Centerbrook has completed Conceptual Design for two student housing projects at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. The first project is a new residence hall for 30 students with a pair of two-family faculty houses attached. The second project is an addition and renovation of Kittredge Hall, a student and faculty residence complex.

The all-new residence hall is intended to complete a long-awaited quadrangle on a site facing Library Pond, a central and natural feature of the campus. It will be a two-story building consisting largely of double rooms. At the ground floor, a large common room with a kitchen will be the center of student life, while at the second floor a well-equipped lounge will provide a haven for quiet study. Two faculty residences will be attached to the residence hall, each containing two faculty apartments with from one to four bedrooms. The faculty units will have their own array of amenities, such as private patios. The new residence hall is designed to be sympathetic to the school’s aesthetic, which in this particular location is characterized by the Georgian style of the nearby Drury House.

St. Paul’s also engaged Centerbrook to study the Kittredge Residence Hall, which was built in the 1970s. Designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes in a contemporary style, the building underwent several renovations during the last 40 years. Working closely with the St. Paul’s community, the Centerbrook team studied the building’s three residential “pods,” each one housing 20 students, and four associated attached faculty apartment blocks. Centerbrook’s proposal addresses the living arrangements within the student pods and also adds a new common room to enhance student life and one new faculty apartment block.

The Centerbrook design team was led by Partner-in-Charge Chad Floyd, FAIA, and Hank Altman, AIA, the Project Manager.

St. Paul’s School, a coeducational boarding school for grades 9 through 12, was founded in 1856 as a place for humane but rigorous education within a setting of natural beauty. Located 68 miles north of Boston on 2,000 acres of woodlands, fields, and ponds, St. Paul’s is home to 537 students and 101 faculty members, all of whom live on the grounds.

The recent “Visionaries Forum” held in New Haven brought together architects and construction firms along with their clients and academics to discuss the implications of rapidly changing technologies on the building industry.

“I think the presentations and discussions opened some eyes and minds, not so much about how far we have come with 3D building modeling and other technologies, but also how far we have to go,” said Steven Haines, Centerbrook Director of Information Technology.

“Communications and computing technology is expanding exponentially, and changing almost everything we do and how various building team members interact.”

Centerbrook was a sponsor of the forum, and Haines was one of its organizers.

Some two hundred participants explored these issues of technology, design and building with five presenters, including: Barbara White Bryson, Associate Vice President for Facilities at Rice University; Philip Bernstein, who is an architect, Vice President of Autodesk, and Associate Professor at Yale University; and Richard Swett, former U.S. Congressman and Ambassador and current CEO of Climate Prosperity Enterprise Solutions.

The presentations focused on how the ability to quickly generate enormous data sets and comprehensive design models – and then transmit that complex information via ever more sophisticated mobile communications devices and social media – was transforming not only the design/build process but changing the fundamental relationships between all involved in the building industry.

One speaker played a time-lapsed video of a 30-story structure in China being erected in only 15 days, dramatized the potential of “integrated project delivery:” when building team members use and share 3D building information modeling (BIM) to efficiently design and construct a building. The American version of massive modular construction was explored by Anthony Colonna, National Director of Skanska USA Building. His firm is building the first modular skyscraper in this country, the 32-story Atlantic Yards B2 Tower in New York City.

Two longtime Centerbrook clients may face off for the national championship in men’s college hockey next week in Pittsburgh, PA. The skaters from both Quinnipiac University and Yale University have qualified to compete in the “Frozen Four” and are on opposite sides of the semifinal bracket.

On April 11, the Quinnipiac Bobcats, who are ranked number one in the nation, play St. Cloud State, while the Yale Bulldogs skate against UMass Lowell. The winners of those games will battle for national supremacy on Saturday, April 13. The two Connecticut squads are playing well, so a real cat and dog fight could be in the offing!

Led by Partner Jefferson B. Riley, FAIA, Centerbrook designed Quinnipiac’s TD Bank Sports Center, which houses the Bobcat’s 3,286-seat hockey rink and a twin arena for basketball with seating for 3,570. These athletic venues have drawn praise from ESPN sports commentators Barry Melrose and Bob Ryan. Riley has led the design teams for all major projects on Quinnipiac’s three campuses since 1978, including a new medical school and graduate campus and the York Hill residential campus.

Partner Mark Simon, FAIA, has been the lead Centerbrook architect for numerous buildings at Yale, among them: Kroon Hall (with Hopkins Architects); the Kenney Center and Jensen Plaza at the legendary Yale Bowl; Reese Stadium for soccer and lacrosse and the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center. He developed and is implementing a new master plan that calls for an addition and renovations to the university’s Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Both Riley and Simon are graduates of the Yale School of Architecture. Neither was available for comment on the Frozen Four.

