Pickard Chilton Wins Four American Institute of Architects Awards

Three Pickard Chilton Projects Win AIA Connecticut Awards, Firm is Recognized as a 2020 AIA New England Emerging Professional Friendly Firm

(New Haven, Conn. – October 22, 2020) – Pickard Chilton, an award-winning architecture studio best known for its innovative and cutting-edge design of corporate headquarters and campuses, announces that three projects they designed – 609 Main in Houston, TX; Obama Magnet University School in New Haven, CT; and 2+U in Seattle, WA, – have each been recognized with a 2020 AIA Connecticut Design Award. In addition, AIA New England has recognized Pickard Chilton with the 2020 AIA New England Emerging Professional Friendly Firm for the third time.

The AIA Connecticut Design Awards celebrate the accomplishments of Connecticut architects and the excellence of Connecticut projects. This year, Pickard Chilton’s 609 Main was awarded with Excellence in the Commercial, Institutional, Educational, or Multi-family Residential Design category while both the Obama Magnet University School and 2+U were awarded Merit in the same category. The prestigious award jurors included Anne Tate, Professor of Architecture, Rhode Island School of Design; Anne Torney, AIA, LEED, AP BD+C, Partner MITHUN, San Francisco, CA; Stuart Silk, AIA, Stuart Silk Architects, Seattle, WA; and, Nichole Wiedemann, AIA, Professor at University of Texas at Austin.

“We are honored to once again be recognized by AIA New England as an Emerging Professional Friendly Firm and to receive three AIA CT awards for our studio’s timeless designs for 609 Main, 2+U, and the Obama Magnet University School,” said Jon Pickard FAIA, principal of Pickard Chilton. “These accolades are a testament to our team’s commitment to design that is transformative, sustainable and elegant. We are dedicated to continue to deliver buildings that create value for our clients and for the surrounding communities.”

The 48-story, 1,850,000-gross-square-foot 609 Main at Texas (Kendall/Heaton Associates, Architect of Record) is a Class-A, next-generation office tower in Houston’s Central Business District. Considered one of the most ambitious skyscrapers developed in downtown Houston in years, the sustainably-designed tower has already been recognized with a number of prestigious awards including most recently a Sustainable Architecture Excellence Award from AIA Connecticut.

609 Main © Alan Karchmer

The Obama Magnet University School (JCJ Architecture, Collaborating Architect) is a three-story brick-clad New Haven Public School for 490 Pre-K through fourth-grade students. It serves as SCSU’s School of Education as a “laboratory school” for students preparing to be teachers. The design captures daylight and embraces the surrounding forest in order to create positive learning environments and an engagement with nature.

2+U (Kendall/Heaton Associates, Architect of Record) is a one-million-gross-square-foot high performance office tower in the heart of Seattle’s business district. The unique exterior features an open-air, pedestrian-friendly urban village under the building, made possible by steel and concrete “Y columns” that lift the building 85 feet off the ground, providing a functional space for the public. This architectural landmark connects tenants, neighbors and visitors with the new waterfront and surrounding downtown neighborhoods.

ABOUT PICKARD CHILTON

Pickard Chilton is an international architectural practice noted for its expertise in the design of large, complex and often high-profile buildings including corporate headquarters, high-rise commercial office towers, hotels, and academic and health care facilities. The firm’s layered perspective informs all of its work, presenting clients with a sophisticated, knowledge-based approach that emphasizes design vision, integrity, a focus on client objectives, and exceptional service. Headquartered in New Haven, Conn., the firm’s recent completed projects include: 2+U in Seattle, Washington; Akamai Technologies’ headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts; 1144 Fifteenth in Denver, Colorado, and Canal Place for Dominion Energy in Richmond, Va. Current projects include the Global Gateway Shinagawa development in Tokyo, Japan; Avocet Tower in Bethesda, Maryland; Google Cambridge’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and, the Plieninger Straße 140 development in Stuttgart , Germany as well as commercial and residential developments in Austin, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, San Francisco, Remscheid, Germany and Tokyo, Japan. Please visit www.pickardchilton.com for more information.