Over the last 26 years, the Brick Industry Association (BIA) has been honoring outstanding U.S. projects that deftly — and prominently — incorporate clay brick with its annual Brick in Architecture Awards. The judges of the 2015 competition have spoken, and 49 projects spanning 21 states were recently awarded in nine categories for their excellent use of brick in their envelopes or paved areas. The following is a quick-take on the Best in Class winners and also which brick manufacturers helped them garner the achievement.
Maryland House. Photo by Tom Holdsworth.
Commercial: Maryland House, Aberdeen, Md.
Maryland House isn’t your typical rest stop. Located just outside of Baltimore, this heavily trafficked site sees an estimated three million visitors a year, and, eventually, the existing highway buildings saw much deterioration, which prompted the Maryland Transportation Authority to commission new buildings by Ayers Saint Gross. The new “travel plaza” was built on a civic scale, but its buildings evoke domestic, familiar environments with their house-like gable forms completed with glass and, of course, brick from Belden Brick Company.
El Camino College Math, Business, and Allied Health. Photo by Cris Costea.
Education (Higher): El Camino College Math, Business, and Allied Health, Torrance, Calif.
The 110,000-square-foot, L-shaped building borrows from the campus’s mid-century vernacular, mainly its palette of concrete, glass, and brick, the latter of which was sourced from Interstate Brick. Architecture firm LPA used each in relation to orientation to create a sustainable building: south glazing is protected by an overhang, while the north curtain wall admits ample daylight inside. The east and west elevations have minimal openings, and their cast-in-concrete structural walls are clad on the upper levels in the brick.
Choate Rosemary Hall Lanphier Center. Photo by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects/Bill Raab.
Education (K–12): Lanphier Center for Mathematics and Computer Science at Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, Conn.
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects designed this three-story academic building to reflect the historic character of the campus, but also the landscape and, in particular, majestic beech trees. Glen-Gery’s Aspen White wire-cut bricks, which reference both the campus’s red-brick and white-painted buildings, clad two classroom wings that are linked by a glass volume that’s set back to accommodate a 150-year-old copper beech tree.
St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church. Photo by Brad Feinknopf.
Houses of Worship: Saint Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, Westerville, Ohio
Designed to be a centerpiece of a Catholic parish campus, the church sports semicircular arches in the romanesque tradition, some with diaper detailing. David B. Meleca Architects repeated the arches in a motif for the brickwork, which uses product from Belden Brick Company.
Converse College Johnson Plaza. Photo by Forrest Briggs Photography/SeamonWhiteside.
Paving and Landscape Architecture: Johnson Plaza at Converse College, Spartanburg, S.C.
In celebration of the college’s 125th anniversary, the school commissioned a plaza by SeamonWhiteside. It’s defined by an ellipse that combines Beale Street pavers and Old Hampton Modular face brick, from Pine Hall Brick, to complement the tones of the units cladding the nearby Wilson Hall. The project includes a garden lawn, lower plaza with built-in seats, garden paths with benches, crosswalks, and an upper-plaza porte-cochere.
Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building. Photo by Mecanoo Architecten/Shawmut Design and Construction.
Municipal/Government: Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, Boston
The team of Mecanoo, Sasaki Associates, and Shawmut Design and Construction sought to unify three historic building façades (of Baroque Revival, Queen Anne, and Boston Granite styles) on a triangular site. They turned to brick from Endicott Clay Products to weave these portions into a single, brand-new building of varied-height volumes. Now known as the Bolling Municipal Building, it’s home to the Boston Public Schools administration.
Naylor Court Stables Townhomes. Photo by Bob Narod.
Residential: Naylor Court Stables Townhomes, Washington, D.C.
The existing main structure is one of the few remaining examples of “alley dwellings” (Civil War–era accommodations for the poor and working class) in D.C. GPS Designs used General Shale’s Mesa Verde modular brick to blend in with the street’s other historic buildings, resemble nearby former horse stables and carriage houses, and emulate utilitarian alleys of the 1800s.
Creston Avenue Residence. Photo by Ari Burling Photography.
Residential (Multi-Family): Creston Avenue Residence, Bronx, N.Y.
Magnusson Architecture and Planning devised two volumes, faced in warm red to eggplant brick by Cloud Ceramics, and a set-back, metal-clad volume for a 10-story affordable-housing complex. The mixed palette is also a symbolic gesture reflecting both the neighborhood’s past and future.
Mayo Clinic Health System-Cannon Falls. Photo by Philip Prowse Photography.
Health Care: Mayo Clinic Health System-Cannon Falls, Cannon Falls, Minn.
Situated on a hilltop overlooking a main highway in a rural landscape, this facility was designed to blend into the setting and appear as if it’s “growing” out of the hillside. To achieve this growth, BWBR Architects specified product from Belden Brick Company in tan and beige tones for the entry façade and red brick for the other portions.
The 2015 judges included: Jake Bailey and Scott Burnett (Cohen Carnaggio Reynolds), Brian Farling (Jones Studio), Gregory Hoss (David M. Schwartz Architects), Steven Imrich (Cambridge Seven Associates), Orenthal F. Jeffries (Altamanu), Mic Johnson (Architecture Field Office), David Kuhlman (Jaeger Nickola Kuhlman Architects), Deborah Moelis (Handel Architects), Federico Olivera Sala (SK+I Architecture), Chris Taylor (the Eisen Group), and Jose Luis Perez-Griffo Viqueira (STL Architects).