Billie Jean King Main Library, 100 Mount Street, and 35 Hudson Yards have received multiple honors in the 2021 Professional Project Awards program, hosted by the Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Award recipients were recognized during this year’s AEI Virtual Conference on April 8, 2021.
Billie Jean King Main Library received three honors, winning Best Overall Project under 100 million, an Award of Excellence in Renovation, and an Award of Merit in Construction Management. The new library revitalizes a former dilapidated parking structure into a welcoming, sustainably focused mass timber building situated on the eastern parcel of the new Long Beach Civic Center. The building is one of the few in Southern California that utilizes a heavy timber structural system, which is composed of renewable heavy timber reinforced with steel and concrete where needed.
100 Mount Street won Best Overall Project over 100 million, and the Award of Excellence in Structural Systems Design. Located in the heart of North Sydney, 100 Mount Street is the latest addition to the city’s growing northside business district. The 38-story office building is supported by an innovative cross-braced exoskeleton structure. Anchored by an offset core and clad in a soaring glass curtain wall, the tower offers panoramic views of Sydney Harbor, the Sydney Opera House, and the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
35 Hudson Yards received an Award of Merit in Structural System Design. SOM’s integrated team of architects and engineers met the challenge of designing 35 Hudson Yards, with no direct concrete connection to solid ground, utilizing a previously designed steel platform that was built above the train tracks serving Penn Station. The project is a classic example of what is possible when an integrated team works together to find innovative solutions to complex site challenges.
The ASCE’s AEI Professional Project Awards program is conducted annually and is designed to publicly acknowledge outstanding achievements in design. The program educates professionals and students through the application of academic studies to practice, with a focus on the art and science of an integrated approach to architectural engineering.