Amherst College Lyceum Receives Honor Award at BSA Gala

We’re thrilled to share that our project, the Aliki Perroti & Seth Frank Lyceum at Amherst College, received the prestigious Honor Award for Built Design Excellence in Adaptive Reuse, Renovation, & Historic Preservation from the BSA!

Earlier this month, our team gathered at the Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport for an unforgettable evening celebrating design excellence at the annual Boston Society for Architecture Awards Gala. B/C Partner and Principal Jason Forney, FAIA, accepted the award on behalf of our team.

The project was commended for its creative integration of preservation, reuse, and sustainability. The jury commented:

“The project submission demonstrates a thoughtful integration of design excellence with sustainability goals, successfully combining historic preservation with modern, environmentally responsible building practices. The design emphasizes natural light, carbon neutrality, and community engagement while maintaining the aesthetic integrity of the existing Greek Revival structure. The project appears to have been very thoughtful and intentional about a variety of sustainability measures, leading to impressive energy reduction, especially considering that the project reused half of an existing building.”

A huge thank you to the BSA for this incredible recognition and for hosting a fantastic event. And of course, a special shoutout to our amazing project partners, Daniel O’Connell’s Sons, for celebrating with us and sponsoring the evening!

 

 

MASS MoCA Wins AIA Interior Architecture Award

MASS MoCA Building 6 is a recipient of the 2020 AIA Interior Architecture Award!

This award, given by the American Institute of Architects, celebrates the most innovative and spectacular interior spaces. We are thrilled that this transformative reuse project was recognized by the jury.

Gathering space at museum prow

 

MASS MoCA’s Building 6 is a new museum made from found buildings where the spectacular interiors of existing mill structures become a three-dimensional underpainting for new, impactful contemporary art galleries. Read more about the project here.

 

[stblockquote title=”” top_left=”” author=””]What an incredible project! Born out of the tradition of the Tate Modern Museum in London, this bare-bones remodel leaves most of the existing finishes in place to consciously evoke the industrial history of the building and emphasizes the reliance of art on industrial sites for their scale and economy. – Jury comment[/stblockquote]

View the official AIA award announcement here.

MASS MoCA is MAAM’s 2019 Buildy Award Recipient

Congratulations to MASS MoCA on being honored for excellence in museum building as this year’s “Buildy” award recipient by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM)!

This national award recognizes the museum as an institution, its director and staff, and the building/design construction team whose completed museum construction projects demonstrate high achievement in the lessons of the Building Museums™ Symposium: careful, creative planning and diligent implementation, leading to institutional sustainability. It is awarded each year to the most outstanding recent museum building project. The purpose of the Buildy Award is to increase awareness within the field, and by the public at large, of the value of museums and the need for their ongoing rehabilitation and expansion to serve future generations.

The criteria for winning a Buildy includes originality of concept, advancement of the museum’s mission, high achievement in planning and process, green design and construction, community benefit and response, transformative impact, and much more. This award recognizes the museum leadership’s exemplary accomplishment through the three-decade process of completing their master plan for the museum.

MASS MoCA Director Joe Thompson will be accepting the award on March 1st at the annual Building Museums™ Symposium in Brooklyn, NY.

Read the full award announcement on the MAAM website.

Hampshire College Goes 100% Solar

At Bruner/Cott, we know Hampshire College best for being home to the R.W. Kern Center, a project we completed in 2016 that was designed to meet the rigorous requirements of the Living Building Challenge. The building aims to make a lasting impression on all who enter by demonstrating Hampshire’s commitment to a sustainable future, while inspiring the next generation of leaders in environmentally conscious practices. The Kern Center is completely self-sustaining, generating its own energy, capturing its own water, and processing its own waste. Just last year, the building generated 28% more solar electricity than it used.

However, Hampshire’s commitment to going green does not stop at the Kern Center. The entire college is now running completely on solar power generated on its campus as part of its Climate Action Plan and Sustainability initiative. This initiative includes rooftop solar arrays, like the ones on the roof of the R.W. Kern Center, on structures such as the CSA Barn, the president’s house, and the canopy on top of the Chuck and Polly Longsworth Arts Center.

“There’s a major shift in the way the world makes energy,” said Hampshire College President, Jonathan Lash. “Who’s going to design new energy systems and manage that transition? It will be students like ours who were on a campus that went 100-percent solar and who studied these systems and their impacts. This makes a difference to our educational mission. This is the economy of the future.”

Congratulations to all at Hampshire College for this achievement in sustainability!

To learn more, visit the Hampshire College website.