2023 AIA Nebraska Excellence in Design Award Recipients

AIA Nebraska, A Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, is pleased to announce the 2023 Excellence in Design Award winners. Â This year the jury reviewed 105 projects. Six honor awards, four merit awards and seven citation awards were presented.Â See imagesÂ from this year’s AIA NE Excellence in Design Gala on November 9, 2023.

The AIA Nebraska Jury, comprised of Chicago architects including the 2023 AIA National Gold Medal recipient, Jury Chair, Carol Ross Barney, FAIA; Juan Gabriel Moreno, Project Design Principal, President | Founder JGMA and Trina Sandschafer, AIA, Design Principal, Executive Vice President, Kahler Slater. Â

The Excellence in Design program is an annual event for Nebraska architects who submit built and unbuilt projects for consideration. Â Categories for consideration include Architecture, Interior Architecture, Unbuilt, Details, Masonry and Regional & Urban Design. Â

In addition, there are two categories for emerging architects and architecture students, including Built & Unbuilt Design. Projects are judged based on a variety of features, including unique design, originality, extended use attributes, sustainability, budget and use of environmental surroundings. Â

AIA Nebraska supports architects in fulfilling their commitment to excellence in design and livability in our buildings and communities. Further information on this yearâ€™s design winners and past winners can be found on The American Institute of Architects, Nebraska Chapterâ€™s websiteÂ www.aia.org/nebraska

Architecture Honor Award

Photographer: AJ Brown Imaging

MCC Auto Tech Facility
Firm:Â BVH Architecture
Location: Omaha, NE
Owner:Â Metro Community College
Located in South Omaha, the new Auto Tech Facility is a 100,000 square-foot building that serves as home of the Collegeâ€™s Automotive Technology and Automotive Collision Technology programs. The purposeful incorporation of nature and biophilic elements aid the facility to achieve LEEDv4 Silver certification. The program facilitates key partnerships between the college and private industry partners. The facility features state-of-the-art learning environments for students, faculty, and staff that are spread over two floors. In order to make both programs more visible to the public, the two floors of the building are connected by ample amounts of interior glass. Ultimately, the new facility sets a standard in automotive educational environments, and will serve as an example for similar programs in the region and across the country.

Jury Comments:Â This building celebrates the principles of teaching and learning by doing. Â Inside, visual connections are made across the spaces and evident in the section. Â Outside, clarity and pragmatism are felt, while upgrading the typical shop experience. The faÃ§ade recalls automotive details, while highlighting uses inside. Â The nooks are a successful way to bring moments of delight and amplify the natural light.

Architecture Honor Award

Photographer: Corey Gaffer Photography

Springfield Elementary
Firm:Â Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture
Location: Springfield, NE
Owner:Â Springfield Platteview Community Schools

The new, 74,000 SF school is a focal point for community pride and acts as a local gathering point. The schoolâ€™s main entry leads to the Central Commons, which connects the classroom wing with shared learning spaces. This central space boasts a clerestory that becomes a glowing lantern when after-hours activities are hosted within. A critical prompt was to create an inviting place, while providing flexible learning space to meet the needs of an ever-changing education system. Light and structure provide inspiring spaces for children as they learn and play throughout Springfield Elementary.

Jury Comments:Â This project is recognized for its clear organization and intentional circulation structure creating collaborative learning commons. Â On the exterior, the two-story colonnade creates a celebration of entry and provides solar shades. The material palette is elevated and approachable.

Architecture Honor Award

Photographer: Dan Schwalm, HDR Inc.
Kiewit Luminarium
Firm:Â HDR
Location: Omaha, NE
Owner:Â Kiewit Luminarium
This 83,000 square-foot, hands-on, interactive STEM museum creates a place for people of all ages, identities, and backgrounds to explore astonishing phenomena at the intersection of science, art, and human perception. The building has been designed as a container to allow the diverse range of programming and exhibits the most flexibility. On the west side, towards Downtown Omaha, it lifts off the ground, creating an elevated “canvas” in the air and acts as a billboard to the city. The space under the cantilever then becomes a protected pedestrian area â€“ a large bus stop for group collection and arrival. The eastern form along the river anchors into the site along the riverfront boardwalk.
Jury Comments:Â Recognized for its clarity, this projectâ€™s lit volume floats lightly on the base. Careful articulation of the faÃ§ade brings visual interest to the mass and reflection in the adjacent water. Â Inside, the open space and circulation invites the user to experience many exhibits.

Architecture Merit Award

Photographer: Dan Schwalm, HDR Inc.

