2021 Architectural Excellence Design Awards
Each year, AIA Pennsylvania celebrates the great work that Pennsylvania’s architects are doing to affect positive social, environmental, and economic outcomes for their clients and communities. The AIA Pennsylvania Architectural Excellence Design Awards celebrate the exemplary design achievements of members and the impact of architecture regardless of budget, size, style, or type. The jury recognizes projects deemed worthy of recognition with the following levels of distinction.
- Silver Medal | A Silver Medal may be granted, at the jury’s discretion to the project that distinguishes itself from the rest of the submissions representing the highest level of achievement.
- Honor Award | An Honor Award may be granted, at the jury’s discretion, to projects that exemplify distinguished achievement in any category.
- Merit Award | A Merit Award may be granted, at the jury’s discretion, to any project that either lies outside of the other categories or bears an exceptional aspect that the jury feels represents excellence which deserves recognition.
2021 Design Awards Jury
- Kim Yao, AIA | Principal, Architecture Research Office – CHAIR
- Mark Gardner, AIA, NOMA | Principal, Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects
- Elaine Molinar, AIA | Partner and Managing Director, Snøhetta
2021 Design Awards Sponsors
Anderson Hall
Award Level: Silver Medal
Architecture Firm: Erdy McHenry Architecture
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Client: Temple University
Building Area: 3,500 sq. ft.
Budget: $7,000,000
Photography credit: Halkin Mason Photography
Category: Architecture
The existing courtyard has been transformed into a grand glass atrium lobby to the academic building, creating a new eastern gateway and entry sequence. Anderson Hall Lobby is visible from afar, offering a renewed prominence, and added functionality for a previously neglected part of campus.
200 Market Street
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: DIGSAU
Project Location: Wilmington, DE
Client: BPGS Construction
Building Area: 83,410 sq. ft.
Budget: $16,200,000
Photography credit: Halkin Mason Photography
Category: Architecture
The design responds to challenges of the through-block site by creating a distinct entry sequence from each street front, ultimately leading to a verdant, mid-block courtyard which serves as a shared community space and provides views and daylight to the dwelling units along its perimeter. Passage from Market Street is marked by a historic cast iron facade salvaged from the building which formerly occupied the site.
22 S 40th
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: ISA
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Client: U3 Ventures
Building Area: 21.000 sq. ft.
Budget: $2,600,000
Photography credit: Sam Oberter
Category: Preservation Architecture
The brick structure at 22 S 40th Street, attributed to architect Frank Furness, originally housed a precursor to the Philadelphia Free Library. Major renovations in the 1920s and 1970s transformed it into a PECO showroom and a community health clinic. The design team’s strategic approach to preservation looked to balance historic restoration with reactivating and reopening the building to West Philly’s vibrant street life, welcoming whatever the future holds.
Allentown Arts Park Pavilion
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: Atkin Olshin Schade Architects
Project Location: Allentown, PA
Client: City Center Allentown
Building Area: 200 sq. ft.
Budget: $1,500,000
Image credit: AOS Architects
Category: Un-Built
The Allentown Arts Park Pavilion will provide an improved public space for the city of Allentown. The planned Pavilion will activate the existing green space by creating a flexible performance venue. The design of the new band shell and its ancillary support facilities pulls inspiration from its proximity to many of the city’s artistic and cultural institutions, with a curvilinear form that mimics sheet music or textiles.
Alone House
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: Bright Common
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Client: Private Homeowner
Building Area: 1,850 sq. ft.
Budget: $430,000
Photography credit: Sam Oberter
Category: Small Project
Designed as a house-as-retreat amidst a changing city, Alone distinguishes itself as a vibrant interruption within the streetscape. The expressive exterior is a compliment to a quiet interior. The building pulls away from its neighbors, creating a continuous belt of outdoor living space and acoustic isolation. Using Passive House principles, increased insulation and air-tight construction, this all-electric home affords smaller mechanical systems, minimal energy use, and optimized indoor air quality.
Catherine Street Residence
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: Moto Designshop
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Client: Witheld
Building Area: 4,200 sq. ft.
