vincent College and Archabbey
Architecture Firm: FortyEighty Architecture
Contractor: Massaro Corporation

Jury comments: This building nestles into the site successfully addressing the context and climate. The jury was impressed by the intelligent placement of monitors to bring day lighting deep into the interior spaces as well as its response to the campus landmark buildings by framing focused views of them through dramatic openings at key public spaces within the building.

Certificate of Merit
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Allegheny
Client: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Architecture Firm: Loysen + Kreuthmeier Architects
Contractor: Massaro Corporation

Jury comments: This library has a robust civic presence in keeping with the Carnegie tradition. As a contemporary work it is open and inviting and makes a successful reference to the scale of neighboring buildings and to the corner.

Certificate of Merit
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Hill District
Client: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Architecture Firm: Pfaffmann + Associates, PC
Contractor: A. Martini & Company

Jury comments: This library quite civic in the way it engages the street and establishes the most honorific space, the reading room, as a prow anchoring the corner in this historic neighborhood. At the same time, the interior is casual, simple and straightforward using the stacks to establish an intermediate scale under the big roof and the yellow wall as reference point. The reuse of the diner position in memory as a casual reading room is a gracious nod to the history and ritual of the site. The bioswale garden is well located a serves as a natural buffer to the neighboring property.

Certificate of Merit
Penn at 29th
Client: Rothschild Doyno Collaborative
Architecture Firm: Rothschild Doyno Collaborative
Contractor: Mosites Construction Company

Jury comments: The jury admired this modest adaptive reuse that transformed the existing building into a vibrant part of a new urban street fabric while keeping the utilitarian nature of the original garage intact. The jury found it both skilful and lively in the weaving of the large scale and the intimate scale, and of urban and tectonic gestures. In this same light, it is a model for renovating buildings that can express a respect for the tradition of simple and honest structures alongside the complexities of new programs and urban roles.

Regional and Urban Design

East Liberty Green Vision
Client: East Liberty Development, Inc.
Architecture Firm: Perkins Eastman

Jury Comments: A very competent urban design proposition that imagines a neighborhood/precinct brought together around a sustainable lifestyle. It is recognized for its clear participatory process that establishes metrics for individual responsibility. It incentivizes the individual to act toward the desired outcome through a series clear incremental steps where the impact is tangible.

Architectural Detail/Craftmanship

Award of Excellence
Warhol Reception Desk
Client: Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Architecture Firm: EDGE studio
Contractor: J. Francis Company, LLC

Jury Comments: This piece is applauded for its craft, innovation, and its broad interpretation of a reception desk as a colorful work of art. In a clear alignment with Warhol’s innovative work in photography, it pushes the envelope of fabrication to engage advanced technologies and also like Warhol’s work, it seems appropriate in this otherwise very white space.

Award of Excellence
Monastery Street Park
Client: South Side Local Development Company and
South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association
Architecture Firm: Loysen + Kreuthmeier Architects

Jury Comments: The jury appreciated this project as an embellishment of infrastructure and as a work of beautifully crafted public art. It is a very admirable urban strategy that brings an everyday background element of streetscape into unique neighborhood landmark status.

Open Plan

Award of Excellence
A Civic Renewal
Client: Preservation Pittsburgh / DOCOMOMO
Architecture Firm: Pfaffmann + Associates, PC

Jury Comments: This provocative study admirably explores the idea that memory is complex, that it is not just about good and bad. Rather that architecture/urban design that takes a positive sustainable view of future can use the past as a powerful and respectful foundation. This is a very compelling and worthy hypothesis to which Pittsburgh will hopefully give serious consideration

Award of Excellence
London Barge Gallery
Client: Arquitectum Design Competitions
Architecture Firm: Renaissance 3 Architects, PC
Jury Comments: This was a facile exercise…perhaps more of a folly, as the jury imaged its relevance in this city as an insertion along Pittsburgh’s riverfronts. It would be a very seductive idea to see the city reflected in this barge as it floats past the city, ever changing. Homage to PPG?

Award of Excellence
Point Park Public Space Competition
Client: Point Park University
Architecture Firm: Strada

Jury Comments: This is a project that is all about using what is there to create something important…. Go, think about your city and do something!!! The subtle completion of this urban space with a few elements is a case study for "missing tooth" situations in cities across the US. The jury members were pleased to see underutilized urban spaces such as this rejuvenated and would ideally want such interventions to push for spaces that invite congregation and allow a diversity of activities..

Timeless Awards

Timeless Award
Schenley High School
Client: The Board of Education (currently the Pittsburgh Public Schools)
Architecture Firm: MacLachlan, Cornelius, & Filoni Inc., on behalf of their founder Edward Stotz)
Contractor: Thompson-Starrett Company

Jury Comments: Schenley evokes memories of high school for generations past yet, as a building it is quite contemporary as a composition of narrow floor plates, and single loaded corridors surrounding light filled courtyards. This is a rich and timeless work, with well proportioned exterior facades, with extraordinary presence and fantastic potential for adaptive reuse.

People's Choice Award

West Virginia Alumni Center
Client: West Virginia University Alumni Assoc.
Architecture Firm: IKM Incorporated
Contractor: March-Westin