Cobalt Credit Union – Gretna Branch
Firm:Â HDR
Location: Gretna, NE
Owner:Â Cobalt Credit Union

The building owner is the largest credit union in Nebraska and serves clients in sixteen counties in Nebraska and Iowa. From the exterior, the observer gets a glimpse of the warm wood interior glowing from inside. From the interior, ample daylight floods the public space from the clerestory windows and the raised ceiling provides a lofty sense of space. Customers and employees alike will engage in this project for years to come as the credit union continues to serve the publicâ€™s need for financial strategies and assistance.

Jury Comments:Â Exemplary use of exterior materials and clean lines elevate the brand and perception. Inside the clearstory windows allow ample light inside.

Architecture Merit Award

Photographer: Dan Schwalm, HDR Inc.

Douglas County Justice Center
Firm:Â HDR
Location: Omaha, NE
Owner: Omaha Douglas Public Building Commission

Located in the urban setting of downtown Omaha, the new complex occupies a one block area immediately south of the existing Courthouse. The tower is visually accessible to the city, clad in vision and opaque glass composed to express the public and private spaces within. Directly connected to the courts tower, the youth center is designed with the aesthetic of an urban apartment building while maintaining the durability and security required. Clad in brick, metal panel and glass, ample daylight with views in (when appropriate) and out are the basis for a normative environment. The interior material pallet is â€œsoftâ€ and detailed to reflect a therapeutic setting. The complex, with collocated facilities and a normative, trauma informed design, will allow for intensive restorative care, counseling, and guidance; serving the youth, their families, and the entire community.

Jury Comments:Â This project is recognized for its skillful mix of building typologies, strategies, and styles to create a cohesive and dynamic urban courtyard.

Architecture Merit Award

Photographer: Dan Schwalm, HDR Inc.

Wigton Heritage Center and McGoogan Health Sciences Library
Firm:Â HDR
Location: Omaha, NE
Owner:Â University of Nebraska Medical Center

The Heritage Center addition and Wittson Hall medical library renovation began as an exercise to rethink how a legacy library could transform to support an innovative curriculum at the largest medical university in Nebraska, and grew in scope to include a brand new atrium addition that would serve as a student commons for the campus while linking together two historic buildings. The Heritage Center addition provides an all-new glazed enclosure that connects University Tower, the oldest surviving building at the school, with Wittson Hall, which houses the medical library. Connecting across six different elevation changes between buildings, the Heritage Center serves as a social commons for the entirety of the campus.

Jury Comments:Â This project is recognized for the glass jewel box addition, which in a tight space, connects both buildings and creates the opportunity for interaction and porosity between the two buildings. Natural light is a welcome counterpoint to the needed light control in the stacks.

Architecture Citation Award

Photography: AJ Brown Imaging

Omaha VA Ambulatory Care Center
Firm:Â LEO A DALY
Location: Omaha, NE

The architecture creates a new gateway to the VA campus. Bold aesthetic strokes unfold through the design, inspired by symbolism but oriented toward experiential impact. The north faÃ§ade, inspired by the rippling of a flag in the wind, guides veterans and staff to the entry. The â€œflag wallâ€ encloses the clinic waiting area, which is designed as one continuous space to emphasize social connections that are so vital to veteran wellness. In the clinic waiting area, a horizontally layered limestone wall guides patients to their care environment. Its form and materiality are inspired by the layers of soil tracked home by veterans through periods of peace and conflict. Clinical layout combines best practices from the VA and private sector. Clinics use an onstage/offstage configuration, enabling cross-disciplinary collaboration between clinicians. One clinic is exclusively for women veterans.

Jury Comments:Â This project celebrates the users of the building with symbolic detailing and skillful integration of color.

Architecture Citation Award

Photographer: Bruce Damonte

Sylvan Lake House
Firm:Â Actual Architecture Company
Location: Jarvis Bay, Alberta, Canada
Owner: Donovan and Joanne Nielsen

This second home occupies a narrow lot on a large, recreational lake midway between Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. The house comprises simple masses with spatial intersections that create a complex interior environment, all focused on the lake. A mute opacity on the inland side provides privacy and intimacy, while the lake side opens to generous views and exterior spaces. Glass curtain walls and decks extend the indoor surfaces outside. Indoor porosity continues vertically connecting floors to provide a counterpoint to the monolithic stacked-box appearance of the exterior. Material selections are at a minimum, maintaining the prominence of the lake and surrounding woods. Furniture and artwork were selected with input from the Architect. Environmental systems include a super-insulated building envelope, triple-pane glass, in-floor radiant heating, ducted forced-air cooling, and recessed or coved LED lighting.

