Nov 18 2008
The Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach, CA. was one of six competition winners at the 2008 AFLA Green Gala, hosted by the Los Angeles chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. Jim Wirick, Managing Principal at LPA Inc., accepted the award at the Wallis Annenberg Building in Los Angeles.
"Everything about this project has a sustainable story and we've seen it become an architectural statement that the community is really proud of," comments Wirick.
This project is the first LEED Platinum building in Orange County and the 11th in the state of California. The Environmental Nature Center is also recognized as the Best Green Building of 2008 by California Construction. Project team members include LPA Senior Designer Rick D'Amato, Project Manager Dave Duff and Project Designer Ti Thang.
Additional awards garnered recently by the design experts at LPA include: The Zweig Letter 2008 Hot Firm list, for the 200 fastest-growing architecture, engineering and environmental consulting firms in the country; California Construction Higher Education Award of Merit for the American Career College in Ontario, CA; and the Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC) 2008 Excellence Award, also for the American Career College (ACC).
"This is our first engineering award and we are obviously honored," explains LPA Project Engineer John Wilson. "It is wonderful that our peers recognize how great a project can be when the design process integrates architecture with structural engineering." Wilson accepted the award on the team's behalf at the 2008 SEAOC Convention in Hawaii.
The ACC Ontario campus is a 64,000-square-foot higher education facility for students in the healthcare industry. LPA Managing Principal Chris Torrey, Design Principal Glenn Carels, Project Manager Fern Calderon, Project Designer Silke Metzler, Interior Designer Winston Bao, and Landscape Architect Rich Bienvenu contributed to the success of this project.
LPA is a design-centered company that provides services in architecture, engineering, interior design, landscape architecture, planning, signage and graphics. With more LEED-certified buildings than any other firm in the state, LPA houses the top sustainable design experts in both Northern and Southern California. Founded in 1965, LPA has more than 260 employees with offices in Irvine and Roseville, CA.