A gala celebration is scheduled for April 27 to mark the expanded and renovated LanchesterHistory.org in Pennsylvania, a campus of history that encompasses a research library – which houses archives, an auditorium, and exhibition spaces – as well as Wheatland, the 1828 home of U.S. President James L. Buchanan.

Centerbrook designed the 20,000-square-foot addition to the Historical Society Library that accommodates its growing use. It houses a 250-seat, multi-use lecture hall, enhanced retail space and lobby with views of Wheatland, a larger gallery, improved curatorial and archival labs, and new offices.

Initially Centerbrook developed and implemented a Master Plan for the merger of the Presidential home and the Lancaster Historical Society on the site they share with the Tanger Arboretum. The enlarged library, along with the reorganized campus, opened earlier this year and presents its first exhibit in the new gallery in April. The two properties host history-buffs, scholars, school classes, tourists, bus tours, and neighborhood walkers.

“From the outset it was clear that Centerbrook understood our vision,” said Robin Sarratt, LancasterHistory.org Vice President for Development. “The building Centerbrook designed has helped to transform us into a destination for critically evaluating the role local history plays in each of our lives and in our understanding of ourselves. I can’t count how many of our members and visitors have walked through the door since we reopened and simply said, “Wow.”

The Historical Society and the Wheatland parcels had been separately carved from Buchanan’s estate more than a century ago. The organizations had grown independently with distinct charges: the Historical Society maintained the library and education programs that cover all of Lancaster County’s history; while Wheatland’s mission was to preserve the house, focusing strictly on Buchanan and his era. Their joining of forces enhances both missions.

A new entry to the site, now around the corner from Wheatland’s historic driveway, gives each campus element its own street front, with parking now at the property’s edge to improve its arboretum setting. The modern design of the addition presents a contemporary face to this new entry. Three curved saw-tooth roofs, each with north-facing glass façades, recall the region’s historic factories while differentiating the contemporary building from its historical neighbors. Zinc-accented brick walls lead to curving glass at a lobby entrance.

Slated for LEED Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the addition features an open-loop geothermal well system for heating and cooling, passive solar heating, copious natural day-lighting, and porous pavement outdoors to protect the nearby Conestoga River from excess storm water. Centerbrook Partner Mark Simon, FAIA, led the design team that included Project Manager Russell Learned, AIA, and Peter Cornell, AIA, LEED AP.

The new biomass Central Heating Facility at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut was designed by Centerbrook and is heating virtually the entire campus of more than 600 residents by burning woodchips. Using the local and sustainably harvested biofuel, the plant is reducing the school’s carbon footprint by 35 to 45 percent and saving on utility costs.

Hotchkiss reports on its website that the plant is exceeding expectations in its first heating season.

Featuring a low, undulating and sloping green roof, the building has a distinctive profile while simultaneously nestling discreetly into its surroundings: nearby woodlands and wetland on one side, and a golf course on the other.

“We wanted to establish a building that would, at once, exhibit a seminal and winsome presence while, at the same time, disappearing into the landscape in sympathy with nature,” said Jefferson B. Riley, the Centerbrook partner in charge of the project. Riley, FAIA, who previously had designed the Esther Eastman Music Center at Hotchkiss, led a Centerbrook team that included Alan Paradis, LEED AP, Mark Herter, AIA and LEED AP, and Eric Lubeck.

The design of the building also has garnered attention from the media, including Green Source Magazine and ArchDaily.com.

The building also serves an educational mission, exposing its technologies and wood structure to tours of students and community groups who have access to a mezzanine balcony that overlooks and circumnavigates the boiler room. The mezzanine displays a wall-mounted exhibit and a series of interactive computer consoles that track performance data.

The facility is critical to the school’s commitment to becoming a carbon-neutral campus by 2020. Hotchkiss is an independent boarding school with some 600 students in grades 9 through 12 who hail from across the United States and abroad. The facility is one of only a handful of heating plants in the country designed to LEED standards.

At their 45th reunion at the Pomfret School, Mark Simon and a cohort of four fellow architects realized that the five of them represented 10 percent of their 1964 graduating class. The quintet got to mulling over what they might give the school, which is known for its arts programs, for their 50th reunion next year.

They decided to contribute something of themselves: architecture. Clement and Simon previously had designed projects for the school.

“[John] ‘Jock’ Dix came up with the idea that we all – Peter Clement, Frank “Flash” Fuller, Paul Steege, Jock, and I – collaborate on designing something useful for the school that our classmates could fund with us,” Simon recalled. “We decided on a new terrace outside the Main Building dining hall and a smaller terrace up the hill towards the chapel.”

