Three Pickard Chilton Projects Win Inaugural AIA QUAD Honor Awards
Three projects designed by Pickard Chilton, a highly-regarded architecture studio best known for its award-winning designs of corporate headquarters and campuses, were recognized with prestigious individual Honor Awards in the first-ever QUAD Design Award competition presented by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). QUAD, the acronym for Quality Unites Architectural Design, promotes excellence and innovation in architectural design. Pickard Chilton received three such Honor Awards for projects: Eaton Center, a corporate campus in Beachwood, Ohio; Eaton House, a global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland; and the Wellness Center, a health and fitness facility in Spring, Texas. The projects were recognized by AIA QUAD at an awards ceremony on November 9 at the QUAD conference in Albany, New York.
The 2017 QUAD Awards spanned three award categories across four AIA affiliates: AIA Connecticut, AIA New Jersey, AIA New York, and AIA Pennsylvania. Architects must be practicing in or working on projects in one of the QUAD states. Jurors selected 29 recipients from a pool of 234 qualified submissions. Of the six awards given to Connecticut-based firms, Pickard Chilton received three in the category of Built Projects.
Eaton Center, a one-million-square-foot complex in Beachwood, Ohio serves as an office and training complex for Eaton, a multinational power management company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Eaton Center’s award-winning design features two, five-story wings that arc around a 10-story central tower overlooking a landscaped pond. A dramatic glass-enclosed atrium serves as a welcoming town square. The design accommodates future growth and flexibility while providing a healthy, high-performance work environment. Eaton’s staff was consolidated from three different locations into this complex, which offers a range of amenities including a fitness center, conference and meeting facilities, and walking trails. The jury noted the project’s, “thoughtful integration of the tower and wings given its scale”.
Eaton House, another award recipient, serves as Eaton’s new global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland’s D4 historic district, an early 19th-century Georgian neighborhood. Eaton House reuses much of the concrete frame of the existing building, originally constructed in 1970 on the site of five 1830 era historic terrace houses. Designed to be a building of its time while respectful of its historical context, Eaton House’s façade reflects in its organization the original terrace houses, with clear glass openings recognizing the original Georgian golden rectangle proportions. Recessed cast-glass brick flanks clear glass openings, offering a significant increase in daylight. The cast-glass brick respects how the material was used historically to provide daylight, creating an open and productive work environment for the LEED-NC Gold project. The jury noted the project’s, “respect for the scale and proportions of the adjacent 1830s terrace houses and skillful use of modern materials which are current and context-appropriate enhancing both the neighborhood and workplace”.
Wellness Center, an award-winning project is a 130,000-square-foot project in Spring, Texas that forms a hub of health, medical and fitness facilities on corporate campus. A three-story glass atrium features an open, day-lit cascading staircase, which encourages employees to use the stairs as their primary route to the exercise rooms. Programs include yoga, cardio, spinning, Pilates, strength training, a basketball court and personal training. A food space features a juice bar, large café, and demonstration kitchen. The jury noted the project’s “elegant design with its exceptional detail and scale given its scale”.
The AIA Quad Design Awards jurors that selected Pickard Chilton projects as winners among the 234 submissions included Tom Liebel FAIA, Principal, Marks Thomas Architects; Heather Cass FAIA, Cass Associates Architects; and Jon Pemdorf FAIA, Perkins & Will.
