2022

Growing Our Leadership

We are delighted to look toward the future in this post-pandemic era, and to expand our leadership group to meet new challenges.  Please join us in welcoming three new Associate Principals – Ashley Rao, Kevin Bell, and Katia Lucic- who will continue our commitment to architecture and urban design of the highest quality to enrich human experience and strengthen our social fabric.

Ashley Rao, AIA, LEED AP, CPHC
A firm leader with a collaborative design sensibility and exceptional communication skills, Ashley is equally able to articulate design concepts and to engage challenging construction issues.
Kevin Bell, AIA
Kevin leads the firm’s technology integration process, guiding the studio’s digital direction.
Katia Lucic, AIA LEED AP

With broad experience in campus and site planning as well as architecture and interior design, Katia brings a comprehensive view to each of her projects.

Learn more here

Roslindale Library Featured in Library Journal The Year in Architecture 2022

“Roslindale Branch, Boston Public Library, MA. A maze-like configuration of double-sided shelving invites exploration and curiosity while still being low enough to see over.” – Library Journal

Built in the 1960s, the 14,885sf Boston’s Roslindale Library is undergoing a complete renovation for the digital age while maintaining a number of its original features.

See feature here

Learn more about the project here

Anonymous Hall, Honorable Mention for The Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Awards 2022

“Now celebrating the 28th year, The American Architectural Awards® are the nation’s highest and most prestigious distinguished building awards program that honor new and cutting-edge design in the United States. This annual program, organized by both our institutions, also promotes American architecture and design to our public audience in the U.S. and abroad. This year, the Museum received a record number of projects for new buildings, landscape architecture, and urban planning from the most important firms practicing in the U.S. and globally.”

-The Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture

This year Anonymous Hall was recognized as a Honorable Mention. This project reuses and adds to a vacant 1960s library in the heart of the medical school quad, transforming it into a vibrant administrative and social center for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a communal hub for the north campus. Part of a wider campus renewal plan, metrics show the project is close to net zero energy use.

Learn more about the project here.

View full list of winners here.

Harvard University District Energy Facility, Longlist for the Dezeen Awards 2022
Dezeen Awards Longlist for Architectural Lighting

“Dezeen Awards is our annual awards programme, now in its fifth year. It identifies the world’s best architecture, interiors and design, as well as the studios and the individual architects and designers producing the most outstanding work.

Organised by Dezeen, the world’s most popular and influential architecture and design website, Dezeen Awards is the benchmark for international design excellence and the ultimate accolade for architects and designers everywhere.

Leers Weinzapfel has created a lighting scheme for a utility system building at Harvard University.

This District Energy Facility embodies a state-of-the-art, sustainable utility generation system for Harvard University’s expanding Allston campus, providing reliable heating, cooling, and electricity.

Occupying a former railyard, the DEF will soon be surrounded by science/engineering related development, and midrise residences. Technology is put on display day and evening by lighting the vibrant colour-coded equipment and spaces from within: the exterior aluminium fins forming a wrapper around the building’s cubic shape are gently top-lit to maintain their bold form, while a large cylindrical exterior tank is also gently lit, with pre-set colour options for celebrating community events.” – Dezeen Awards

https://www.dezeen.com/awards/2022/longlists/harvard-university-district-energy-facility/

“Leers Weinzapfel Associates Renovates a Space Age Library in Boston”
Metropolis features Boston Public Library Roslindale Branch

“It’s the only Boston library branch that’s semicircular and the only one with a dome,” says Tom Chung, LWA principal in charge of the project. “We were told the outside was off limits; that’s how much the public really treasures the library.” It also works on an urban level, Chung continues, by hugging a curved street at the neighborhood’s epicenter, right across from its town green. The most substantial exterior intervention was the addition of an exterior patio, which follows the curve of the building. – Metropolis

Read Metropolis Feature here: https://metropolismag.com/projects/leers-weinzapfel-associates-roslindale-library/

Principal Tom Chung Key Speaker in The Architect’s Newspaper Timbercon
"Reducing Embodied Carbon through Mass Timber"

“TimberCon 2022, hosted by The Architect’s Newspaper in partnership with the Mass Timber Institute, will foreground exemplary timber projects across North America; identify best-case practices for their assembly; and spotlight emerging technologies within this exciting field. This one day virtual event that shows off the most exciting mass timber projects and technological advancements and includes panels ranging from mass timber’s new heights to timber’s role in net zero carbon goals.” – AN’

Join Principal Tom Chung FAIA, LEED AP, BD+C as a key speaker in The Architect’s Newspaper Timbercon 2022 “Reducing Embodied Carbon through Mass Timber”. This conference will feature exemplary North American timber projects, taking place virtually, September 28th.

Learn more and register: https://timbercon.archpaper.com/

“Boston’s Roslindale Branch Library Transforms for the Digital Age”
Building Enclosure Magazine features Boston Public Library Roslindale Branch

A complete renovation of Boston’s Roslindale Branch Library transforms a 1960s building into a neighborhood hub for the digital age with community learning and gathering. Following the geometry of the original building, the open reading space for adults, teens, and children is welcoming, accessible, and “Free To All.” While much of the exterior of the original building remains, a new entry highlighted by a canopy and colorful terracotta baguettes, symbolic of Roslindale’s diverse community, provides universal access. An intimate reading garden is a place of respite in the busy urban setting.

Building Enclosure Magazine features Boston Public Library Roslindale Branch. Read article here: https://t.co/KA8mJd9pD4

Harvard District Energy Facility and Woodland Wonders Nature Preschool Shortlisted for 2022 WAN Awards

“The World Architecture News Awards brings together the most senior and influential professionals from across Architecture to recognise and celebrate excellence. The Awards shine a spotlight on the standout architectural projects and the amazing people and teams behind them.”- WAN

For the 2022 Awards, we have been shortlisted for two of our projects. The Harvard University District Energy Facility has been shortlisted for Urban Landscape. The Auburn University, School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences, Woodland Wonders Preschool was shortlisted for Future Education.

Learn more about Harvard University District Energy Facility: https://www.lwa-architects.com/project/harvard-university-district-energy-facility/

Learn more about Woodland Wonders Nature Preschool: https://www.lwa-architects.com/project/kreher-preserve-nature-center-preschool/

See WAN Shortlist page: https://www.wanawards.com/shortlist-2022

 

Leers Weinzapfel Associates Celebrates 40 Years as an Architecture Firm

Today is a very special day at Leers Weinzapfel Associates – We are celebrating 40 years as an architecture firm!

Founded in 1982, our practice has had two fundamental goals since it’s inception: to create bold and refined architecture for the public realm and to create a collaborative workplace inclusive of the diverse voices and talents of our colleagues. Learn more about the history of LWA: https://www.lwa-architects.com/commitment/

Happy 40th Birthday Leers Weinzapfel Associates!