Budget: $1,000,000
Photography credit: Halkin Mason Photography
Category: Single Family Residential
Catherine Street is a three-story private Residence in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood of Philadelphia. A double wide residence of approximately 4500sf. With a backyard, second floor back deck, pilot house and roof deck. The front façade has a brick screen that filters light into the house and creates privacy.
Penn Medicine Radnor
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: Ballinger
Project Location: Radnor, PA
Client: Penn Medicine (The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Health System)
Building Area: 250,000 sq. ft.
Budget: Withheld
Photography credit: Albert Vecerka/Esto
Category: Architecture
Having outgrown an ambulatory care facility with inadequate ceiling heights and disorganized layouts, Penn Medicine sought to build a new ambulatory care center in the suburbs of Philadelphia, designed for regeneration of both the site and human health. The mixed-use campus also includes an office building, hotel and parking garage, cohesively designed with shared assets and complementary uses.
Penn Squash Center
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: EwingCole
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Client: University of Pennsylvania
Building Area: 27,115 sq. ft.
Budget: Withheld
Photography credit: Halkin Mason Photography
Category: Interior Architecture
This renovation of the Penn Squash Courts reimagined an anonymous midcentury brick box as a flexible, dynamic venue for practice, recreation, and competition. Inserting refined glass courts and maple millwork within the utilitarian building shell, the design inverts the traditional “theater in the round” configuration by placing spectators centrally within the tournament hall. Structural modifications allowed improved sightlines and circulation while introducing natural light and opening new views to campus.
Pusadee's Garden Restaurant
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: mossArchitects
Project Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Client: Pusadee's Garden Restaurant
Building Area: 5,400 sq. ft.
Budget: Withheld
Photography credit: Ed Massery Photography
Category: Architecture
The design challenge for the new Pusadee’s Garden Restaurant was to create a garden oasis within the dense urban fabric of the city, while utilizing two existing 100-year-old rowhouses. The design enclosed the space between the existing historic buildings with two new connecting additions and an expansive hidden garden courtyard became the figurative and literal heart and focal point of the entire restaurant.
St. Joseph's Arrupe Hall
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: Moto Designshop
Project Location: Lower Merion, PA
Client: Witheld
Building Area: 15,000 sq. ft.
Budget: $12,000,000
Photography credit: Nic Lehoux
Category: Architecture
The new Arrupe Hall is a deeply symbolic and thoughtfully crafted place for living, learning, working, and worshipping. Developed jointly by Saint Joseph’s University and the Eastern Province of the Society of Jesus, it’s a home for Jesuits and a hub for apostolic life in Philadelphia, designed to foster connection and collaboration across all the city’s ministries.
Stephan Girard Building | Canopy by Hilton
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: BLT Architects
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Client: National Real Estate Advisors
Building Area: 156800 sq. ft.
Budget: $60000000
Photography credit: Jeffrey Totaro
Category: Preservation Architecture
The Stephen Girard Building is an iconic Beaux-Arts-style high-rise in Philadelphia. After the threat of demolition, the building instead reveals its beautiful design elements that maintain its historic integrity with a modern interpretation. It now stands as an integral part of East Market, a mixed-use development project along Market Street. Renovated, restored, and redeveloped, the former office building now operates as a 236-key hotel under the Canopy by Hilton flag.
The Cove at the Piazza
Award Level: Honor Award
Architecture Firm: DIGSAU
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Client: Post Brothers
Building Area: 5,000 sq. ft.
Budget: Withheld
Photography credit: Halkin Mason Photography
Category: Architecture
The Cove at the Piazza reshapes a grand but underused urban space by introducing landscape gardens and a variety of wellness, fitness, and recreation spaces. While the original scale of the Piazza was well suited for large events, its new configuration creates a series of smaller spaces that are better suited for day to day use.
Ambler Yards
Award Level: Merit Award
Architecture Firm: ISA
Project Location: Ambler, PA
Client: Station Partners
Building Area: 285,000 sq. ft.
Budget: Withheld
Photography credit: Sam Oberter
Category: Impact Design
Ambler Yards transformed a collection of mid-century lab, office and industrial buildings into a 21st century working environment through targeted renovations and a new public landscape. Outdoor social zones invite passive recreation and public use with food trucks, farmers markets and beer gardens. Existing buildings of various styles and eras were enhanced with new entry portals, wayfinding and landscaping with a shared language of signage, materials and color.
