Best of Year: Educational

Deborah Wilk -- Interior Design, 12/1/2010 12:06:00 PM

Project: Univeristy of Oregon John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes

Firm: Firm 151 and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects

Location: Eugene, Oregon

Victory on the playing field is ample reward in itself. But the University of Oregon's gratitude to student athletes takes spectacular form at this three-story, 40,000-square-foot center, where they can receive academic support. The facility features 35 tutoring rooms, 25 advising offices, two computer labs, a library, an auditorium, and more. Overall, Firm 151 partner Randy Stegmeier and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects partner Gene Sandoval's concept celebrates the Oregon Ducks' athletic heritage while exploring transparency and connectivity. Exterior walls are clear glass, somewhat softened by stainless-steel screens. Inside, white oak is abundant-accented by seating upholstered in the school's lemon yellow and emerald green. Look closely at the lobby's pixelated mural of Albert Einstein's face, and you'll notice that it's constructed from 10,000 images of student athletes, etched onto small squares of stainless steel. What probably gets the most attention, however, is the lobby's scoreboard-style LED display of available tutorial appointments.

Merit Winners:

Project: New York University Department of Linguistics

Firm: 1100: Architect
Location: New York

Standout: Built-in seating upholstered in sunny colors updates a lounge's 19th-century cast-iron columns and exposed brick.

Project: Collins College

Firm: IA Interior Architects
Location: Phoenix
Standout: Bold angles and saturated colors animate the interior of a concrete warehouse converted into classrooms and administrative offices.

Project: Hult International Business School

Firm: Tsao Design Group
Location: San Francisco
Standout: A waffle slab floats above a lounge's seating by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and the adjacent glassed-in classroom.

Project: New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business

Firm: Perkins + Will
Location: New York
Standout: Set into a plaza's concrete pavement, panels of laminated glass bring sunlight into an atrium descending two levels belowground.