Jury Comments:Â This project brings together a play of light and dark with dramatic materials and crisp detailing, both on the interior and exterior. Â Well placed transparency invites the visitor into the home, with a glimpse of water, which unfolds into a panoramic view upon entry.

Architecture Citation Award

Photographer: Dan Schwalm, HDR Inc.

Maverick Park
Firm:Â HDR
Location: Omaha, NE
Owner:Â University of Nebraska Omaha

This metropolitan university is continuing the development of its Center Street campus with the addition of a new baseball and softball stadium complex. The requirements for different geometries prevent the use of the same field for both sports. Often, the two field solution results in facilities that are inequitable between womenâ€™s and menâ€™s sports. The site rises sharply away from the street to the west climbing 45â€™ with a continued rise into multi-family residential beyond. Above the covered deck is a covered, open air second deck open to both fields. The remainder of the pavilion consists of press and broadcast facilities for each field.

Jury Comments:Â This project is recognized for its modern approach to the typology. Â The shape and minimal color palette elevates the experience of the pavilion. Circulation and connection have been carefully integrated.

Interior Architecture Citation Award

Photographer: Dan Schwalm, HDR Inc

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Hubbard Center for Children
Firm:Â HDR
Location: Omaha, NE
Owner:Â Children’s Hospital & Medical Center

This children’s hospital wanted to embody just that, childhood. A 450,000-square-foot expansion and renovation project at the heart of Omaha, this project is a celebration of color and a destination to improve childrenâ€™s lives. On the facade, dichroic fins within the unitized curtain wall system refract rainbows of light and perforated metal screens at the base are illuminated with color-changing scenes. The building comes alive. When inside, feelings of playfulness, openness, and discovery were created for an optimistic patient experience and positive distraction. Focusing on shape, color, and print, the design team developed an interior that is childlike, not childish. Graphics were incorporated to draw people through patient floors, while wood ceilings in waiting spaces indicate moments of pause. On lower levels, the full spectrum of colors and shapes were used to signal movement and community engagement.

Jury Comments:Â The skillful integration of graphics and interiors in this space creates a sophisticated approach to color and wayfinding, bringing delight to the clinical environment.

Interior Architecture Citation Award

Photographer: Corey Gaffer Photography

WP Engine, Tennant Improvement
Firm:Â Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture
Location: Omaha, NE
Owner: WP Engine

Distributed between the top two floors of the warehouse building, this 400-person technology-focused office space is organized for various working styles. Ranging from phone booths for quiet work; conference rooms for hybrid meetings; large collaboration spaces for all-staff events; and open offices organized into neighborhoods, these working environments offer diversity in scale, visibility, and activity. At the heart of the 66,000-sf floorplate is the main two-story entry and dining space where energy and creative collisions are intended to occur. Moving towards the perimeter, stimulus and noise recede to calm and quiet for more focused work. Additionally, vertical openings between floors â€“ visual or physical â€“ are distributed throughout to further enhance interaction. A feature stair and skylight were inserted within the central space, infusing it with natural light and transparency across floors. Each element was thoughtfully designed as a backdrop to highlight the companyâ€™s personality alongside the existing architecture, while artfully incorporating branding and color throughout.

Jury Comments:Â This project celebrates the existing building structure while skillfully bringing in a two story element to amplify light. White materials provide a strong contrast to the wood structure and an overall restrained palette showcases the base building materials.

Unbuilt Architecture Honor Award

Omaha Central Library

Firm:Â HDRÂ w/Â Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture
Location: Omaha, NE
Owner:Â Heritage Omaha

The uses of a library â€“ and the resources within â€“ are changing. This central library concept supports this mission, by providing access to 21st century resources and prioritizing space â€“ for gathering, learning, and collaborating â€“ as a critical public resource. As technology has transformed our world, libraries must also transform â€“ and in the process become a tool for the democratization of not just information, but also technology. While books and typical library materials will be on display and browsable on every level, the bulk of the system collection will be housed in an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) â€“ a first-of-its-kind for a public library. The design strives to be net-zero â€“ deploying a high-performance faÃ§ade, a photovoltaic array, geothermal loups, and an underfloor air distribution system to keep the indoor environs both efficiently comfortable and sustainable. This library is designed to reflect the changing landscape of this area and functions as a catalyst to transform the neglected core of the city.

Jury Comments:Â The articulation of the faÃ§ade allows this project to stand out among its peers. Â A pulled back entry invites the public in.

