2024

Timber Architecture Design Faculty Development Workshop

We welcome tenure-track faculty at accredited architecture schools throughout the U.S. to apply for an intensive 3-day workshop geared towards equipping faculty interested in teaching Mass Timber design. 

The objectives of the workshop is to provide faculty in architecture schools throughout the country, holistic understanding about mass timber (what it is, its life-cycle components, design and engineering possibilities, benefits and challenges, industry connections, etc.) to enhance academic teaching in mass timber that is grounded in practice and facilitates creative explorations of design possibilities. The workshop is sponsored by the Softwood Lumber Board and U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities. 

As the workshop balances practice and academia, the collaboration of Leers Weinzapfel Associates Architects (LWA) and Auburn University’s Mass Timber Collaborative brings together architecture, forestry, engineering, and construction spanning both. 

LWA is an internationally recognized architecture firm with over a hundred design awards and a recipient of the national AIA’s Firm Award, the highest honor bestowed on a firm by the AIA. LWA’s two signature mass timber buildings, John W. Olver Design Building at UMass Amherst (among the first and most advanced large scale academic CLT buildings in the US and national AIA Honor Award and Education Design Award Winner) and Adohi Hall at the University of Arkansas (the largest CLT building in the US at the time of completion in 2019 and national AIA Housing Design Award Winner) are nationally recognized as pioneering examples of mass timber architecture. 

Auburn University Mass Timber Collaborative, a recipient of the 2023 USDA Wood Innovations Grant, brings together the mass timber research and education among Auburn University’s College of Architecture, Design and Construction (CADC), College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment (CFWE), and Samuel Ginn College of Engineering (SGCE). 

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AIA COD 2024 – Connecting Cultures, Catalyzing Change: Northwest Arkansas in the Ozarks

LWA Principal Ashley Rao will be a speaker at this year’s AIA Conference, COD 2024 – Connecting Cultures, Catalyzing Change: Northwest Arkansas in the Ozarks, presenting on University of Arkansas Adohi Hall & Mass Timber. Join her on April 6th 3:30-5:30pm as she gives a tour of Adohi Hall and discusses the Mass Timber design and construction.

Register Today – https://events.aia.org/s/lt-event?id=a1Y8Z00000AQbKZ.

Five Projects Awarded at the 2023 Boston Society of Architects Design Awards!

We are excited to announce that five of our projects have been honored for the 2023 BSA Design Awards.

Jury Comment: “Beautiful presentation of the library renovation. Lovely explanation of the mini-vignettes within the library, and the story of the renovation itself is expressed clearly through the exploded axon. The “maze” of children’s bookshelves is a clever touch. Using the dome for light, and relating the organization of kids and adult areas with the existing window conditions, is smart and allows for the lower stacks and “book maze” for the kids, and more enclosed area for the kids’ reading lounge areas.”

Jury Comment: “This project is exciting because of how it allows for a design that places children and their caregivers deeply within nature while adhering to the look and actual material of that surrounding environment. The project goals are clearly articulated and evident in the aesthetics from building massing down to the details described.”

Jury Comment: “Exploring the incorporation of mass timber structure into a triple-decker typology and providing affordable housing are noteworthy; tackling sustainability and housing issues at the same time.”

Jury Comment: “This project presents an exciting approach to Mass Timber Construction with a creative acknowledgement of the nation’s tree biodiversity and a design that allows visitors to appreciate the Center and the surrounding context. The Center’s mission to educate the public about the history and ongoing conservation work by showcasing wood species as part of the structure and user experience is very thoughtful and done successfully.”

Jury Comment: “The goal of creating a both socially and technically connected building system is valuable and shows an alignment, again, with student interests in the project’s relationship to land and the surrounding environment. Approaches to healthy materials and building systems were clearly articulated, as was the responsible approach to water management. Aesthetically, the building’s inventive form and response to context are well considered.”

http://designawards.architects.org/2023-award-winners/

High-Profile March 2024 Issue

Cornell University Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science building is featured in High-Profile’s March 2024 Schools and Institutions issue, focusing on higher education projects underway and including a focus on the North Atlantic region of the Society for College and University Planning (NA SCUP).

Bringing together the departments of Computer Science, Information Science, and Statistics and Data Science for the first time in one complex, the new building will create both a precinct and a destination for the university’s rapidly growing computing and information science programs. “Creating comfortable and healthy interior environments is key sustainability driver for the project” – Katia Lucic, AIA, LEED AP as quoted in High-Profile.

 

See the feature here: https://issuu.com/highprofile/docs/highprofile2403

2023

Boston Public Library – Roslindale Branch has received Editor’s Pick in the Libraries Category for Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design 2023!

Built in 1960’s, Roslindale Library needed a major renovation. It had served the community well but all aspects had become outdated. The gut renovation restored its best features while renovating it for the next fifty years. Renovation strategies included highlighting the dome and preserving its starburst sculpture with new semicircular open layout and the service desk below it, new starburst lighting array, wayfinding with supergraphics for a diverse, multiethnic community, a children’s area “book maze” and a new entry with colorful terra-cotta tiles. Preservation of over 90% of existing structure and envelope and new efficient MEP systems resulted in low embodied carbon and operational carbon. Celebrating its unique circular shaped domed space, the blue color wall continues the terra-cotta tiles at the entry and organizes all the program rooms behind it, including multipurpose community room and quiet reading room. An urban reading garden brings respite to a busy city block.

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Roslindale Branch Library has received Honorable Mention for The Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Awards 2023!

Built in 1960’s, Roslindale Library needed a major renovation. It had served the community well but all aspects had become outdated. The gut renovation restored its best features while renovating it for the next fifty years. Renovation strategies included highlighting the dome and preserving its starburst sculpture with new semicircular open layout and the service desk below it, new starburst lighting array, wayfinding with supergraphics for a diverse, multiethnic community, a children’s area “book maze” and a new entry with colorful terra-cotta tiles. Preservation of over 90% of existing structure and envelope and new efficient MEP systems resulted in low embodied carbon and operational carbon. Celebrating its unique circular shaped domed space, the blue color wall continues the terra-cotta tiles at the entry and organizes all the program rooms behind it, including multipurpose community room and quiet reading room. An urban reading garden brings respite to a busy city block.   

Learn more