by Jonathan McGaha | August 31, 2010 12:00 am
The Arkansas Studies Institute, Little Rock, Ark., has earned national recognition in the 2010 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel awards program (IDEAS2), and members of the project team were presented with awards from the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) during a public ceremony at the museum on Wednesday, July 21. Conducted annually by AISC, the IDEAS2 awards recognize outstanding achievements in engineering and architecture on structural steel projects around the country. The Arkansas Studies Institute is a recipient of a National Award in the category of projects $15 million to $75 million, making it one of only seven projects around the country to receive the national honor. Located in a thriving entertainment district near the Clinton Presidential Library, the design combines significant but neglected buildings from the 1880s(heavy timber) and 1910s (concrete) with a new technologically expressive steel archive addition, creating a pedestrian focused, iconic gateway to the public library campus and the face of Arkansas history. Public spaces—galleries, a café, and a museum—enliven streetscape storefronts, while a great research hall encompasses the entire second floor of the 1914 building. “The exposed steel in this building is a great example of how structural steel can be used as an aesthetic feature,” commented Brad Lange, preconstruction manager, The Weitz Company, Des Moines, Iowa, and a judge in the competition. Because the existing structures could not support the weight capacity needed for the archive collection, a new addition on the 50-foot wide (15 m) lot previously used for parking was planned to house three full floors of compact shelving above an open, glass-wrapped “soft story” gallery at street level. Steel was the obvious choice because it provided the required free spans and offered architecturally expressive truss options for the interior gallery. The juxtaposition of heavy document storage above light, open galleries creates an instantly identifiable image for the Arkansas Studies Institute.
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