Vermont architects and stellar designs highlight end-of-year awards
Elegant simplicity — and affordability — played a part in award-winning designs by Vermont architects this year.
Top honors at a statewide competition went to two relatively modest homes in Middlebury, for instance.
The simple-looking buildings, constructed by students and volunteers, offer “a progressive and optimistic message to the community,” wrote McLeod Kredell Architects in their submission to the Vermont chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Inside, the buildings pair cozy, private space with airy living and dining areas. The exteriors are clad in locally sourced, low-maintenance white cedar.
McLeod Kredell also received a citation from the institute at the year’s-end online ceremony for a storage shed in Vergennes that it designed and built with nine students from six schools.
Other buildings honored by the institute for demonstrating “an extraordinary level of competence include:
A modern ski house designed by Waitsfield-based Maclay Architects that sits into a scooped hillside in Warren.
Maclay’s “Green Mountain Retreat” follows the firm’s commitment to ultra-low energy use.
Its air-source heat pumps are powered by a rooftop array of solar panels, which combined with ultra-insulated walls and roof, result in a home that generates about as much energy as it consumes: “net-zero.”
“Lathhouse,” a striking, light-filled single-family home in Sagaponk, New York was one of two Merit Award winners by Richmond-based Birdeye of Richmond.
Judges in the competition also honored Birdseye’s “Field House,” a single-family home in South Kingston, Rhode Island.
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Finally, Watershed Studio Architecture, based in White River Junction, took Merit honors for its roomy, airy and low-maintenance structure along the Connecticut River.
Located on a campus in Gill, Massachusetts, the Draper River House accommodates crew boat repairs, storage and training.
Past years’ design winners can be found on Vermont’s American Institute of Architects website at aiavt.org.
Contact Joel Banner Baird at 802-660-1843 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @VTgoingUp.
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