Dec 11, 2024 _ news

Four Projects Recognized at Cincinnati Design Awards

Four GBBN designs recently won recognition at the Cincinnati Design Awards (CDA). Dedicated to “celebrating the best built environment designs by Cincinnati-area creative firms,” this year’s jurors singled out GBBN’s work in healthcare, higher education, environmental graphic design, and workplace:

Three projects were honored in the Large-Scale Architecture category:

Mercy Health, Kings Mills Hospital won an Honor Award. Built to meet the growing healthcare needs in northern Cincinnati’s suburbs, this newly built hospital combines a modern aesthetic with a compassionate atmosphere. Clad in metal, lightweight concrete panels, and glass, the exterior reflects Mercy Health’s tradition of care. Inside, a sunlit lobby—with wood ribs reminiscent of a gothic cathedral—welcomes visitors and a sculptural wood staircase encourages movement and serves as a central gathering space. Light, views, wood details, and lounge areas enhance warmth and comfort.

Richard King Mellon Foundation Workplace received a Merit Award. This adaptive reuse workplace renovation created the new headquarters for the Richard King Mellon Foundation. The renovated space celebrates the foundation’s past, present, and future grantees while also honoring the legacy of the foundation and its core missions of conservation, economic development and mobility, and health and well-being. The design uses two boxy insertions to create dedicated space for convening and nourishment. These insertions also help create boundaries for the rest of space which includes both private offices and shared social areas. LED lighting, FSC certified wood, and natural materials like stone and felt are used throughout.

UC Health Medical Center, Main Entrance Improvements received a Mention Award. Nationally recognized as one of the country’s top hospitals, UC Health is the region’s only Level 1 trauma care center. This project expresses UC Health’s unique brand, their culture of hope, and the power of academic medicine. A distinctive new entry canopy clearly defines the campus’ front door. Its textures create interest as light changes throughout the day and season. Using essential building blocks of design—arrival, orientation, transition—wayfinding is intuitive and allows people to self-navigate. More than just empowering people to know where to go, the lobby is designed to be a healthy space that brings people together to connect, collaborate, and convey the story of hope.

We were also recognized with our first Environmental Graphic Design Award:

University of Cincinnati, MarketPointe Dining Hall won a Merit Award. The renovation of this dining hall creates a unique destination for students to eat and socialize. The new wall feature helps give the space a dynamic and distinctive new landmark. It was developed in-house in collaboration with our computational design and fabrication team. It is a dynamic installation that included quartering a circle, sloping the segments, and rearranging them in a rhythmic pattern. By working closely with a local fabricator, the design team was able to deliver a distinctive element using a process that reduced initial construction cost estimates by 35%.

Learn more about the CDA’s and see their gallery of winners here.