Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies Receives Two Architectural Awards By Marci Janas '91 JULY 12, 1999--Oberlin's Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, "a paradigm of sustainable design" (Landscape Architecture) and a "most remarkable" building (The New York Times), was honored last month with architectural awards from the American Institute of Architects and the Chicago Athenaeum. In June, the American Institute of Architects Committee on Architecture for Education (AIA/CAE) honored the Lewis center for its "innovative and imaginative design solutions." The center, designed by the architectural firm William McDonough + Partners, is one of five projects so honored in the CAE's first-ever Design Awards and Exemplary Learning Environment Program. More than 150 entrants from around the country vied for recognition by the program. "Architects and educators across the country are identifying new, cutting-edge solutions to school design problems that focus on spaciousness, environmental conditions, community involvement and the powerful connection of environment to learning," the AIA notes in a press release. "School design, experts recognize, has a strong impact on student learning and community cohesiveness." David Orr, professor of environmental studies, has long propounded this idea. "The curriculum embedded in any building instructs as fully and as effectively as any course taught in it," says Orr. "The extravagant use of energy in buildings, for example, teaches students that energy is cheap and can be wasted. The use of materials that are toxic to manufacture, install or discard teaches carelessness about the use of Creation and a kind of mindlessness about where things come from and at what cost. Windowless rooms, or those with windows that do not open, teach that nature is to be kept at arm's length." The AIA jury commented that those involved in the planning of the Lewis center, including "energy-savvy educators, faculty and students," made sure that "the environmental systems were exposed for study and not covered by sheetrock. The ideas are integrated into the full curriculum." Orr led more than 250 students, faculty, and town residents in discussions with national ecological designers during the building's initial design-phase charettes, in 1995 and 1996. Also in June, the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design announced that its jury had selected the Lewis center for a 1999 American Architecture Award. Twenty-six projects, out of more than 400 under consideration, received awards and are included in an exhibition, on view until August 29, at the Athenaeum's Main Museum, 6 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The American Architecture Awards Program, organized by the Chicago Athenaeum, publicizes and promotes the achievements of American architects and the importance of American architecture worldwide. The Athenaeum is the only museum of architecture and design in the United States.
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