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. 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.

Susanne Angarano, Principal / Senior Interior Designer, and Nicholas Williams, Principal & Director, Mid-Atlantic Office, co-presented “Breaking Down the Walls to the 21st Century: A Holistic Approach to Progressive Facilities” at the Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) Northeast Regional Conference on Friday, April 28, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. K12 and Higher Education institutions frequently grapple with how to deal with aging facilities that no longer reflect current pedagogical approaches and are in conflict with broader institutional goals regarding sustainability.

Susanne Angarano, Principal / Senior Interior Designer, recently received the Accredited Learning Environments Planner (ALEP) designation, a mark of excellence developed to reflect the knowledge, skills and abilities of a competent educational facility planner. The ALEP credential was designed to elevate professional standards, enhance individual performance and identify those in the educational environment industry who demonstrate the knowledge essential to the practice of educational facility planning.

The Association of College Unions International (ACUI) has recognized the transformation of the Schine Student Center at Syracuse University by Mackey Mitchell Architects and Ashley McGraw Architects with a 2023 Facility Design Award of Excellence. The project was recognized as the best project in the extremely competitive Student Union Projects between $35 and $55 million category. The 2023 awards were announced during the ACUI Annual Conference in Boston, Massachusetts on February 28, 2023.

Nicholas Williams, Principal and Director of our Mid-Atlantic Office, was a featured panelist at the Facades+ Conference on February 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. Facades+ is the premier conference on high-performance building enclosures. Nick was a panelist for “Sustainable Public Spaces: Mass Timber, Net-Zero Energy, & Facade Strategies.”