Amenta Emma has been honored with three Merit awards in the 2020 AIA Connecticut Design Awards.
The New Haven offices for quasi-public venture capital firm Connecticut Innovations was recognized in the Interior Architecture category. Amenta Emma’s workplace studio adapted a 1950s-era bus station into a 9,000-square-foot headquarters, encompassing offices, meeting rooms, collaborative areas and open work areas. Exposed structure, HVAC, brickwork, metal panel ornamentation, and concrete floor staining are contextual with original architecture and provide an edgy industrial aesthetic. Jurors commented, “This design team has created a vibrant and attractive work environment.”
The Connecticut State Office Building at 165 Capitol Avenue was recognized in the Built category. Jurors commented, “Good reuse and renovation of major building – uplifting Government service, and a thoughtfully executed renovation.” Not only is the building now a beautiful contemporary workplace with a stunning double-height lobby featuring canted marble walls, the design respects the historic fabric of the 1930s-era building while making it a model of 21st century sustainability goals.
Amenta Emma’s design for renovating and expanding Lafayette Hall at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut also received a Merit award in the Built category. “The massing of the building contributes to the campus making a destination, a place, from a former shopping mall,” a juror commented. Amenta Emma’s Higher Education team’s design of the 48,000-sf addition to the main campus building adds critical program areas and radically changes the College’s relationship to its urban context.
All winning projects will be honored at the AIA Connecticut Awards Gala being held virtually on November 12.
