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Family Recreation Building by AMDG Architects

Project Statement

Set in a low-density residential area with an agricultural history, this structure draws inspiration from historic barns in the surrounding area. The program calls for a recreational facility to accommodate a gym, a pool, bowling, and both interior and exterior entertaining spaces. Merging agricultural character with the programmatic functions yields a design in which gym and pool occupy distinct barn-like structures. A connective infill piece negotiates the negative space between the large masses and accommodates the entertaining space and supporting functions.

Siting of the building takes advantage of expansive views to the open field and skating pond to the south, while nestling into a secluded spot at the edge of the existing woods. A gracious exterior patio to the south and west maximizes sun exposure for exterior gathering spaces.

Expression and detailing of the barn pieces draw upon agrarian precedent. These are distilled to simple geometry of both form and detail by means of board and batten siding, restrained exterior trims, a galvanized standing-seam metal roof, half-round gutters, simple light fixtures, and a massive sliding barn door.

The connective infill piece, with its more complex form and detail, contrasts and complements the barn-like masses and draws inspiration from traditional notions of a porch. Deep overhangs and a robust exterior fireplace create exterior gathering spaces for enjoying the site, while the stained cedar supporting brackets, the vertical tongue-and-groove cedar siding, and divided light wood windows provide a transition in scale from the larger volumes.

The building plants itself firmly on the site with a base detailed in natural stone. This base transitions between the porch and the green space by means of gracious, spreading stairs. The gently curving retaining wall of the porch serves as a bench for impromptu gatherings of few or many.

Jury Comments 

The jury felt that this project was the most successful exterior design of all the submittals. Beautifully proportioned, the project has a clarity of design elements and details. The massing solution is very clear and simple, in contrast to the house it serves. The exterior palette gave it a strong relationship to American barn traditions and yet the exterior overall solution was fresh and varied. The project would have been even stronger had the interiors been guided by the same principles.

DeVos Place by Progressive AE / Ellebe Becket 

Project Statement

Challenges:

Expand and create a new convention center on a 13-acre limited urban site with severe subsurface geological conditions, bordered by existing buildings, primary streets, and a major river.  An existing performance hall in the center of the site needed to be incorporated into the complex and kept in operation throughout the project.  Important historic art deco elements of an auditorium building on site also had to be preserved and restored.

The Convention Center design was the direct result of an extensive, interactive, and community-inclusive process conducted through a series of design matrix workshops that involved the convention committee as well as numerous user groups, event planners, exhibitors, and the convention center management team.  This process led to the development of the Project Mission Statement (criteria to test the success of the design of the project).

Mission Statement:

”The Convention Center will be a positive, memorable architectural experience integrated throughout with a destination quality riverfront.  It will have five beautiful sides (includes the roof) that visually connect to a safe and secure pedestrian environment.  These linkages to the river and the surrounding street spaces, combined with adequate parking and improved access, will help energize a successful and vibrant downtown commercial, entertainment, and river district.  The center’s public spaces will be open, inviting, and elegant with a gracious entry and clear and simple circulation layout.  Meeting spaces will be flexible, appropriately sized, served by efficient operations, and equipped with the latest technology.  The facility will serve its focused market and be financially successful with a thoughtful strategy for expansion.“

Major Program Elements:

Prefunction, exhibit, meeting rooms, ballroom, kitchen/support, loading docks, parking, skywalk connections

Design Solution:

The architectural form creates a memorable and identifiable presence in the urban core of the city.  Inspired by the dynamic movement of the river and its rapids, the curving roof covering the Exhibit Hall ends in a cascading glass form over an interior pedestrian street (the Grand Gallery) that creates a dramatic image and spatial experience.

The key space is the skylit Grand Gallery, which links Monroe Avenue, through the Convention Center, to the Grand Riverwalk promenade.  Each end is a ”front door.“  This prefunction, public lobby is a multi-story space that also links the major components of the Center – Exhibit Hall, Meeting Rooms, and Ballroom – at all levels, forming a memorable orientation space and a simple organizing element within the overall complex.  The Grand Gallery also links the Convention Center to a new lobby at the Performance Hall at both street and skywalk levels.  The skywalk connects south through downtown hotels, offices, and the arena.

Directly off the Grand Gallery is the Exhibit Hall, which is 165,000 square feet, column-free, and divisible into three 150-foot by 360-foot halls, each the size of a football field.  Enclosed loading docks have drive-on ramp access to the Hall.  Because of the prominent location along the Grand River and Monroe Avenue, the Exhibit Hall has windows to allow convention-goers to enjoy the views and for the public to experience the activity within the Center.

Flexible, divisible meeting rooms front onto the Grand Gallery from two levels.  Approximately 15,000 square feet of meeting rooms are at street level, immediately across the lobby from the Exhibit Hall.  The remainder of the meeting rooms are stacked onto a second level with a balcony prefunction area overlooking the full length of the Grand Gallery.

Dramatic riverfront prefunction space directly off the Grand Gallery has views to the river and parks across the water and leads to the Ballroom, a 40,000-square-foot divisible space that provides banquet seating for 4,000.  Combined, the Exhibit Hall and Ballroom provide 200,000 square feet of Class A exhibition space.

