Chambless King Architects honored at 2021 AIA Alabama Excellence in Design Awards
The 2021 Excellence in Design Awards were hosted by AIA Alabama on Saturday, October 16 at The Lodge at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The program celebrated the diverse breadth of architecture practiced in the state.
During the ceremony, Chambless King Architects was presented with an Honor Award for the Auburn University Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory. Only three projects out of 47 entries were selected for an Honor Award, the highest level of recognition AIA Alabama bestows. Principals from Chambless King Architects were present to accept the award, alongside representatives from Auburn University.
Auburn University Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory
Auburn University Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory | Honor Award
The Auburn University Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory provides leading-edge testing and research facilities for civil engineering faculty and graduate students.
The project is located on a prominent, elevated corner site. While the low office wing is oriented south and parallel to the street, the large high-bay lab is rotated to accommodate delivery of oversized structural members for testing. Large stormwater basins create formal gestures in the landscape which ground and balance the building’s asymmetric massing while alluding to the civil engineering field the project serves.
Simple building forms are clad in insulated metal panels with pattern created by varied panel widths. Perforated screens add a layer of detail and transparency to the facade. Glazing provides daylighting and offers glimpses into the facility: displaying the impressive space and activities of the structural lab, exhibiting the large cranes and translating their movement through the facade, and revealing the heavy-timber structure within the office wing. CLT construction (the first at Auburn University) paired with heavy-timber columns and glulam beams works in conjunction with the adjoining steel and concrete construction to exemplify multiple structural systems. Additional building systems are exposed throughout the facility to further serve as educational tools, including a displacement ventilation system accented in the high-bay lab and a rainwater storage tank placed in view from lab spaces and the rear courtyard.
Specialty components incorporated into the design include a “strong wall” and “strong floor” capable of handling extreme structural testing loads, a hydraulic pump system, and a geotechnical test pit. The project achieves LEED certification through rainwater management, water use reduction, and optimized energy performance, among other strategies.