Winning projects ... the University's Mellor Laboratories (left) and St David II.
The University's building projects are continuing their winning ways.
For the redevelopment of St David II, McCoy Wixon Architects won the education category of the recent Southern Architecture Awards, and a Resene colour award.
For the redevelopment of Mellor Laboratories, Parker Warburton Team Architects and Lab-Works Architecture jointly won the education category with McCoy Wixon as well, and a Resene colour award.
The University also received a merit award for Mellor Laboratories at the Property Council of New Zealand Awards, in the education property section.
The Mellor Laboratories project involved gutting and rebuilding the Science I building to create Mellor Laboratories.
The architecture awards jury says: “Undeterred by a daunting brief that sought a complex functional programme to meet 21st century expectations, the architects have created a vibrant and technically sophisticated solution within the envelope of a 1970's chemistry building.
“The scale of the intention is signalled at the outset with a 13-tonne molecular structure to define the building entrance. Throughout the interior, colour and texture has been applied to high-tech lab spaces that will meet students' needs for many years to come.”
This project also won a Resene Colour Award: “The suspended 'molecular' lighting and bright splashes of colour throughout help convey the smart and technically sophisticated character of this building.”
The St David II project involved bringing an unused building back to life, filling it with offices and meeting rooms in a move that will ultimately reduce the University of Otago's reliance on leased premises.
The architecture awards jury says: “Skill, ingenuity and creativity are appropriate bywords for this successful redevelopment.”
St David II is now “an excellent example of an architect's ability to create value through creative regenerative design”.
“The architect's ability to negotiate the dominance of an intrusive new structural spine, part of a predetermined structural solution, is central to the success – as is the spatial planning that illustrates great care for user comfort, and significant energy efficiency and sustainability measures.
“In the reinvention of the existing perimeter stairwell elements, the architects provide an excellent example of ways to create value through creative regenerative deign,” the jury said.
The St David II project won a Resene Colour Award as well: “The 'light box' façade is clad in glass and illuminated at night, clearly delineating new from old, providing identity from the street and within the wider campus.”
The jury for the architecture awards was Invercargill architect Roger Beattie, Queenstown architects Bronwen Kerr and Mark Gray, and Auckland architect Megan Rule.
The Campus Development Division also won an excellence award in the property council awards last year, in the education facilities category for its redevelopment of three levels of the Otago Business School.