Fifth Facade: Franklin County Extension
Award Level: Merit Award
Architecture Firm: Erdy McHenry Architecture
Project Location: Columbus, OH
Client: Ohio State University
Building Area: 10,500 sq. ft.
Budget: WIthheld
Photography credit: Brad Feinknopf
Category: Architecture
The Franklin County Extension, the first facility completed as part of the CFAES Master Plan acts as the threshold to the coveted Waterman site, bridging between the community and the University, consistent with its Land Grant mission. While the focus on practical agriculture remains central to the Franklin County Extension mission, the main emphasis of this new facility is to fulfill the needs of the youth and adults it serves.
Jeff and Judy Henley Hall: Institute for Energy Efficiency
Award Level: Merit Award
Architecture Firm: KieranTimberlake
Project Location: Isla Vista, CA
Client: University of California Santa Barbara
Building Area: 40,980 sq. ft.
Budget: $49,000,000
Photography credit: Bruce Damonte
Category: Architecture
The Institute for Energy Efficiency at University of California, Santa Barbara required a headquarters that could adapt to a fast-arriving future of scientific research. Henley Hall is a 49,900 sq. ft., LEED platinum-aspiring laboratory and education building housing laboratories, offices, and collaboration space.
The three-story building is a building that breathes and connects to its stunning natural surroundings while integrating energy-saving measures that minimize operational carbon.
Kingfly Spirits
Award Level: Merit Award
Architecture Firm: Margittai Architects
Project Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Client: Kingfly Spirits
Building Area: 10061 sq. ft.
Budget: $
Photography credit: Ed Massery
Category: Preservation Architecture
Built in 1907, the 10,000 square foot structure was built as a horse stable and served several functions over the years, including a taxi depot and consignment store. For this underutilized building, which had little infrastructure, the owner challenged us to design a micro-distillery with a welcoming interior that serves both as an amenity to be enjoyed by Strip District neighbors, as well as a destination spot for visitors.
Oxford Green
Award Level: Merit Award
Architecture Firm: ISA
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Client: Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia
Building Area: 34,500 sq. ft.
Budget: $4,800,000
Photography credit: Sam Orberter
Category: Impact Design
The Oxford Green development is the largest, greenest project to-date by the Philadelphia chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Sited in the Sharswood neighborhood on a former Philadelphia Housing Authority superblock, the project created homeownership opportunities for 20 low-income families through Habitat’s unique community building model. The development’s higher density attached rowhouse model provides enhanced sustainability, efficiency and livability, and serves as a key design prototype for the organization's future growth.
Tangen Hall
Award Level: Merit Award
Architecture Firm: KSS Architects
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Client: University of Pennsylvania
Building Area: 68,357 sq. ft.
Budget: $32,000,000
Photography credit: Jeffrey Totaro
Category: Architecture
Project Partner: Tangen Hall is supported by project partner, Phase Shift Consulting, who served as the project's AV/IT Consultant. With a belief that technology should be seamlessly integrated with architecture, Phase Shift Consulting designs AV, IT, and security solutions for the built environment. It’s truly technology design for a new era!
Tangen Hall acts as a “start here” button for students and alumni on campus and a beacon of Penn’s commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship. Home to Venture Lab, a partnership between the Wharton School, Penn Engineering, and the Weitzman School of Design, Tangen Hall centralizes Penn’s startup ecosystem and provides transdisciplinary experiential learning opportunities. The design focuses on fluid interaction at various scales to create a “toolbox for the University.”
The Mann Center
Award Level: Merit Award
Architecture Firm: EwingCole
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Client: The Mann Center for the Performing Arts
Building Area: 48,300 sq. ft.
Budget: Withheld
Image credit: Ewing Cole
Category: Un-Built
The new master plan for the Mann Center for the Performing Arts is a bold 20-year vision that seeks to provide a 21st century guest experience and expand the Mann’s entertainment, education, and community programs on an already constricted campus. The design integrates building and landscape, creating occupiable green roof terraces, keep the guests connected with nature, and maintain vistas to the performance stages and to the city skyline.