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Sunday, 21 May 2006 | Levent OZLER
Marmol Radziner is Honored with 2006 Los Angeles Architectural Award
Marmol Radziner + Associates was honored today with a Los Angeles Architectural Award for Treepeople Center for Community Forestry Conference Center for outstanding architecture in the "Sustainable" category. Hosted by the Los Angeles Business Council (LABC), the 36th annual awards ceremony brought together world-renowned architects, contractors and developers to acknowledge and celebrate the most laudable new projects in Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles Architectural Awards are presented to the project teams whose contributions improve the quality of architecture and enhance the urban fabric of Los Angeles.
"By honoring these project teams today our goal is to illuminate the most outstanding and important projects in our region. Each of the award winning projects demonstrates a powerful respect and appreciation for structures and spaces that create a higher quality of life for us all," said Brad Cox, Chairman of the Los Angeles Business Council and Principal of Trammell Crow Company.
TreePeople Center for Community Forestry aims to further its mission of inspiring local, statewide and national leadership in sustainability through its nationally acclaimed environmental education programs. The 21,600 square foot complex is the first of its kind, demonstrating cutting-edge technologies that help to educate its 150,000 visitors and school children annually on ways to save water and energy.
The challenge for Marmol Radziner + Associates was to create a positive relationship between the site's natural environment and the Center's buildings, while engaging the latest sustainable building methods. The result is a unique architectural program, which demonstrates principals of sustainability, fosters a sense of community and accommodates the Center's expanded program of educational and service activities.
The 3,800 square-foot Conference Center is the first component of the organization's overall building program to be constructed. It is designed for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification and oriented to make the best use of the sun and prevailing winds. The campus's future building plans also consist of a 13,000 square-foot office building, containing the environmental learning center and administrative offices.
The Conference Center's structural steel frame is made from both pre- and post-consumer waste. The thick 50-percent fly ask concrete slabs, that make up the roof and floor, absorb heat during the day to be released in the venting, naturally moderating the temperature inside the building. Solar shades on the building's outside are made from recycled timber planks salvaged from the park's historic 1920s fire station. Below the ground, a 250,000-gallon cistern captures rainwater from the building's roof and filters runoff from the parking lot and is used to water the surrounding parkland.
Situated within the 45 acres of Coldwater Canyon Park, the Center sits on a plateau at the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains. The architecture embraces the surrounding landscape and the boundaries between interior and exterior space are blurred by floor planes that blend into the forest floor and horizontal beams that complement the surrounding tree canopy. The large windows are hooded by sunshades and roof overhangs that capture sun in the winter months and provide natural ventilation in summer, reducing the need for artificial lighting.
TreePeople Center for Community Forestry is designed to achieve a U.S. Green Building Council LEED certification. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) sets the national standard for high-performance, sustainable buildings and site development through the implementation of design and construction strategies. The strategies engaged in the Treepeople Center for Community Forestry optimize water conservation, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality and use of appropriate building materials while minimizing long-term operational costs.
The Los Angeles Architectural Awards are presented by the Los Angeles Business Council. Awards were selected by a nine-member jury of distinguished peers including architects, contractors and developers. To receive an award, projects had to be located within Los Angeles County and completed during 2004 or 2005 ("unbuilt" category exempt).
Marmol Radziner + Associates: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/7829/
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