2019

Associate Ashley Rao, AIA, LEED, AP Shares Mass Timber Insights in Webcast, “Wood Structures: An Impressive Renewable Resource”
Ashley Rao presents on Mass Timber design for the Nation's first large-scale mass timber residence hall, The University of Arkansas Stadium Drive Residences in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Ashley Rao is passionate about creating vibrant, sustainable buildings and urban environments and is a leader in mass timber design. In “Wood Structures: An Impressive Renewable Resource”, she shares her knowledge on construction using advanced timber technology such as Cross Laminated Timber (CLT).

View webcast: https://continuingeducation.bnpmedia.com/courses/think-wood/wood-structures-an-impressive-renewable-resource-web-live/

Patterns & Screens: Functional Facades by Design
Associate Principal Winne Stopps will be presenting at Facades+, June 25, 2019 on "Patterns & Screens: Functional Facade by Design"

Winne Stopps will be presenting strategies applied at Ohio State East Regional Chilled Water Plant, University of Pennsylvania Gateway Complex, Tufts Campus Energy Plant and Harvard District Energy Facility that explore layering of screen systems that wrap diverse campus projects from infrastructure plants to new academic buildings. Working in symbiosis with the building envelope behind, she will explain how each project defines a unique and functional pattern on site.

 

Register Here: http://facadesplus.com/boston/

College Planning & Management Features Middlesex Community College: Richard and Nancy Donahue Family Academic Arts Center
A new performing arts center for student use re-imagines an historic train depot in Lowell MA as a vibrant piece of the city, restoring the old structure and celebrating the new.

College Planning and Management featured Middlesex Community College Richard and Nancy Donahue Family Academic Arts Center, a new academic arts center that reimagines the historic Boston & Maine Railroad Depot at Towers Corner in the Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell, MA.

Read article here: https://webcpm.com/articles/2019/04/01/middlesex-community-college.aspx

BD+C Features Wentworth Institute of Technology New Center for Engineering, Innovation, and Sciences
Business, Design and Construction (BD+C) recently highlighted the New Center for Engineering, Innovation, and Sciences

The article explains that the new building is the first academic building in 45 years. It provides a home for the next evolution in the collegiate study of multiple engineering disciplines.

Additionally, as the Institute’s program transitions from engineering technology to engineering and innovation, this four-story, 75,000-square-foot building comprises a dynamic environment for multi-disciplinary collaboration among students of biology, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and two of its newest programs, biomedical engineering, and biological engineering.

Read article here: https://www.bdcnetwork.com/center-engineering-innovation-and-sciences-opens-wentworth-institute-technology’s-boston-campus 

The Plan Award Finalist: Middlesex Community College New Academic Arts Center
Middlesex Community College Donahue Family Academic Arts Center was awarded finalist in the Plan Awards in the Renovation of existing structures category.

A new performing arts center for student use re-imagines a historic train depot in Lowell, MA as a vibrant piece of the city, restoring the old structure and celebrating the new.

A maple clad egg-shaped core is inserted within the 1876 brick shell to accommodate a proscenium theater, music recital hall, and dance studio. The efficient curved shape of the new insertion serves as the central structural element of the building, supporting new spaces within as well as bracing the restored historic structure and bringing the entirety of the Center.

The site of the new performing arts center, within the Lowell National Historic Park, is part of the renewed urban core.Along the sidewalk, a linear gallery and theater lobby display student activity and invite the public in through a main entry at the base of the landmark clock tower.The extensive renovation of an underused existing historic building in a pedestrian friendly urban center near to public transportation is at the core of the project’s approach to sustainability.

 

Visit Plan Magazine here to learn more and vote for the project

ArchDaily | “Architecture Making is Like the Unveiling of a Surprise”: In Conversation with Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Principals Andrea Leers FAIA, Jane Weinzapfel FAIA, Josiah Stevenson, FAIA LEED BD+C, and Tom Chung, AIA, LEED BD+C in recent ArchDaily interview with Vladimir Belogolovsky.

“Boston-based Leers Weinzapfel Associates was founded by two women, Andrea Leers and Jane Weinzapfel, in 1982, later joined by a next generation of partners, Josiah Stevenson, and Tom Chung. The majority of their work is done on university campuses across America, but this can hardly be identified as the firm’s focus, as campuses are actually cities in miniature, containing nearly every building type imaginable. The point of difference, however, is that campus buildings are generally designed with more idealism than projects in our chaotic cities and mundane suburbs.

The firm now numbers 30 architects—just enough staff to do the kind of work they like doing, but not exceeding the size of a familial creative studio where everyone knows each other well. It received the 2007 AIA Architecture Firm Award for their numerous complex projects, distinguished by memorable forms and expressive detailing. The following conversation with the firm’s four principals took place in their office in Boston. We discussed their aspirations, values, dreams, and why architects must be optimistic…all the time.”

Read full article here

Principal Tom Chung and Associate Ashley Rao at TIMBER+ Regional Industry Forum
Leers Weinzapfel Associates Principal Tom Chung and Associate Ashley Rao discuss their work on University of Arkansas Stadium Drive Residence Halls at the TIMBER+ Regional Industry Forum.

TIMBER+ is a recurring forum of regional timber design and construction professionals for knowledge sharing and to discuss the advancement of mass timber building industry in the US and the Northeast. At the April 9th forum, Tom Chung and Ashley Rao two discussed their work at the University of Arkansas, Nation’s first large-scale mass timber residence hall.

Learn more about Leers Weinzapfel Associates Mass Timber Research here: https://www.lwa-architects.com/engineered-timber/

Nation’s first large-scale mass timber residence hall ready for occupancy in the Fall of 2019
“The interwoven building and landscaped courtyards, terraces, and lawns; the beauty of timber structure and spaces; and the excitement of performing arts and workshop facilities will make this newest campus residential community a destination and a magnet,”
- Andrea P. Leers, FAIA, Principal, Leers Weinzapfel Associates

Leers Weinzapfel Associates leads a design collaborative which includes Modus Studio (Fayetteville, AR), Mackey Mitchell Architects (St. Louis), and OLIN (Philadelphia) for the 708 bed Stadium Drive Residence Hall project at the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville. Crafted with a palette of timber, glass, and metal, it is a bold demonstration of sustainability that signifies a path to potential economic development for Arkansas’s burgeoning timber industry.

Learn more

(more…)