Three PAYETTE Projects Win SCUP Awards

Three of our recently completed projects earned Merit Awards in the SCUP/AIA-CAE Excellence in Architecture for a New Building award program. Two of our winning projects created a new home on campus for a school of public health and a school for the environment and the third is one of the largest research buildings in Ireland. This awards program recognizes excellence in planning, design and implementation efforts of firms and institutions, as well as the achievements of individuals whose lives and passions involve higher education.

Duke University, Environment Hall: Nicholas School of the Environment

As one of the world’s premier schools for the study of environmental science and policy, the Nicholas School sought a new paradigm — one that attempts to understand the earth, its inhabitants and the environment as an integrated whole by addressing today’s critical issues in the fields of climate and energy, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and human health and the environment. The design objective was to establish a new home for the School, embodying this mission, by consolidating the School into a single precinct consisting of a new high-performance classroom and departmental office building paired with the existing, robust Levine Science Research Center. Given the project’s prominent location, the client desired a transparent beacon to signify a new architectural language for campus buildings. Reconciling this desire for transparency with the imperative for thermal performance and sustainability was paramount.

George Washington University, Milken Institute School of Public Health

This facility, a new school of public health, represents a dramatic departure from the conventional academic building. Eschewing the tradition of attaching teaching spaces to the exterior, this building’s pod-like classrooms are set back from the glazed exterior wall to sit within a vibrant, six-story atrium of student activity and study space overlooking Washington Circle, one of the most important public spaces created in L’Enfant’s 1791 Plan for Washington DC. As such, it both imparts a unique identity to the School and extends the fabric of this urban campus into a monumental civic space. Located just blocks from the White House, the building offers unparalleled views of Washington Circle Park. Its unorthodox strategy does two very important things. First, it reserves the best spaces in the building — its “pride of place” — not for private faculty offices, but for students, who can use them at virtually any time. Second, it enables the public to see students at work. Both are powerful vehicles for communicating the values of an academic institution dedicated to public health located in the heart of the nation’s healthcare policy capital.

National University of Ireland, Galway, Biosciences Research Building

The Biosciences Research Building (BRB) is the first phase of a new North Campus Science Precinct at the University, which is seeking to capitalize on Ireland’s strengths in its emerging biotechnology fields. At three stories tall, it is in balance with the horizontality of the Irish landscape and a culture of walk-up buildings; however, at 70’ wide and over 400’ in length, it has a strikingly svelte physique by U.S. research building standards and is a natural light / natural ventilation machine. In the BRB, form and function align to optimize performance, transparency and to capture the continuous horizon of the surrounding Irish landscape. The BRB was designed and constructed during the depths of the Irish economic collapse when austerity measures were in place and therefore, it had to be designed and built as inexpensively as possible and, more importantly, it had to look like nothing was excessive; nothing was wasted. This ethic also permeated the clients’ mindset related to energy efficiency, so the design team was extremely frugal with its approach to energy and its relationship to the architecture. As a result, the BRB is one of the most energy efficient research laboratories in the world of its type.