Unbuilt Architecture Merit Award

Renderings: Goodlife Architecture

Deadend Viaduct
Firm:Â Goodlife Architecture
Location: Hastings, NE

In 1936, a public works project was completed in Hastings which allowed vehicles to soar over one of the nation’s busiest railroads. 85 years later the highway had been moved and the crossing had not been maintained, to the point that City officials decided to have it demolished. Some residents still depended on the viaduct as a connector in the recreational trail system. So when a section of bridgework sat in extended purgatory while awaiting demolition permissions from the railroad authorities, we were asked to reimagine the ruin as a public amenity. Paths for pedestrians and cyclists follow the viaduct’s curved approach to the crossing, terminating at a vertical tower. Ascending, one is treated to a long view of the prairie horizon. Providing a visual connection between the bridge and the tracks, a lower-deck observation platform offers a moment of respite and serves as a trainspotting destination for a surprising number of enthusiasts – local and tourist. At the tower’s base, travelers interpret the enormity of the diesel engines at grade, then continue their trek into the town center, tracing the line of the former overhead bridge to a 5-point intersection of the municipal trail system.

Jury Comments:Â This project is recognized for creating a sculptural connector at what had previously been abruptly ended.

Unbuilt Architecture Citation Award

Bridge Park :: Park Bridge
Firm:Â BVH Architecture
Location: Omaha, NE
Owner:Â Applied Underwriters

This pedestrian bridge acts as an immersive environment connecting the public pedestrian trails within a greenway network that includes sensitively designed landscapes and thoughtfully considered programming. The new bridge will span over Pacific Street leading to the mixed-use pedestrian friendly development that includes living, working, shopping, and playing in Omaha. The space in between circulation routes is programmed with activities interlaced with vegetation, softscape, and hardscape. With an intentionally dynamic experience, the immersive bridge environment allows people to play, inhabit, or circulate on the bridge. Â The wood skin transforms the experience – becoming more open from within the bridge. Playful lighting dapples the exterior; interacting with vehicles passing by- all powered by integrated photovoltaic panels.

Jury Comments:Â This project is a clear and elegant approach to the bridge, actively engaging each side. Compelling material articulation lifts the experience.

Architectural Detail Honor Award

Photographer: Dan Schwalm, HDR Inc.

Kiewit Luminarium Facade
Firm:Â HDR
Location: Omaha, NE
Owner:Â Kiewit Luminarium

The Kiewit Luminarium design incorporated steel structure with steel stud framing for the exterior envelope. Insulated metal panels and glass curtain wall complete the enclosure. Perforated metal panels are used across the entire faÃ§ade for a shading structure. High-efficiency mechanical equipment, photovoltaics, and lighting fixtures significantly exceed the 2018 energy code.

Jury Comments:Â This faÃ§ade detailing brings crispness and clarity to a complex idea. Â It actively articulates a typology that requires careful light consideration and quality. Â The continuation of the vertical line successfully breaks down the scale of the horizontal forms.

Excellence in Masonry Honor Award

Photographer: Daniel Muller

White Lotus Group | Nebraska Realty-Lincoln
Firm:Â DLR Group
Location: Lincoln, NE
Owner:Â White Lotus Group

This project is a new 30,000 SF multi-tenant office building on an approximately 3-acre site in a fast-growing suburban neighborhood in the southeast quadrant of the city. With its simple and elegant massing, ample access to daylight, and integrated outdoor amenity spaces, the building is designed to attract, inspire, and motivate Nebraska Realty employees and future building tenants alike. A masonry base is topped with a white box that reaches out to the community. Shifting planes in the buildingâ€™s massing create communal spaces, including an outdoor amenity deck on the second floor adjacent to the future Nebraska Realty offices.

Jury Comments:Â This project is recognized for the simple and impactful use of brick undulation to create light and shadow. Â The continuation of the brick from exterior to interior further supports this articulation.

Regional & Urban Design Citation Award

Conceptual Terrain
Firm:Â HDR
Location: Palmer, AK
Owner:Â Mat-Su Health Foundation

This master plan, developed in-tandem with a full market study and an economic feasibility study, creates a long-range vision and implementation plan for a mixed program community to enhance the existing infrastructure and population anchor provided by the regional medical center. The solution to ensure its sustainability is to use the hospital as the foundation to build population density, drive increased economic and social enterprise, and create a new urban center. Using ideas such as these, we can create population gravity that helps sustain the medical center and, most importantly, improve the quality of life for the people of the Mat-Su Valley.

Jury Comments:Â This project is recognized for its study of the impact of placemaking with one key built intervention, which can provide the foundation for the positive growth of a region.