News
And the Award Goes to …
September 28, 2010
| Ann Beha Architects just notched a third award for its design work on UPenn's Music Building. They're used to getting attention for the subtlety of their specialty. They renovate, expand, and bring contemporary uses to historic buildings and settings. The trick, says Ann, is to engage the site without overpowering it. |
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| We snapped the four principals in their Kingston Street office:Philip Chen, Ann Beha, Pamela Hawkes, and Thomas Hotaling. Ann founded the firm 30 years ago and since then they've been working around the country giving new life to existing structures,picking up awards from the AIA and the Boston Society of Architects, among others. Pamela is directing work at Blithewold Mansion Gardens and Arboretum, a 33-acre historic property overlooking Narragansett Bay. The four have also led projects at the Huntington Library Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in California, Penn State, Currier Museum of Art in New Hampshire, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Michigan, and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. |
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| Philip, Michael Schmidt, and Ed Rice are working at the University of Chicago planning for the adaptive reuse of 5757 South University Ave. into a new home for the Department of Economics and the Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics. They?ve also been retained by the State of Massachusetts to upgrade the historic Charles Bulfinch-designed State House with modern safety equipment. Philip directed the award-winning Music Building project at UPenn, which will be the first LEED-Silver building on that historic campus. For that creation, ABA will add the 2010 BSA Honor Award to two other awards they received this year for the Music Building from the Greater Philadelphia Preservation Alliance and Preservation Pennsylvania. |
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| We also found Neil Stroup, Scott Aquilina, and James Smith. James is leading the Emerald Necklace Conservancy project in the Fens where construction began last week. They're converting an H.H. Richardson building into a visitor and volunteer center for the conservancy. A new handicapped-accessible entry will lead guests into a flexible interior designed to be easily transformed from a private conference and work space into a public meeting space for exhibits and events. The ABA design calls for using reclaimed lumber, recycled furnishing, and a retractable partition system. Neil and Scott completed a study of accessibility, acoustics, and energy conservation for the 1k-seat Chapin Hall at Williams College, and are working on the expansion and restoration of the 18th century Durant-Kendrick House for Historic Newton. |
