Architecture People and Places

31 August 2011

For a regional government headquarters facility in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec, Brière, Gilbert + Associés designed the renovation and expansion of a building dating to 1851. The new wing's double-height board room has commanding views of the St. Lawrence River. Photo: BGA/ Courtesy v2com.biz Extra Large Image Salaberry-de-Valleyfield · 2011.0825
Brière, Gilbert + Associés Architectes of Montreal and Quebec City designed the recent refurbishment and expansion of a former boy's school (1851) in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec, Canada, to house the headquarters for the Conférence Régional des Élus de la Vallée-du-Haut-St-Laurent (CRÉVHSL), the area's regional conference of elected officials. After extensive renovation of both the interior and exterior of the stone-clad historic building, it now houses several offices and the main reception functions of the headquarters.
A new three-story addition is connected to the original building by a glass-clad atrium that serves as the main entry and circulation space for the facility. A double-height board room occupies the upper two floors of the addition, while a staff lounge comprises the recessed ground floor. Built with a timber-frame structural system, the addition is clad primarily in glass. The main exception is the cantilevered board-room volume, whose upper half is clad in a wood rain screen, while the cladding of the lower half comprises an outer layer of glazing separated by an air space from an inner layer of composite wood panels.


The main entrance of the art deco-style Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Building in Atlanta, Georgia, after a restoration project by Lord, Aeck & Sargent. Photo: © Jonathan Hillyer/ Atlanta Extra Large Image
Atlanta · 2011.0830
Atlanta, Georgia-based architecture firm Lord, Aeck & Sargent designed the recent $62 million renovation and restoration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Building in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally designed by architect A. Ten Eyck Brown and his associates, the building opened in 1933 as Atlanta's main post office. It was assigned its current name in 1988, following its 1981 acquisition by the General Services Administration.
Exterior work on the 350,000-square-foot (32,500-square-meter) building emphasized restoration of its neoclassically themed art deco granite facade, including repair of more than 6,300 individual stones and over 600 original steel-frame windows. Deteriorated steel shelf angles supporting the stone facade were replaced with new stainless steel angles. The interior rehabilitation and adaptive-reuse work focused on the lowest three stories, and included asbestos abatement, upgrades to the electrical and HVAC systems, and a painstaking restoration of the original 1933 lobby.
LEED Silver certification is targeted for the building, which was restored in compliance with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.


Dewberry designed the adaptive reuse of Oklahoma State University's Murray Hall in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Extra Large Image
Stillwater · 2011.0830
On the Stillwater, Oklahoma, campus of Oklahoma State University, a former women's dormitory dating to the 1930s has been adapted for use by the university's College of Arts & Sciences. The Tulsa office of Dewberry, an architecture and engineering firm based in Fairfax, Virginia, designed the renovation and expansion of the brick-clad Murray Hall, which now houses classrooms and offices. On its western side, the four-story, U-shaped building encloses three sides of a student plaza that overlooks a campus green. A new auditorium space is located beneath the plaza.
After serving as a dormitory for many decades, the building had been closed for a number of years due to water damage and other deterioration. The renovation of this Georgian neoclassical building restored many interior gathering spaces and also focused on upgrading the building to meet modern accessibility requirements.


Peter Bohlin designed the new Weyerhaeuser Center for Health Sciences at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. Photo: Courtesy University of Puget Sound Extra Large Image
Tacoma · 2011.0830
The William T. and Gail Weyerhaeuser Center for Health Sciences is a new 42,500-square-foot (3,950-square-meter) building on the campus of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. The four-story, brick-and-sandstone-clad building was designed by Peter Bohlin and the Seattle office of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in a streamlined style emphasizing simple gable forms and projecting bay windows, in a clear response to the neogothic style that predominates on campus. A grand opening is scheduled for October 28, 2011.
The building houses graduate programs in physical and occupational therapy, along with undergraduate studies in exercise science, psychology, and an interdisciplinary neurosciences program. Organized around a three-story atrium, the building's program includes six laboratories, six clinics, classrooms, meeting rooms, and faculty offices. The grounds include an outdoor "mobility park" with curbs, ramps, and stairs designed for clinic patient therapy work.


At the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, two wings of the Biological Sciences Complex have reopened after a renovation designed by Acton Ostry Architects. Extra Large Image
Vancouver · 2011.0829
Two newly renovated wings have opened at the University of British Columbia's Biological Sciences Complex in Vancouver, Canada. Acton Ostry Architects of Vancouver designed the major renovation of the South Wing (1957) and West Wing (1970), which had suffered deferred maintenance and required seismic upgrades.
On the West Wing, seismic bracing took the form of three concrete buttresses clad in laminated glass panels. These panels, printed with botanical and zoological imagery, relate to new decorative panels that have been mounted along the entire main facade of the West Wing.
The complex also received a partial building-envelope upgrade; energy-efficient glazing; improvements to lighting, plumbing, and heating and cooling; and a new bioswale. Interior spaces were renovated throughout the complex, with emphasis on increased daylight access and views of campus. The facility's program includes laboratories, aquaria, informal research spaces, classrooms, seminar rooms, and faculty and administrative offices. The renovation project was funded in part by a stimulus program of the Canadian government.