The News Apartments has received a 2019 Annual Design Awards, “Award of Honor” from The American Institute of Architects Eastern New York (AIAENY). The awards recognize the design accomplishments of AIAENY members, highlighting the excellence of their creations and acknowledging outstanding contributions to the built environment. Balzer & Tuck Architecture, the firm responsible for designing The News, was the submitting member.

The honors were presented at the 2019 Design Awards Reception & Ceremony, held on March 20, 2019 at the Opalka Gallery of The Sage Colleges in Albany, NY. Honorees were chosen from dozens of submissions from across Eastern New York State. This year’s Design Awards Jury was comprised of members of the Central New York Chapter of The American Institute of Architects. The ceremony was led by Master of Ceremonies, Evan Douglis, Dean of the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

“If you have ever been in a building, an Architect has touched your life. We take our clients’ visions and turn them into the reality of where we live, work, and play,” explained Melissa Clarke, AIA, Design Awards Co-Chair, Director of AIAENY, and current Construction Coordinator at The Rosenblum Companies. “Our built environment is an ever-evolving representation of our history, reflecting the essence, the Zeitgeist, of each era.”  Katrina Pacheco, AIA, Design Awards Co-Chair and AIAENY member continued, “We have such tremendous talent in our region, and AIAENY is proud to host an event where this talent can be recognized and celebrated by our community. It is our hope that the work we honor through the Design Awards serves as a catalyst of social and environmental awareness and engagement, inspiring upcoming generations to understand the significance of architecture on our community and culture.”

The four awards categories include “Institutional,” “Interiors,” “Residential,” and “Unbuilt.”  The jury comments for The News, which was one of three in the Residential category, stated:  “This project overcame the challenges of adaptive reuse of a historic building. The addition seamlessly blends with the existing building and incorporates subtle details and materials that upgrade the building both performatively and aesthetically. The design team wonderfully integrated historical features of the existing structure while creating a vibrate new character to the street front, striking a balance between the historic building and the new addition. The team made a successful attempt to respect the historic and provide a sensitive addition, creating great amenities and spaces. The images convey a really nice implementation of materials both inside and out.”

The other 2019 Design Award recipients are:

• Institutional:
  • SUNY GCC Student Success Center
  • Zero Energy Nanotechnology Building (ZEN)
  • US Embassy, Oslo, Norway
  • Coxsackie-Athens Central School District, New Media Center
  • SUNY Adirondack, Adirondack Hall
• Interiors
  • SUNY Oneonta, Milne Library Renovations
• Residential
  • The News Apartments
  • Loughberry Lake Residence
  • Fourth Lake Camp
• Unbuilt
  • University at Albany Alumni Quad

AIA Eastern New York, chartered by the American Institute of Architects in 1930 and incorporated in 1956, is the local professional society for architects. AIAENY covers a 16 county area of Eastern New York. With over 350 members, AIAENY serves as the link between local professional architects, the American Institute of Architects and the public. As a Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, our objective is to promote the value of local architects, to advance the architectural profession through improvements to the built environment and to serve the public.

The News Apartments was also recognized as “Renovated Building of the Year” in 2018 by the Capital Region Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).