Meeting periodically at one another’s homes and offices -- as far away as Florida and San Francisco – the five alums honed their proposal. The larger semi-circular terrace outside Main will replace a mishmash of macadam walkways and be spacious enough for a gathering of the entire student body of 350 boys and girls, while also feeling enticing for smaller or random social interactions. The space is defined by a sitting wall where students can hang out going to or from meals. The smaller terrace will be similar in design, and suitable for outdoor classes and smaller gatherings of students.

The Pomfret Board of Trustees has given the quintet’s plan its blessing pending class fundraising, and to everyone’s delight the Class of 1964 is now in the homestretch of collecting the $200,000 to pay for construction, which is planned for this summer.

“We expect to enjoy and celebrate the terraces at our 50th in May, 2014” Simon predicted.

Building design is changing so rapidly that some people have a new name for it, or at least a synonym. “We’re in the communications business,” said Steven Haines, Director of Information Technology for Centerbrook.

Haines was addressing a workshop that brought together the firm’s design staff with structural and MEP engineers to explore the latest advancements in Building Information Modeling (BIM). More than 50 people, including representatives from 12 companies that have worked with Centerbrook, attended.

Haines added, “The 3D and BIM design tools that we use on all our projects today are constantly evolving,” he said. “We have to learn not only how to keep up, but how best to share the digital models – and the detailed information they embody – with one another and with our clients.” He cautioned, “Whenever there is evolution, of course, there is the possibility of extinction.”

Haines and Scott Burke of IMAGINiT Technologies, an international training and consulting firm, led the illustrated workshop on the use of BIM software such as Revit and Navisworks. They pointed out that architects, engineers, and building contractors now use 3D digital modeling in far greater numbers than ever before. In 2012, nearly three-quarters of American architects reported using BIM, up from 28 percent in 2007. In addition, governments – federal, state and local – are requiring BIM for a growing number of projects.

Burke displayed charts that dramatized how new modeling software has enabled architects to create more detailed plans earlier in the design process, while also allowing engineers and contractors to implement their designs more efficiently. “These new tools have changed the rules and sped things up,” Haines said, citing a current Centerbrook project as an example: the 314,000-square-foot Ambulatory Care Center for the UConn Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut.

Burke demonstrated the use of Revit and the best ways for various team members on a project to coordinate their respective use of a single and shared digital model. He stressed the need for staff training, explaining that 3D design was not only about engaging imagery – or geometry – but also about the reliable and precise information embedded in the model. He pointed out that the new technology can even assist building owners in maintaining their facilities after they are occupied.

“We have to learn to trust the 3D model, not only the 2D printed plans we have used for so long,” Haines said. Burke added, “With iPads in team members’ hands to access the model, soon there will be no need for those stacks of oversized paper plans, even at the building site.”
Centerbrook began using Building Information Modeling 10 years ago, and utilizes it on all its projects today.

Centerbrook, which was named a “Top Workplace” in Connecticut by The Hartford Courant and WTIC Channel 61 in 2012, also played a role in one of its client’s being named to the national list of good places to work.

Manchester Community College was chosen as one of the top 150 workplaces (135th) nationwide in a survey conducted by Workplace Dynamics of Pennsylvania in partnership with media outlets in 30 U.S. regions. It included companies and employers with at least 1,000 employees.

Centerbrook designed a 250,000-square-foot expansion to the Connecticut school that encompassed a library, computer laboratories, science laboratories, art studios, general purpose classrooms, language classrooms, media facilities, an art gallery, an auditorium, faculty offices, and food service facilities. Some renovations were carried out within the existing building. The work began with a comprehensive campus master plan. Centerbrook Partner Chad Floyd, FAIA, led the design team.

Centerbrook, with a staff of 65, was ranked 27th in Connecticut among workplaces with between 50 and 149 employees.

Articles on the new Biomass Heating Facility at the Hotchkiss School highlight recent media coverage of Centerbrook. The woodchip-burning plant, which heats a campus in northwest Connecticut with 600 boarding students, was featured in the January/February issue of Green Source Magazine. It also was reported on by The Hartford Courant and the Waterbury Republican newspapers. Partner Jefferson B. Riley led the Centerbrook design team.

Centerbrook Partner Jim Childress, FAIA, was quoted extensively in an article on laboratory design in the December issue of Lab Manager Magazine. Childress is leading the Centerbrook design team for the new Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Connecticut (in collaboration with Tsoi/Kobus & Associates) and has worked on numerous projects for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island.

Centerbrook Partner Mark Simon, FAIA, was interviewed by Architectural Record about school design and security in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown Connecticut. Childress discussed the same topic with NBC Channel 30 TV.

