UPMC Mercy Pavilion won in the hospitals and medical centers category; Berkeley Space Center at NASA Research Park won in the schools and universities division.
Two HOK projects have been named winners of the 2024 American Architecture Awards. Presented by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design (in conjunction with the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and Metropolitan Arts Press), the awards program is one of the most prestigious in architecture and design.
HOK won for UPMC Pavilion, a vision care and research facility in Pittsburgh that opened in 2023, and for the Berkeley Space Center at NASA Research Park, a proposed 36-acre innovation hub in Silicon Valley. This marks the second straight year HOK has earned multiple American Architecture Awards after winning a record seven in 2023.
“We are honored to have our work again recognized by the jury of the American Architecture Awards,” said Eli Hoisington, HOK’s co-CEO and a leader of the firm’s design board. “The projects recognized here reflect our mission to create spaces that improve people’s lives, inspire innovation and benefit their communities.”
UPMC Mercy Pavilion
UPMC Mercy Pavilion is home to both the UPMC Vision Institute and UPMC Rehabilitation Institute. HOK designed the 410,000-sq.-ft. building with two user groups in mind: patients and their families, and researchers and clinicians. The project incorporates universal design to help visually-impaired patients navigate the building, while bringing scientists and physicians together to advance vision care and rehabilitation.
HOK collaborated on the design with noted French scientist José-Alain Sahel, chair of UPMC’s Department of Ophthalmology, and renowned rehabilitation physician Gwendolyn Sowa, director of UPMC’s Rehabilitation Institute. HOK also worked with associate architect IKM Architecture and consultant Chris Downey, one of the world’s few blind architects. HOK’s services on the building included architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, sustainability and engineering.
Read more about UPMC Mercy Pavilion on the American Architecture Awards website.
Berkeley Space Center at NASA Research Park
A joint venture between the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco-based SKS Partners, Berkeley Space Center at NASA Research Park is a proposed multi-phase development that would accelerate the Bay Area’s existing innovation ecosystem, catalyzing deeper collaboration between the private, academic and governmental sectors.
Located in the historic NASA Ames Research Park in Silicon Valley, the development is expected to generate considerable employment, including more than 6,000 advanced R&D positions. In addition to providing space for cutting-edge innovation, Berkeley Space Center aims to redefine how large-scale developments are designed, constructed and managed. The grounds and the buildings would serve as a testbed to pioneer and advance novel low-carbon design and construction practices.
HOK has provided planning, architecture, sustainable and regenerative design services for the project. James Corner Field Operations is the landscape architect. Read more about Berkeley Space Center on the American Architecture Awards website.