Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) is pleased to announce that the Won Dharma Retreat in Claverack, New York, has received an Honor Design Award from the 2011 North American Wood Design Awards program.
"Ottawa, ON, January 13th, 2012 – The Wood Design & Building magazine is pleased to announce the award recipients for the prestigious 2011 North American Awards Program. Sixteen projects were hand selected from over one-hundred entries by an esteemed jury panel: Andrew Frontini from Perkins+Will, James Cutler from Cutler Anderson and Robert Hull from Miller Hull.
The caliber of entries was extremely high this year, making the selection process challenging for the jury who based their selection on considerations such as creativity, appropriate use of wood materials, ability to satisfy the client’s building and site requirements and the overall aesthetic appeal for the use and application of wood."
Click here to read the full press release from the Canadian Wood Council.
The Won Buddhist Retreat is a small, five building, retreat located in upstate New York, on a 500-acre campus, also designed by hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa). All of the buildings are FSC wood, and the building compound is designed to make a 'zero carbon footprint' on the site.
The compound of five separate, formally connected, buildings was designed to occupy an area that had been used as a quarry for crushed stone. By siting the buildings in the area where there had been quarrying activity, hMa were able to mitigate a brownfield site where they sited the buildings, and restored that area of the site. Site work included removal of layers of crushed rock, and the installation of organic topsoil, to prepare the area to be replanted as a natural meadow, with New York native species.
The site was graded the site for proper drainage, and the architects developed a plan with the clients to plant trees and other New York plant species. So far, the Clients have planted 100 trees.
site view showing hanrahan Meyers architects' master plan with zero carbon footprint. Post Victoria Meyers architect
