Excerpts from feature article published in the The Times of Trenton, Business Section, January 22, 2012
From the rivers of Jordan to the mountains of Colorado, architects find inspiration from a variety of sites. But for many of those who won awards this year from the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects, inspiration was traced back to the same place: Central New Jersey.
Of the nine Design Conference winning projects that were given out this month, five were for firms in the region, setting the tone in Central Jersey as the place to be for architecture.
"Historically, there's been a large number of firms with a very good reputation in Mercer County," said John Hatch, principal at Clarke Caton Hintz of Trenton, which took home a merit award for interior architecture. "Partly, it's because it's close to Princeton University and the architecture school there, but as good firms grew up in the area, it attracted other good firms."
Trenton-based CCH was the only non-Princeton firm to win from Central Jersey, but Hatch said he finds the capital city just as inspiring. In fact, it was the setting for which his firm won its prize for the renovation of the Masonic Temple's top floor, where its offices are located.
Sustainability and rehabilitation of historic and existing buildings are the firm's specialties, but the temple was especially a challenge, Hatch said, as the building's third floor didn't share the beautiful finishing and woodwork of the lower two levels.
Still, the firm decided to work with what it had, juxtaposing the old concrete and steel space with modern, crisp finishes and adding skylights to accentuate the room's gritty texture.
"One of the things we like about restoring and doing adaptive reuse is coming to a space and really getting a sense of what makes it special and preserving and enhancing what makes a space special," Hatch said.
Click on link below to view entire article in PDF format.
|
