Comment of the Holcim Awards 2005 Jury for North America
The work is innovative in striving to implement solutions involving sustainable construction that are not necessarily high-tech, but are rather more integral to the tectonic form of the building. The project displays a contextual sensitivity, responding poetically to the natural terrain and topographical setting.
By proposing to utilize nearby lake water as the primary resource for a deep water-cooling system, this scheme is important in promoting transferability and raising awareness of an available and renewable natural energy source.
Of equal significance is the attempt to offset initial installation costs of the energy system with long-term calculations of projected savings. Deploying carefully considered technologies, the project is commended for pursuing minimal environmental impact while creatively making use of natural means to achieve maximum climatic comfort on behalf of the users.
Such considerations are successfully extended to the landscaping of the site that provide for a controlled dissipation of rain water through the use of retention ponds and permeable parking surfaces. The effort to integrate the building with the environment results in an aesthetically refined contextual response and a cultivated architectural expression of energy-saving technology.