A number of Centerbrook projects are profiled in five new books, either recently or soon-to-be published.

“Green Architecture Now, Volume II (Taschen Books) features two Centerbrook buildings: Lakewood House, a private residence, and Kroon Hall, the new home for the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. Centerbrook as Executive Architect collaborated on Kroon Hall with the Design Architects, Hopkins Architects of London. Both treatments are well illustrated. Lakewood House previously was published in the book, “21st Century Architecture: Designer Houses” (Images Publishing).

Kroon Hall also is included in “Sustainable Construction: Green Building Design and Delivery” (John Wiley & Sons) and on the cover of “Plumbing, Electricity, Acoustics: Sustainable Design Methods for Architecture” (John Wiley & Sons).

The American Library Association’s “Field Guide to Libraries” will use as examples the Arnold Bernhard Library at Quinnipiac University and Health Sciences Library at the University of Colorado, Denver.

The 320,000-square-foot Center for Community at the University of Colorado, Boulder will be profiled in “Building Type Basics for College and University Facilities” (John Wiley & Sons).

Centerbrook undertook a variety of design challenges in 2012, among them laboratories for cutting edge medical research and care, a biomass heating plant, three high school science and math buildings, libraries, residences, and museum exhibits.

In addition to ongoing projects for long term clients Quinnipiac University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Yale University, Centerbrook was chosen in February to design The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, a 173,000-square-foot facility to house 300 biomedical researchers in Connecticut. Tsoi/Kobus & Associates of Massachusetts is collaborating on the design.

Located on the UConn Health Center Campus (UCHC), the Jackson building is one of four laboratory related jobs that the firm is working on, including a Health Professions Center that encompasses a new Medical School for Quinnipiac University. Centerbrook also is designing two other projects at UCHC: an Ambulatory Care Center and renovations to the UConn School of Medicine.

Among the Centerbrook projects completed in 2012 were: an Academic and Science Building for the University School in Ohio; the Bellas/Dixon Math and Science Center at the Berkshire School in Massachusetts; a Biomass Heating Facility that burns woodchips to produce steam that heats the Hotchkiss School campus in Connecticut; and the Alfred D. Hershey Building, a teaching and technical resource center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island.

Centerbrook is designing the interior spaces for Keystone Academy in Beijing, China, slated to open in 2013: they include 103 classrooms, three libraries, student and faculty residences for 1,000 people, a student center, some of its athletic facilities, and administrative offices. As is often typical in China, the mid-rise building shells have already been designed by others.

Two buildings at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania – a Student Center and a residence for the Head of School – are among ten Centerbrook projects that will be completed in 2013. Ground was broken recently for the 85,000-square-foot STEM Building (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and Center for Community at the Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School in Missouri. Centerbrook recently has begun the design process for two public library projects, in New Canaan Connecticut and West Springfield Massachusetts.

Recognition for Centerbrook in 2012 was highlighted by:

Centerbrook also added four people to its architectural staff in 2012 and elevated three architects to Associates in the firm.

The Ocean House in Watch Hill, Rhode Island has been named one of the top 100 hotels in the world by Fodor’s, the travel guide publisher. It was one of only nine properties singled out as “best in class” for being “fun for all ages.” Travel + Leisure magazine also picked it as the fourth best resort hotel in the United States and the 59th overall in the world.

Designed by Centerbrook, the replicated Ocean House – with 49 rooms and 23 private residences, all with spectacular ocean views – reopened in 2010. Centerbrook, led by Partner Jefferson B. Riley, FAIA, designed the new structure based on the early 20th century core of the original shoreline landmark, while adding some modern architectural strivings and myriad amenities.

Fodor's Travel team of 700 global contributors nominated 4,000 hotels from the 17,000 properties they review annually. The winners were chosen by Fodor's senior editorial team. Travel + Leisure’s annual World’s Best Awards described the Ocean House as “Redone … the property is as grand as ever: expansive decks and manicured croquet lawns are a nod to old-world glamour, while the light-filled 49 guest rooms and 22 private villas have modern bathrooms (oversize soaking tubs; marble tiles) and custom-made dark wood furnishings.”

These accolades were only the most recent for the Ocean House. Praising its architecture and ambiance, the international travel publisher and reviewer Andrew Harper named it as a 2012 Grand Award Winner, one of two properties in North America to be so recognized. The hotel also was named among “the best of the best” by AAA, which rated it one of its 2012 Five Diamond Award winners. What’s more, the stately building is back in the movies again, making a cameo appearance in the recent film “Moonrise Kingdom” starring Bruce Willis. The original Ocean House had appeared in a silent movie in 1918 staring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.

