Happy to announce that we’ve been selected as part of the newest cohort of the Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence program! We’re excited to work with the selection committee and the Walton Family Foundation to shape and strengthen the community by ​​helping create inclusive public spaces.

Link to Walton Family Foundation Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program website and full list of program participants: https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/grants/design-excellence/selected-firms

Link to the news release: https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/about-us/newsroom/walton-family-foundation-builds-on-design-excellence-programs-diversity-breadth

“A Statement of Power at Harvard”

“The challenge was to wrap the working machinery of the DEF within an envelope that was “harmonious and dignified, but also spirited.” Ms. Weinzapfel took its tumble of pipes, pumps, tanks and generators, and encased it within a lattice of anodized aluminum fins, all pointed upward. They are highly attractive, resembling airplane wings, and they look as if they should move. (They don’t.) They are canted at various angles around the building; to the south they screen the sun, to the north they welcome it, and at various other points they offer tantalizing views of the machinery within.” – The Wall Street Journal

Leers Weinzapfel Associates new 56,000 sf District Energy Facility (DEF) sets the stage for a state-of-the-art, cost effective, and sustainable utility generation and distribution system for Harvard’s Allston campus that also makes a significant contribution to its urban design.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-statement-of-powerat-harvard-district-energy-facility-harvard-university-leers-weinzapfel-architects-11640030064?page=1 

“Metal fins and abundant glass boldly announce Harvard University’s District Energy Facility (DEF) which, quite literally, provides windows on the building’s state-of-the-art equipment. The DEF, designed by Leers Weinzapfel Associates, efficiently generates electricity and hot and cold water for the school’s expansion into Boston’s Allston neighborhood. The team designed the LEED Gold natural gas–fired cogeneration plant—the first building in what will be a dense urban campus—for flexibility, anticipating future technological innovation and demands on capacity. Conceived to withstand flooding, dampen sound, and reduce emissions, the resilient structure includes a thermal energy-storage tank, backup equipment, and self-restart capabilities. These high-performance inner workings guided the team’s approach for the building that contains them. “We wanted the facility to have an elegant, refined exterior, but one that didn’t compromise any of the equipment’s requirements,” says founding principal Jane Weinzapfel. A galvanized-steel structure supports the glazed curtain wall and anodized-aluminum fins, which are rotated at different angles on each side of the cube for varying degrees of opacity. The DEF facilitates engagement with an “energy-on-display” model, Weinzapfel explains. “It would be a shame to button it all up.”” – Architectural Record

See feature here: https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/15395-snapshot-district-energy-facility-by-leers-weinzapfel-associates-on-harvards-allston-campus

This project reuses and adds to a vacant 1960’s 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 hub for the north campus.  The 32,995sf Anonymous Hall project—as well as new entrances for its surrounding buildings, a wide pedestrian bridge, and new circulation between buildings—is transforming the college’s least compelling area into a well-scaled part of this historic campus.

The addition’s main floor houses the building’s lobby and a café, with an adjacent terrace overlooking a newly formed green.  Tied together by a spiral object stair visible from the south lawn, the building’s upper floors contain faculty offices, classrooms, and places for student gathering. The penthouse level features a solar-paneled canopy and a south-facing planted terrace that overlooks the iconic main campus.

The graduate student lounge in the walkout basement opens to a protected courtyard below a pedestrian bridge.

A structure in a cold climate, the choices of high R value terra-cotta-clad walls, solar panel canopy, triple-glazed windows, and south-facing glass with an expanded metal interlayer to limit summer sun create a building with a low embodied energy that approaches net zero energy use.  This low operational carbon building is further improved by reusing the existing 1960’s concrete and steel structure achieving low embodied carbon use.

See the project featured here: https://www.wanawards.com/finalists/anonymous-hall-dartmouth-college-ad0002

See the all finalists and winners here: https://www.wanawards.com/winners-2021

Wentworth Institute of Technology Center for Engineering, Innovation and Sciences and Adohi Hall at University of Arkansas each have received 2021 American Architecture Awards in the Schools and Universities category.

“Now celebrating the 27th 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. From a short list of 400 projects, the 2021 Jury for Awards was held in Australia, and over 125 projects were selected by a distinguished group of Miami architects, educators, and developers.” – Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Awards

A full list of winning projects for 2021 is attached and can be viewed soon at our Museum’s website at www.chi-athenaeum.org or at www.americanarchitectureawards.com.

Learn more: https://www.americanarchitectureawards.com/award-category.html?cat=14&page=2

“Josiah Stevenson, FAIA, Principal in Charge and Senior Associate Kevin J. Bell , with Leers Weinzapfel will present the Anonymous Hall project at Dartmouth College, part of a wider campus renewal plan. Metrics show the project is close to net zero energy use. The building was stripped to its columns and slabs to remove hazardous materials in the existing library walls before construction could begin. As a reused concrete structure in a cold climate, the choices of highly insulated terra-cotta-clad walls, triple glazed windows, and a photovoltaic canopy created a building with low embodied energy that approaches net zero energy usage. The facade system is first-of-its-kind in the US, comprising multiple advanced technologies including vacuum insulated panels, krypton filled triple glazing, metal mesh integral shading, and toggle-held structural glazing (2″ IGUs).” – Continuing Education Center

Register for the event here

Learn more about the Anonymous Hall project here

Adohi Hall was finalist for two World Architecture Festival Design Awards.

The Adohi Hall team gave live presentations to the jury for the categories of Housing and Best Use of Certified Timber.

Adohi Hall is the first large-scale mass timber residence hall and living learning setting and was largest cross laminated timber (CLT) building in the United States at its completion in 2019. Leers Weinzapfel led a design collaborative including Modus Studio (Fayetteville, AR), Mackey Mitchell Architects (St. Louis), and OLIN (Philadelphia), in the realization of this new campus gateway project. The 202,027-square-foot Adohi Hall creates a new residential college with emphasis on a creative live learn environment within a relaxed, informal, tree-lined landscape that re-conceptualizes university housing.

Learn More

“With an Array of Sustainability Measures, Dartmouth’s Newest Building Stands Above the Pack

The architectural retrofit by Leers Weinzapfel Associates replaces a midcentury clunker with a cutting-edge, net-zero student center.” – Metropolis Magazine

Read Article here
Learn more about the project here

The largest cross laminated timber (CLT) building in the United States and the first large-scale mass timber residence hall and living learning setting. Leers Weinzapfel led a design collaborative including Modus Studio (Fayetteville, AR), Mackey Mitchell Architects (St. Louis), and OLIN (Philadelphia), in the realization of this new campus gateway project. The 202,027-square-foot Adohi Hall creates a new residential college with emphasis on a creative live learn environment within a relaxed, informal, tree-lined landscape that re-conceptualizes university housing.

The AIA Housing Awards, “emphasize good housing as a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit, and a valuable national resource. Recipients show the world how beauty, safety, sustainability, and comfort can come together.”

The Judges commented, “Lovely secondary and shared spaces and illustration of the use of timber throughout, including in dorm rooms. The building also considers and reflects the broader landscape, linking interior and exterior spaces through a transparent ground plane.”

Learn more about this project here

See the award announcement here

In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month The Boston Society of Architects is sharing profiles on Asian Americans in the profession. Learn more about Tom Sung-Jin Chung FAIA, Principal at Leers Weinzapfel Associates.