Jury Comments 

This project is nicely scaled for such a large program. It contributes greatly to the city his project through its sensitive siting along the riverfront. The jury was impressed with the careful renovation of the existing theater, and with the willingness of the client to preserve and integrate a significant piece of urban history into the project. The grand gallery, exuberantly designed, would have benefited from more generous exterior plaza space.

Cyril & Methodius Catholic Parish by SCHEMATA, Incorporated

Project Statement

Many rural communities love their little white church in the countryside and this Parish was no different.  Unfortunately the building was located very close to the road and did not allow the Church to take advantage of their 10 Acre rural site and restricted them from expanding the facility to meet its growing worship, education, ministry, and administrative needs.  The design solution saved and relocated the much loved existing little white church and moved it to the northeast corner of the site.  This effort proved not only to be an economical solution, but it also satisfied the emotional attachment that many Parishioner’s had with their ”little white church in the pines“.  The new position and design of the complex allowed for development of the Master Plan which calls for a social hall, additional meeting room classrooms, and worship area expansion.  The facility can be expanded in three of the four axial directions.

The existing church building was renovated to be used as an appropriately sized narthex / fellowship gathering space and other support areas: accessible toilet rooms, coffee kitchenette, meeting room / cry room(s).

The new additions house the administration, classrooms / meeting rooms, the worship assembly area and worship support areas. The worship space uses utilitarian type materials, for example standard exposed open web wood trusses and exposed structural insulated panels (SIPs) as roof structure.  Roof dormers allow natural light to transform and uplift the space as well as break up the mass of the large assembly nave roof and add to its’ agrarian character.   More refined materials and detail are incorporated into the design at the people level, maple architectural panels and liturgical art.

At the entry to the worship space the existing font is incorporated into a new baptistry.  In this location the font welcomes the baptized congregation into the church in the same way it welcomes new Christians into the parish community.  The combining of the old and new font elements connects the newly baptized with the many parish members whose baptisms took place in this old font, yet another connection between the Church’s past with its present.

Creative use of burnished concrete masonry units (CMU) as the finished floor material, laid in a patterns which reinforce liturgical movement and sacramental actions within the worship space, are yet another way simple materials are used in a creative way throughout the building.

Liturgical furnishings were designed in simple elegance, which reflects the character of the people, and allowed parishioner to hand craft the elements from solid wood timbers.  Seating is provided with movable chair which can be set in a variety of layouts as different liturgical celebrations may dictate.  The chairs incorporate natural rush seats which are yet another element which ties the community to the straw field and cattail leaves which surround it.

In addition to the reuse of the former church building itself, salvaged stained glass windows greet the people as they enter the worship space and patron saint(s) statuary, located above information kiosk, inform and send the congregation out from the narthex gathering space.

The elements of parish history that were incorporated into the new design keep this rural community ground in its’ history and the new expanded complex set the stage for the facility to service the Parish well into the future.  This little white country church in the pines remains rooted in its’ past and is poised for parish and liturgical growth in the coming decades.

Jury Comments 

This church project represents a sensitive preservation and extension of the American ideal of the ”small white church.“ It was apparent to the jury that this church was gracefully done within moderate means and with a careful understanding of the needs of the community.

Hurwitz Residence by Integrated Architecture

Project Statement

The arrangement of the 4,500 square foot home for Stephanie and Daniel H. and their two children responded directly to the undulating ridge on which it was placed.  Its series of three living environments and their segmented layout facilitated the home’s ability to respond to the topography, the surrounding private woods and the family’s requirement that the house be barrier free for the son, who has muscular dystrophy. 

Designed primarily of natural materials, including wood beams, slate and hardwood floors, stone and glass, the home is modern and simple, yet organic and connected.  Framed by stone walls and spanned by floor to roof transparent planes, it provides a strong link to the natural surroundings during the day, and then reverses at night, morphing to form more ‘solid’ edges.

The circulation spine, a lower scale gallery space, showcases the children’s art while creating a privacy wall between the living segment and the out-of-doors.  It also captures light with an east faced clerestory. 

The ‘living’ segment is the central element which serves as the emotional / social nucleus of the home and includes an open kitchen and counter for on the go meals and snacks.  A built-in eating alcove for evening meals creates an intimate space within the room, supporting special family time.  Built-in cabinetry and entertainment center, along the inside of the gallery wall, provide ample space for display of family photos and collectables, while elegantly containing the large screen TV.   

The public segment, a more formal visitor connection area, offers space for large dinner parties or intimate gatherings as guests enjoy the fireplace or the surrounding natural beauty.  It also includes a private guest suite and terrace.

Bedrooms, baths and office areas comprise the third living environment.  The home office, accessed by a bridge, is both physically and emotionally separate from the ‘living’ space.  Here, too, abundant natural light and magnificent views support creative thought. 

A fourth segment consisting of the garage, laundry and storage spaces extends essentially perpendicular from the others, suggesting a sense of containment for those approaching the home.

Barrier free, the seamless transition from outdoor to indoor and living segment to living segment is accomplished by utilizing space and form rather than walls and doors.  The result is a home that supports family connections both inside and out.

Jury Comments 

Open and inviting, the entry conveys a dramatic sense of arrival. The interior spaces show a sophisticated use of scale and transparency, and the attention to daylight accentuates the building’s siting in the forest.