Centerbrook has received four design awards for the Ocean House, including an Interiors Award from Contract Magazine and a Design Award from the American Institute of Architects, Rhode Island Chapter.

Centerbrook’s design of the new Bellarmine Museum of Art at Fairfield University has received a Merit Award from the Connecticut Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Led by Partner Jim Childress, FAIA, Centerbrook was charged with transforming a basement used for storage and other utilitarian purposes into a bright and engaging museum for the university and its growing art collections.

Opened in 2010, the Bellarmine Museum features three distinct galleries, as well as spaces for staff, a classroom, and art storage and prep areas. It has drawn rave reviews from The New York Times, among others. The New York Times wrote that the design “required unconventional creativity” by the architects and quoted Emily Rafferty, President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “I think they’ve done a really splendid job. They’ve attended to every detail.”

Located in the modified Tudor and Gothic style mansion that houses the offices of the university president, the museum displays temporary exhibitions and houses the university’s collections, including Renaissance and Baroque paintings, plaster casts after Greco-Roman antiquities, non-Western art objects, and twenty pieces from the Celtic and Medieval periods that are on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art/The Cloisters.

Stephen Holmes and Andrew Safran, both AIA and LEED AP, worked with Childress on the project. Centerbrook has won 349 design awards all told.

The Centerbrook Architects Lecture series began its fifth season this fall with a slate of eight prominent presenters, including, of course, many architects, but also an architectural historian, a filmmaker, and a garden and landscape designer. The illustrated talks are held in the Essex Town Hall and are part of the many programs offered by the Essex Library. They are free to the public. Please call the Essex Library (860) 767-1560 to register for any of the upcoming programs.

Acclaimed gardener and landscape wizard Louis Raymond kicked off the season with his lively exposition “More Colorful than Ever” in early October. Raymond, who was making his third presentation in three years, is often featured in design magazines such Good Housekeeping and Metropolitan Home. The lively talk chronicled Raymond’s thirty-plus years exploring color in his life and his garden. For more information on Raymond visit www.RGardening.com or www.LouisThePlantGeek.com.

The schedule for the upcoming season is as follows:

Professor Stephen Schreiber, FAIA
“Engaged Design”
Friday, December 7th at 7 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall
Stephen Schreiber will discuss models for architecture education
that strengthen exchanges between academia, the profession and communities. Schreiber is the director of new Architecture+Design Program at UMass Amherst, an interdisciplinary, collaborative program that embraces spirited, socially progressive, and environmentally responsive design. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College (BA) and Harvard University (Master of Architecture) and has served as dean/director at the school of architecture at the University of South Florida, and director of the architecture program at the University of New Mexico. His research and professional work has been published in numerous journals. Schreiber was the 2005-06 President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). He is a member of the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Architects.

John Morris Dixon, FAIA
"What's Next Door: How buildings can relate to context."
January 11th at 7 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall
There are various ways buildings have of relating, including contrasting. And there are evolving attitudes: committed early Modernists intended to replace what was around their buildings, so defied the context as a matter of principle. That attitude soon began to be tempered by the reality that the context was going to stay around a while. We see Mies van der Rohe at the Seagram Building responding in interesting ways to the neighboring fabric; Eero Saarinen at MIT recalling geometries and surfaces of existing neighbors; Frank Gehry doing a fascinating variation on neighboring buildings on the Prague riverfront. One must acknowledge that context isn't entirely about physical context: there are other socio-economic-cultural considerations as well.

Architect Bill Chilton, FAIA
Friday, February 8, 7 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall
William Chilton has directed projects for leading corporate and institutional clients worldwide including the world headquarters for Eaton Corporation (LEED Gold) in Cleveland, Ohio; Devon Energy World Headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; 900 New York Avenue (LEED Gold) in Washington D.C.; ExxonMobil Office Complex in Houston, Texas; the US Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters (LEED Gold) near Washington D.C.; AIM Corporate Headquarters in Houston, Texas; and CaIPERS Headquarters Complex (LEED Gold) in Sacramento, California.

Dr. Chuck Benson
Friday, March 8, 7 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall
Dr. Benson has been teaching Art and Architectural History for more than twenty five years at various universities and colleges across the United States, and has led groups to explore and visit a variety of sites in Italy, England, Scotland, France, Spain, Austria, Germany, Greece and Turkey. He also has led art and architecture trips to New York City, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. Our Essex Library audiences have enjoyed his lectures on Edward Lutyens, Gian Loernzo Bernini and Antonio Gaudi.

