The prestigious American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced the best new sustainable architecture in the United States for the Commission on the Environment’s (COTE) Top 10 Awards. This year’s highlights include a park offering lessons on water use and a former steel mill turned into a sustainable power plant.
The 2023 COTE Top 10 Awards will consist of 10 completed buildings. The buildings themselves don’t actually have to be in the US, or just the company that designed them, but all the buildings are based in the US this year.
“This award, now in its 27th year, celebrates design projects that skillfully integrate design excellence and innovative performance in 10 key areas,” said the AIA. “The COTE Top 10 Projects showcase the solutions Architects provide for the health and well-being of our communities and the planet.”
Confluence Park by Lake|Flato Architects + Matsys is one of the highlights. Located on the banks of the San Antonio River, it was created to help increase the public’s understanding of how the watershed and ecosystems of South Texas are affected by urban development.
Casey Dunn
The park is located in a former industrial yard and is centered around a pavilion made up of 22 concrete ‘petals’. These form a network of vaults that both provide shade for visitors and direct stormwater flow to underground storage areas. It is used for the park’s sewage and irrigation requirements. The multi-purpose building includes nearby park facilities and classroom/event space facing the pavilion. The building has a green roof and a photovoltaic array providing all of the park’s energy needs.
RIDC Mill 19: Buildings A & B is the work of MSR Design and R3A Architecture and is located in Pittsburgh. The project included a highly ambitious project to convert a disused Pittsburgh Jones & Laughlin Steel Company factory into a sustainable manufacturing research center.
Corey Gaffer
The factory’s steel superstructure now supports a massive 2 MW solar panel array on its roof. It is said to be the largest rooftop solar array in the United States and will generate enough electricity to power 380 homes. Other notable features include a rainwater recycling and storage system, an emphasis on natural lighting and ventilation, and energy efficient heating and cooling.
Watershed by Weber Thompson is a seven-story office building in Seattle that has undergone a major renovation to improve its sustainability. The landscaping around it hosts a series of biowetlands that filter more than 400,000 gallons (about 1.5 million liters) of rainwater annually before flowing into nearby Lake Union.
Construction photo
The building also harvests rainwater for use in bathrooms and irrigation, maximizes ventilation and sunlight, and uses solar panels to reduce grid-based energy usage. The lobby features a digital dashboard that allows visitors to see real-time data on their performance.
Learn more about these projects and the 2023 COTE Top 10 Award Projects in the gallery.
Source: AIA
