AIA-NJ: and the 2007 winners are ...

The American Institute of Architects' New Jersey chapter announced the winners of its 2007 annual Design Conference at a Sept. 20 event held at The Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, N.J., attended by nearly 400 people.

The 2007 Design Conference Winning Projects are:

Honor Award: Rutgers University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Busch Campus, Piscataway, N.J. Architect: KSS Architects, Princeton, N.J. This academic research building provides a new home for the university's growing Biomedical Engineering Department.

Honor Award: Virginia Capitol Restoration and Expansion, Richmond, Va. Architect: RMJM Hillier, Princeton, N.J. The restoration and expansion of the Virginia Capitol, a National Historic Landmark built in 1785 and designed by Thomas Jefferson, demonstrates the careful balance needed to achieve preservation and modernization in one of the country's most treasured buildings.

Honor Award: Urban Insertion, Princeton, N.J. Architect: RMJM Hillier, Princeton, N.J. This duplex house replaces a derelict structure on a tree-lined street in the relatively dense John Witherspoon neighborhood of Princeton Borough, a short walk from Princeton University and the center of town.

Honor Award: Lakeside Residence, Lake Leffert's, Matawan, N.J. Architect: Midouhas Architects, Ship Bottom, N.J. On approach, this house appears as a one-story structure. However, the Lakeside Residence exploits the sloped terrain of the site by the intervention of a concrete retaining wall forming a private, sun-drenched courtyard on the lower level visible from various windows throughout the house and connected to the main level by the "floating" stairs.

Merit Award: Klein Campus Center @ The Dwight Englewood School, Englewood, N.J. Architect: Dattner Architects, New York, N.Y. Located on the heavily landscaped campus of a private K-12 school, the 40,000 s/f Klein Campus Center provides a new focal point for the school.

Merit Award: Cesar A. Batalla Elementary School, Bridgeport, Conn. Architect: Fletcher Thompson, East Brunswick, N.J. The design goal of this pre-kindergarten through grade 8 urban school is to create a high quality learning environment while thoughtfully planning for the diverse needs of each age group.

Merit Award: Air Liquide--Delaware Research & Technology Center, Newark, Del. Architect: CUH2A with Bernardon Haber Holloway Architects PC Princeton, N.J. Air Liquide, a global industrial and medical gases company, selected for its new headquarters research and development facility a site with an existing 60,000 s/f warehouse building.

Merit Award: Additions and Alterations to the Morristown & Morris Township Public Library, N.J. Architect: Holt Morgan Russell Architects, Princeton, N.J.

Merit Award: Cooper River Boathouse, Rutgers Camden Campus, Pennsauken, N.J. Architect: SOSH Architects, Atlantic City, N.J. The banks of the Cooper River, just over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge from Philadelphia and adjacent to Camden, seemed like the perfect place for this 23,000 s/f boathouse and banquet facility.

Merit Award: Heights Middle School, Jersey City, N.J. Architect: Clarke Caton Hintz/Ehrenkrantz Eckstut Kuhn, Trenton, N.J. The Heights Middle School is one of the first new community-based school buildings to be built under New Jersey's landmark Abbott v. Burke state Supreme Court decision. The modern 3-story structure can accommodate 900 students in grades six, seven and eight.

Unbuilt Project Category. Honor Award: The Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Memorial, N.H. Architect: Francis. Treves Architect LLC, Princeton, N.J.

This unbuilt project was started in December of 2004 as a replacement for The Old Man of the Mountain, the famous icon of the State of New Hampshire that collapsed May 3, 2003.

Merit Award: Student Union Building Expansion-The State University of New York-New Paltz, N.Y. Architect: ikon.5 Architects, Princeton, N.J. The Student Union Building Expansion at the University of New York- New Paltz is a sustainable high performance building that is designed to reduce energy consumption and provide a healthy and enlightened interior environment.

Merit Award: USAMRIID Replacement (U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases), Fort Detrick, Md. Architect: CUH2A Smith Carter Hemisphere, Princeton, N.J. At 835,400 s/f, this integrated translational research facility will be the largest bio-safety laboratory of its kind in the world.

Merit Award: Animal Health Diagnostic Center, Cornell University Ithaca, N.Y. Architect: CUH2A, Princeton, N.J.

When completed in 2010, this will be the only full-service multidisciplinary animal disease diagnostic facility serving the Northeast, will bring together more than 200 people and will provide a significant image for the Diagnostic Center.