Jake Gorst
Friday, April 12, 7 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall
Jake Gorst is an Emmy® award winning producer and director. Of his documentary film, "Leisurama" (2005), New York Times writer Alastair Gordon said, "Jake Gorst's documentary film...is a compelling look at American culture in the 1950s and 1960s. While the filmmaker has chosen to focus on an amusing marketing concept in affordable housing, he goes out of his way to explain the broader cultural implications of the Cold War and US-style capitalism. Leisurama is a refreshing look at an important era without the usual clichés." Recent film productions include the Emmy award-winning documentary "Farmboy" (2006), currently in national PBS broadcast distribution, "The Rise and Fall of Books", "Journeyman Architect: The Life and Work of Donald Wexler", and associate production on "Andrew Geller: A Spatial Encounter". Jake Gorst is a contributing writer to VOX, HOME Miami and Modernism magazines. You may view the Modern Tide trailer here.

Robert Orr, FAIA
Friday, May 3 at 7 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall
Robert Orr is an award-winning architect, urbanist, educator, lecturer and writer. He was educated at the University of Vermont and Yale University, from which he received his Master of Architecture degree. He collaborated with Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk at Seaside in the early 80s, leading him to become a Founder of the Seaside Institute. His serves in professional roles nationwide. He was a founder of the New Urbanism and serves on multiple boards including 1000 Friends of Connecticut and Liberty Community Services, a program providing housing for homeless people with AIDS. He lectures around the country and his writings on architecture have been published in books, magazines, and newspapers nationwide as well.

Architect Louis Pounders, FAIA,
"A View from the American Academy in Rome: the Tiber & the City"
Friday, May 31 at 7 p.m. in the Essex Town Hall.
The American Academy in Rome awards the Rome Prize to a select group of artists and scholars, who are invited to Rome to pursue their work in an atmosphere conducive to intellectual and artistic freedom, interdisciplinary exchange, and innovation. Louis R. Pounders was selected to be a part of this distinguished group in the spring of 2012. His talk will focus on the Academy's history and mission, and his research on the Tiber River and its effect on urban development in Rome, with ideas on how riverine cities in the U.S. can better develop their urban planning.

Reno Migani, Alan Paradis, Scott Allen and Ken Cleveland are this year’s recipients of Centerbrook Travel Grants, which are awarded to staff members who “best exemplify selfless devotion to the successful execution of a building's design.”

Each honoree receives a paid leave of absence and a stipend to visit, research, and photograph a place of architectural interest anywhere in the world. Upon returning, the sojourners share their adventures with the office through an illustrated presentation. Since the inception of the program in 1987, Centerbrook has awarded 82 travel grants.

Reno Migani, AIA, is a graduate of Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Architecture and joined Centerbrook in 1993. He was named an Associate in the firm in 2004 and is currently the Project Manager for the new 98,332-square-foot Academic and Laboratory Science building at Southern Connecticut State University. He also has worked on residential, religious, corporate and cultural projects, among them The Norton Museum of Art in Florida, Park Synagogue East in Ohio, and the widely published Lakewood House in the Northeast.

Alan Paradis, LEED AP, graduated from Roger Williams College with a Bachelor of Architecture and a Minor in Historic Preservation. He also studied architecture and urban design at the University of Pennsylvania. Among the projects he has worked on since joining Centerbrook in 2006 are: the Ocean House, an acclaimed resort hotel in Rhode Island; a new medical school at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut; and as Project Manager for the innovative biomass heating plant at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. He was named an Associate this year.

Scott Allen, AIA, earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University and Master of Architecture from Rice University. He worked for architecture firms in Santa Monica, Phoenix, Houston, and Chicago prior to joining Centerbrook in 2005. He has contributed to academic, cultural, scientific and commercial projects, such as: the 320,000-square-foot Center for Community at the University of Colorado, Boulder; the recently opened math and science center at the Berkshire School in Massachusetts; and Renaissance Hall at the Buckingham Browne and Nichols in Massachusetts.

Ken Cleveland graduated from the University of Hartford with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and joined Centerbrook in 2006. He has worked on design teams for a number of projects at Quinnipiac University, including its new medical school and the York Hill campus that opened in 2009 and will house 2,000 students. His portfolio also encompasses commercial, civic, and academic work, such as: the Ocean House, the Scoville Memorial Library in Connecticut, and a new science and math building for The Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School in Missouri.

Architect magazine has ranked Centerbrook thirteenth in its annual survey of national firms, “The Architect 50.” Based on data from 2011, the ranking of the top 50 architectural practices is determined by scores accumulated in the areas of business, sustainability, design excellence, and pro bono work by the firm and its staff.

