Sep 30, 2020 _ news

Lake West Five Wins AIA Ohio Honor Award

GBBN recently won top honors at AIA Ohio’s 2020 Design Awards, which is dedicated to recognizing the best of Ohio architecture. GBBN’s Lake West Five Community Clubhouse in Tianjin, China was one of only three projects to receive an Honor Award – the organization’s highest distinction.

“The project instantly jumped out to the jury,” according to jury chair, Brandon Pace. “It was an amazing transformation. We couldn’t even tell it was the same building,” he said, referring to the transformation of the former car dealership into a welcoming community hub. “Every moment of this project is so well detailed, it was just really a work of art. We thought that the layered procession in plan, all the way from the street through to the interior of the building through a series of courtyards was wonderful.”

Reacting to the award, GBBN Principal Ivan Cheung said, “This win really encourages us to keep our design concepts simple and focused, because that’s what made this project compelling – everything we did aimed at transforming a solid, unwelcoming urban presence into something translucent and inviting.”

“I’m also grateful that AIA Ohio is recognizing work that Ohio architects are doing overseas,” Ivan added, “this encourages us all to put our design skills to work for the benefit of communities across the globe.”

Want to learn more? Check out our case study for Lake West Five. Another compelling transformation can be seen in our City Lights Exhibition Hall.

You can also view the AIA Ohio 2020 Design Awards program and gallery of recipients here.