Boston, MA – Payette recently announced that the firm received a 2010 Brick in Architecture Award for its design for the Integrated Sciences Building (ISB) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The project was recognized as a bronze winner in the educational category.
Drawing upon the material palette from neighboring buildings, the ISB’s brick façades both recognize their context and express a forward-looking spirit, and banding is used as a device to mitigate the scale of a contemporary laboratory building relative to smaller adjacent historic structures. In keeping with their functions, the laboratory (west) wing’s windows are uniform and precise, while the classroom (north) wing’s irregular window pattern expresses the varied nature of its diverse spaces. The concourse’s curtainwall and terracotta façade celebrates the tectonics of building an energy-friendly, high-performance façade.
Durability and ease of maintenance is of paramount importance to the University of Massachusetts, and they set a construction goal that this project be a “100 year building” which is met by the longevity and durability of brick cavity wall construction.
Completed in the fall of 2009, the new 150,000 GSF Integrated Sciences Building fosters interaction and collaboration between students and research faculty in various areas of scientific study. The project is located in the heart of the campus close to the existing biology and chemistry facilities.
The Brick Industry Association’s annual Brick in Architecture Awards is a prestigious awards program that recognizes outstanding works of non-residential architecture, featuring clay brick. Nationwide architectural and design firms enter their best projects to be judged by a jury of their peers in several categories, including: Commercial Design, Educational Design, Health Care Facilities Design, Houses of Worship Design, Municipal/Government Design and Paving & Landscape Architecture Design. The winning projects will be recognized nationally through publication in a special issue of Brick in Architecture, which will be included in the November issue of Architectural Record.