2023 AIA New England Architecture Awards

We are pleased to announce that the Land’s Sake Farm and Boston College 245 Beacon Street are the recipients of 2023 AIA New England Architecture Awards. The American Institute of Architects has a long tradition of recognizing individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievements in support of the profession of architecture and the AIA. The New England Architecture Awards program celebrates architects from, and architecture in, New England.

Boston College, 245 Beacon Street – Honor Award

245 Beacon Street is sited prominently along Higgins Green in the collegiate gothic core of Boston College’s historic Middle Campus. The new 159,800 SF facility provides dedicated space for interdisciplinary research and liberal arts programs. It is also home to the new Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society and Human Centered Engineering program. The five-story building consists of three levels of teaching and two levels of research, plus distributed core labs and a cleanroom in the basement.

This project explores the formal architectural language of the Middle Campus at Boston College to house state-of-the-art scientific programs in a collegiate gothic shell. The concept for the project is a building within a building: a crisp modern high-tech “machine” housing state-of-the-art research and teaching functions, floating independently from the historic collegiate gothic shell.

245 Beacon is the culmination of a decade of strategic planning efforts for Boston College. It embodies the College’s goal to address critical human needs through multidisciplinary research and teaching. It is home to the two new major initiatives – the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society as well as the Human-Centered Engineering program, both addressing important societal problems and educating the next generation of science and technology leaders. The project is at a crossroads where researchers, educators and students from all disciplines at Boston College can come together, with the simple ultimate goal of making the world a better place.

Land’s Sake Barn – Merit Award

Land’s Sake Farm is a non-profit community farm located on public land that was originally part of the Harvard Arboretum. The farm’s mission is connecting people to the land to build community and inspire lifelong stewardship that creates meaningful connections between people, the food they eat, and the land by preserving the town’s rural farming heritage and expanding the mission of farming and education.

The new Animal Barn at Land’s Sake Farm is the result of a 5-year pro-bono effort by the full consultant team to design a structure on a pristine site utilizing the craft and materiality of “First Settlers” building techniques, but with a confident nod toward modernity while preserving the “infinite vista” through the heart of the historic site. It is a curious structure that is undeniably at home in a New England landscape surrounded by historic homes and agrarian structures, yet it is undeniably modern the closer one looks.

The Animal Barn at Land’s Sake Farm completes the first phase of a two-phase master plan for the 40-acre site. Land’s Sake is a non-profit Community Farm that donates 30% of its produce for hunger relief to communities in need and provides CSA and retail produce for its neighboring communities. The farm also serves as an educational venue for over 5,000 children annually.

Phase 2 will include a new farm stand and service barn. At the completion of phase 2 the entire farm will be net-zero with energy provided by an iconic solar array covering the south facing roof of the farm stand.