The magazine explained that its survey celebrates architectural practices of all kinds: “practices that are as adept with building technology as they are in business, that can win awards and also give back to their communities.” Architect is the publication of the American Institute of Architects.

The top 50 firms were announced in the September issue of the magazine and on its website. Criteria included designing energy-efficient or “green” buildings – such as the Center for Community at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Health Care REIT Headquarters in Ohio, two Centerbrook buildings certified LEED Platinum (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) by the U.S. Green Building Council. The firm’s own office generates more than a third of its power onsite with renewable hydro, solar and geothermal systems. Other factors in the ranking were the involvement of staff members in the community, with organizations like Architecture for Humanity or by serving on municipal commissions and boards.

Two thirds of the 50 firms reported gross revenues in 2011 had increased compared with 2010; 28 percent said they had declined, and 6 percent reported no change.

The Berkshire School is dedicating its new 48,000-square-foot Center for Math and Science on October 5. Designed by Centerbrook, the new building opened in September and features six math classrooms, eight science classroom labs, a 100-seat teaching auditorium, department offices, and two advanced math/science labs equipped with state-of-the-art research tools. The Center increases the space devoted to math and science at the school by 129 percent.

Centerbrook Partner Mark Simon, FAIA, who will speak at the dedication, led the Centerbrook Design Team of Project Manager Mark Herter and Job Captain Ted Tolis, both AIA and LEED AP. Head of School Mike Maher has commented enthusiastically about the impact of the new facility: “It is no secret that America has fallen behind in these two key disciplines, and the new center will significantly improve the learning opportunities available to our students in these fields.”

Slated to be certified either LEED Silver or Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council, the building was designed to continue Berkshire’s longstanding commitment to sustainability. Contrary to common wisdom, the three-story building takes best environmental advantage of its dramatic site by running north/south: parallel to the school's central Buck Valley to the east and to Mount Everett to the west. To fit naturally, it is a gently bent rectangle with a glassy two-story lobby at the bend, splitting the building into wings and offering views through from the valley to the mountain. Given its orientation, the building has a single, day-lit corridor on the east side of lower floors to fill the building with natural light on both sides and to maximize views. Labs are efficiently paired and stacked in the south wing with support spaces and the auditorium to the north.

The location also connects the campus center to its site with classroom terraces that extend learning into the landscape. These include rain gardens that showcase natural storm water management and infiltration; native plantings are used to eliminate the need for supplemental irrigation or fertilizer. New views up into the mountain understory connect lessons inside with life outside.

The Design Team performed many climate, day-lighting, and energy systems studies that helped to optimize the building design and reduce energy use. Energy modeling predicts that the Center will lower consumption by nearly 60 percent compared to a similar code compliant building. Energy efficient features include: super insulation, passive solar heating, open grid ceilings for transmission of thermal energy, efficient plumbing fixtures, a clean-burning wood pellet biomass boiler, high performance double-pane glazed windows, and triple-pane glazed curtain wall. The building explains its green approach with signage, and emphasizes careful resource recycling. Chestnut paneling, stone site walls, and an engraved Memorial Arch were saved and reused from two older buildings that the Center replaces.

Construction of the new facility began in 2011 and was completed in the summer of 2012. The Center was designed in close collaboration with VanZelm Engineering, Girard and Company, Atelier Ten, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, and Stephen Stimson Associates. Fontaine Bros, Inc. was the General Contractor.

University School, a prestigious all boys high school in Ohio, will cut the ceremonial ribbon on September 21 for a new 52,000-square-foot academic wing at its Hunting Valley Campus. Designed by Centerbrook Architects, the building is the first phase of the largest building program in the school’s 122-year history and increases its academic space by 62 percent.

“This spectacular new building honors the high caliber of our faculty and gives them the teaching tools they need to do their best work,” said University School Headmaster Steve Murray. “Boys now have room to move, interact and explore. Teachers can instruct among their students and have the flexibility to arrange classrooms to best suit their disciplines and teaching styles.”

Slated for LEED silver for its energy efficiency and responsible use of resources, the facility houses: 25 classrooms for history, math, English, and foreign languages; classroom-lab suites for physics, biology, and chemistry; a three-room environmental science suite and a special-projects lab; and even an outdoor classroom. Classrooms are outfitted with interactive technology.

Sited on a peninsula overlooking Lake Kilroy and the forest beyond, the building has a windowed south wall that harvests natural light and solar heat. Myriad environmentally friendly features include a lake-source geothermal system for heating and cooling, super insulation, an interior design that takes advantage of the moderating properties of thermal mass, and green roofs. Bioswales collect and filter storm water.

