Binghamton University Science IV Awarded 2023 AIANYS Excelsior Award
The AIANYS Excelsior Awards program, celebrating its ninth year, highlights the best in publicly funded buildings, outdoor areas, and public art across New York State and the professionals who support and advocate for them. The Binghamton University Science IV Renovation / Deep Energy Retrofit received an Honor Award, representing the highest level of achievement, at the Excelsior Awards ceremony on May 4, 2023 in Albany, New York.
Nine projects were recognized for an award in the categories of Renovation/ Addition, New Construction and Landscape Architecture.
The interdisciplinary jury evaluated the projects based on a set of three criteria:
Firmness: demonstrating design based on sound architectural and engineering principles and responsible use of public funds to achieve the maximum public benefit.
Commodity: demonstrating design that is functional and impactful, providing socio-economic benefits to the surrounding community and advancing the owner’s mission.
Delight: demonstrating design that achieves beauty and harmony through respect for the surrounding context, understanding and consideration of human scale, and satisfaction of user needs, both explicit and implicit.
The first building that visitors encounter when entering the Binghamton University campus was a tired, partially vacant 1970’s structure known as Science IV. The masonry façade was failing, the interiors were dated and nonfunctional, and campus noted that the architecture gave a foreboding first impression to visitors. Binghamton University, in conjunction with the State University Construction Fund (SUCF), commissioned Ashley McGraw Architects to re-envision the building as a new campus icon that welcomes visitors to the campus and sciences complex, in a modern, cohesive and energy efficient way.
The result was to transform the existing building into a welcoming, energy efficient, sophisticated icon that showcases the psychology department and redefines the entrance to the campus. Now, with dynamic cladding, large expanses of glazing, and two new grand entrances, the entire campus community is invited inside. The interior design leaves behind the academic culture of the 1970s for a more modern approach. With more collaboration and multi-disciplinary spaces, people tend to linger and meet before or after classes/meetings. There are more places for interaction to organically happen.
Mid-Century buildings are commonplace on campuses across the nation, yet many are energy hogs, far from code-compliant, and are hardly conducive to 21st century learning. By renovating the interiors of these facilities to make vibrant new academic environments and transforming the building envelopes and mechanical systems to significantly reduce operating costs, revitalized mid-century buildings such as Science IV can play a positive role in campus life for decades to come.
Jury Chair Nancy Aber Goshow, AIA, said, “We could have given every single submission an award because all were well-designed and contributed to the social welfare and civic engagement of the communities in which they were built. We tried not to distinguish between large, well-funded projects, and smaller, perhaps less well-funded ones and did not want aesthetic presentation to overwhelm service to its community, therefore some selections may surprise. We premiated nine wonderful projects that the jury felt demonstrated the dedication and civic commitment to some very special architects.”
