The College Avenue Commons building completed in 2014 has been recognized for its architectural design, construction, energy efficiency and its environmental and sustainability features. Photographer: Jessica Hochreiter/ASU.
College Avenue Commons has added to its collection of awards.
The home of the Fulton Schools’ School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, including the Del E. Webb School of Construction, recently garnered an Environmental Excellence Award from the Arizona Forward organization.
Arizona Forward advocates for a balance of economic development, environmental quality and sustainability throughout the state. Each year it presents Environmental Excellence awards to projects that “demonstrate a high level of environmental commitment and contribute to the state’s overall sustainability.”
Earlier this month, Arizona Forward gave College Avenue Commons an Award of Merit in the category of Buildings and Structures: Commercial and Institutional.
Nominated for the award by the design architect Gensler and Architekton, the companies that collaborated on the building’s design, College Avenue Commons was cited for achieving the goals its design “to be socially, economically and environmentally sustainable and to demonstrate these principles to students and the community.”
Also noted:
- The building’s functionality as a “living-learning laboratory” with features that showcase its construction technology to serve as “a platform for exploration and discovery.”
- How the building responds to its “urban context” by extending the campus core into the adjacent city fabric of downtown Tempe, including spaces designed to invite the neighboring community into the building and the campus environment.
- Design and construction strategies that make the building more energy efficient through the use of a shade façade and a system of louvers to allow daylight into building, thereby reducing energy demand.
- The use of locally and regionally sourced building materials such as glass, sandstone and steel combined with a design aesthetic to “seamlessly integrate the facility into its surrounding natural and man-made environment.”
Previously, in 2015, College Avenue Commons was granted LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The structure earned the annual Best Project award in the Higher Education/Research category from the Southwest edition of Engineering News Record, the leading national construction industry magazine,
The count also includes two awards from the American Institute of Architects-Arizona Chapter presented at the organization’s Celebrate Architecture Awards event in Phoenix.
In addition, the project received a Distinguished Building Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects Western Mountain Region organization. That award recognizes excellence in architectural design, planning and construction of projects in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
