1Month: January 2020

The Lunder Arts Center at Lesley University is a winner of a BSA Award for Education Facilities Design!

Award levels (honor, award, or citation) were revealed on January 23, 2020 at the annual BSA awards gala.

[stblockquote title=”” top_left=”” author=””]This project makes a bold move, returning a historic church to its original location. The project is made even more impressive by the contemporary addition, whose massing and scale are just right, a perfect complement to the church. Together, the old and the new create a successful space for arts education and exhibition. – Jury Comments[/stblockquote]

Thank you to the BSA and  members of the jury for recognizing the Lunder Arts Center. We are very proud of this achievement!

We are pleased to share that the Richard A. & Susan F. Smith Campus Center at Harvard University is the winner of the 2019 Harleston Parker Medal!

Established in 1921 in memory of Boston architect J. Harleston Parker, this highest honor awarded by the Boston Society of Architects/AIA recognizes “the most beautiful piece of architecture, building, monument, or structure within the City of Metropolitan Parks District limits of Boston.”

The award was revealed on Thursday, January 23rd at the annual BSA Awards Gala, held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a previous Harelston Parker Medal winner. A panel of 9 jurors examined and toured each finalist to make their selection.

[stblockquote title=”” top_left=”” author=””]An ode to Josep Lluis Sert, this reimagined campus center respects all the strength and smart-ness of Sert’s original building while drawing it forward into the twenty-first century. The renovation was a Herculean task, turning the 1960s tower into a true community asset. Once, this building in the heart of Harvard Square was an uninviting concrete corridor. Today, it is opened and enlivened. The new glass entrance bumps out into the plaza and creates a two-floor commons that welcomes the urban and university communities. Green walls and details in warm wood add vitality and soften once-hard spaces. People clearly love being here. The Smith Campus Center is comfortable, contemporary, and contextual. As we enter an age in which we must creatively and considerately upgrade our existing building stock, the Smith Campus Center stands as a shining example, reinvigorating the used and historic with success and humanity. – Jury Comments [/stblockquote]

 

In 2019, American-Architecture featured 43 buildings throughout the United States in their “Building of the Week” review. Now, polls are open to decide which project will be named Building of the Year.

Among the 43 finalists is the Richard A. & Susan F. Smith Campus Center at Harvard University!

To cast your vote for the project you think should be named Building of the Year, visit this page and click on the “vote” button on your favorite project.

Voting closes January 31, 2020 and the winner will be announced on February 3, 2020. Only one vote per email address is possible.

About the Smith Center:
The new Smith Campus Center is a radical reappraisal of the existing ten-story building on the site of the Holyoke Center designed by Josep Lluis Sert in the 1950s. It is part of an ongoing university “Common Spaces” initiative designed to ensure its physical spaces foster the campus’s intellectual, cultural, and social experience and support the wider community.

The project reconfigures the first, second, and tenth floors, reinterpreting the history and logic of Sert’s architecture in a series of additions to, and removals from, the existing fabric to create a family of new internal spaces interspersed with a captured internal and external landscape.