HONOR AWARD

LaGuardia Airport’s new Terminal B, submitted by HOK, is a transformation of one of the nation’s highest-profile airports. The 850,000 sf Arrivals and Departures Hall celebrates movement while conveying a strong civic presence.

The first entirely new US airport in over 25 years, the architects initially provided professional advisory services for the 8 billion dollar project.

The original master plan suggested a headhouse with traditional concourses extending into the airfield. The team had a bolder vision of creating two island concourses accessed from the main terminal through two pedestrian bridges. This dramatically increased the efficiency of airport operations by moving the new terminal 600 feet closer to the Grand Central Parkway, recapturing 40 acres of land for airside operations.

The solution enabled contractors to build the new terminal over the existing structure—shaving almost two years off the construction schedule, minimizing impact to ongoing operations and saving millions of dollars.

The interior communicates New York City’s vibrancy, material sensibility and cultural diversity. Passengers enjoy soaring, airy, grand-scaled sequences, punctuated by 60-foot-high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows that fill the space with daylight.

Indoor green space is modeled after urban pocket parks and includes lush landscaping and sculptural benches. Concourses feature ample seating with charging stations, modern restrooms, nursing rooms, and public art installations curated by the Public Art Fund in partnership with LaGuardia Gateway Partners.

It’s the world’s first airport to earn LEED version 4.1 Gold certification; to have an Envision Platinum rating, the highest rating possible; and the first project to earn recognition under version 3 of the framework developed by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.

D’Youville University Health Professions Hub, submitted by Cannon Design, confronts two critical challenges in the Buffalo region. First, the city’s West Side community, rich with immigrants and refugees, is underserved and faces complex challenges around limited access to care and prevalent poverty and food insecurity. Concurrently, the region anticipates a critical shortage of healthcare professionals in excess of 10,000 by 2024.

The Hub converts these into opportunity as a “first-of-its-kind” health center featuring innovative learning spaces, a workforce center, virtual training resources, and a clinic offering primary care, rehabilitation medicine, nutrition, nursing, and pharmacy. A planning structure of CARE, COMPREHEND, and CONNECT is utilized for organizing these opportunities up through the building with a central atrium that stitches them together. These same principles extend beyond the inside, with an outdoor classroom and respite garden at level three, improving community access to healthcare services, introducing educational opportunities, preparing a new workforce to seize in-demand healthcare jobs, and supporting a living-wage ecosystem.

The Hub is located at one of Buffalo’s most historic and walkable districts. The palette reinforces and strengthens the urban fabric, which had lost some character over the years. The materiality also transitions and turns the corner of the building seamlessly, from complementary brick, glass, and metal on the community streetside, to more collegiate materials and massing, evocative of the college on the opposite side.

D’Youville University and its design team partnered with the Albright Knox Art Gallery to ensure this project served and beautified its community. Renowned national muralist Maya Hayuk painted The Tree of Y on a key face of the building, amplifying the design of the project and further beautifying the city’s West Side.