“The school has a long tradition of craft-making, of students making things with their hands,” said Centerbrook Partner Mark Simon, FAIA, who led a design team with Project Manager Russell Learned and Associate Katie Roden, both AIA. “So the building is designed to use exposed materials that show how the various pieces fit together and how they contribute to function. These visible elements transform the building into an education tool. Incidentally, the builders loved this approach because it so clearly exhibited their craftsmanship.”

In an email to the architect, Headmaster Murray wrote: “People are absolutely blown away by the building – they just cannot get over it. It has been so much fun giving tours lately – their jaws just drop. In the words of one very excited colleague: ‘This is a whole new school!’”

Centerbrook Architects is pleased to announce the elevation of architects Brian G. Adams, Alan D. Paradis and Katie M. Roden to Associates in the firm. “Katie, Alan and Brian have had a significant impact on Centerbrook,” said Partner Jim Childress, FAIA. “They are skilled designers and have served as the point people on complex jobs. They know how to keep the design and construction process on track from start to finish.”

Since joining Centerbrook in 2008, Katie Roden has worked on the new Health Sciences Center at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut and the Lancaster History Museum in Pennsylvania. Certified as LEED AP BD+C and AIA, she is currently part of the design team for a new LEED Silver academic wing at the University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio. A graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Science in Building Science, Roden worked at her previous firm on embassy projects in Mexico, Panama and Rome for the U.S. State Department and also served as a LEED consultant.

Alan Paradis’ Centerbrook portfolio encompasses: the Ocean House, a critically acclaimed replication of a resort hotel in Watch Hill, Rhode Island; several residences; the new medical school at Quinnipiac University; and, most recently, an innovative biomass heating plant at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. Prior to joining Centerbrook in 2006, he worked on a broad range of projects from academic and multi-unit residential to commercial buildings, such as a large photovoltaic manufacturing plant in Fairfield, California. LEED AP, Paradis graduated from Roger Williams College with a Bachelor of Architecture and a Minor in Historic Preservation. He subsequently studied architecture and urban design at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his official duties, Paradis taps the sugar maple trees on the Centerbrook campus, boils the sap into syrup and shares the result with his colleagues.

Brian Adams, AIA, has worked on Renaissance Hall at Buckingham Browne & Nichols in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Rocky Top Student Center at Quinnipiac University, and Lakewood House, a widely published private residence. He is currently on the design team for a new 98,000-square-foot Academic Laboratory Building at the Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut. Prior to joining Centerbrook in 2005, his work included cultural, commercial, residential, and academic design projects. Adams studied dance before taking up architecture; he was a member of the American Ballet Theatre from 1978 to 1985.

Centerbrook is designing the interior spaces for Keystone Academy in Beijing, China, including 103 classrooms, three libraries, student and faculty residences for 1,000 people, a student center, some of its athletic facilities, and administrative offices. As is often typical in China, the mid-rise building shells have already been designed by others.

The first of its kind in the People’s Republic of China, this independent institution is based on the classic New England model for college preparatory schools. Centerbrook, which has worked on 31 independent school campuses in the United States, is responsible for nearly 750,000 square feet of interior design space at Keystone. Enrollment for the school is expected to be 1,650 students from first grade through high school, more than half of whom will be boarders.

Led by Keystone Academy President, Dr. Edward Shanahan, the former Headmaster at Choate Rosemary Hall, Keystone Academy is slated to open in 2014 for grades 1-9, with plans to add 10 through 12 by 2017. A bilingual curriculum in English and Chinese is aimed at preparing the students in China for education in American or other English-speaking universities, while allowing them to remain at home through high school so they can retain a clear sense of Chinese heritage, culture and identity. The faculty will include veteran teachers from American private schools.

“This is a cross-cultural and multi-faceted endeavor,” said Partner Mark Simon, FAIA, who is leading the Centerbrook design team along with Project Manager Brian Krafjack, AIA. “What makes this an especially exciting project is our charge to discover warm and welcoming visual inspiration from both cultures. In our research we are finding many more connections than one might ever have imagined.”

Centerbrook has to coordinate closely with an array of team members half way around the world, such as the architects who are designing the building shell, school leaders, translators, and members of the Provincial government. The design work is being done remotely using the latest technology, like Revit and other 3D modeling software. “As much as we would love to visit China, to walk the site and to meet with stakeholders in person, as we normally do,” Simon explained, “our assignment in this case is to communicate and design via long distance on a fast track pace. The building foundations were in before we started design.”

He added that the intercontinental collaboration has been “fantastic,” using such tools as Go-To-Meeting, Skype, and Newforma to exchange large data and complex design files. “Because of the time difference, we can send materials out in the evening, and the response from team members in China is waiting for us when we turn on our computers the next morning,” he said.