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(7.12.05)

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Nation's Top Environmental Design Award Presented to William McDonough
(10.20.04)

Two DC Chapter/AIA Awards for Aspect
(10.14.03)

Woods Hole Research Center
(07.07.03)

Atlanta International Museum Exhibit
(08.14.02)

DC Chapter/AIA Award for Nike EHQ
(11.10.01)

Adoption of the CERES Principles
(06.07.01)

Aspect Communications World Headquarters Earns Dual Citation From Washington Chapter/AIA

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (October 14, 2003) – The Washington, DC, Chapter of the American Institute of Architects has honored William McDonough + Partners with a pair of annual award citations. The firm’s design of the Aspect Communications World Headquarters Expansion earned both an Award for Excellence in Architecture and a Presidential Citation for Sustainable Design. This marks the first time the DC AIA has recognized a single project with both honors, as well as the third year in a row that William McDonough + Partners has won awards from the Chapter.

Completed in September of 2001, the 110,000sf expansion of Aspect Communications’ headquarters in San Jose, California, transformed an ordinary office building into a vibrant, connected place that cultivates community and collaboration. A sun-filled central courtyard serves as the primary link between old building and new, with circulation inside and out revolving around it. This revamped Silicon Valley campus seeks to encourage communication – be it through planned discussion or chance encounter – while celebrating the gifts and advantages of the California climate.

Embodying the goals of the company’s business transformation, Aspect HQ creates a gracious and comfortable workplace by establishing new relationships between people, building, and landscape. The integration of numerous sustainable strategies establish and reinforce employees’ connections to the outdoors, providing access to daylight, fresh air, and views throughout the building. This positive work environment enhances the company’s identity as an employer of choice, while the building’s state-of-the-art customer training facilities offer amenities crucial to cultivating and maintaining a new client base.

Key design features include high floor-to-ceiling dimensions, narrow floor depths, and high-performance operable windows that create dramatic loft-like workspaces. Careful material specification and effective building systems – including as the Silicon Valley’s first underfloor air distribution system, which provides fresh air directly to each worker – promote employees’ health and well-being.

The integration of sustainable strategies extends to the landscape as well, where the primary consideration of water conservation led to the inclusion of a sophisticated irrigation system and purple piping that anticipates a proposed citywide infrastructure for reclaimed water. In the same way that the building’s structural layout enables maximum space flexibility for a variety of uses over time, the design of landscape’s reflecting pool and runnel can accommodate their transformation into a more natural wetland system in the future.

Aspect Communications World Headquarters Expansion points toward an ecologically intelligent future for the building community as influential as the Silicon Valley’s historic technological innovations.

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About the Washington Chapter/AIA
Founded in 1887, the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects functions as both the "local" and "state" component of the AIA for the District of Columbia. The Chapter was intimately involved in the design and planning of Washington and continues to play an active role in city development today. The Award for Excellence is the Chapter’s highest honor for design quality and encompasses the spectrum of architectural project and building types. The Presidential Citation for Sustainable Design recognizes designs that “create a beautiful project that is compatible with sustainable design.”

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Project Credits
Much of the project’s success derived from the design team’s shared emphasis on partnership, which fostered an atmosphere of open, collegial, and effective communication, both with the client and within the team.

Client: Aspect Communications, San Jose, California
Design Architect: William McDonough + Partners, Charlottesville, Virginia
Architect of Record & Interior Design Architect: Form4 Architects, San Francisco, California
Design Landscape Architect: Susan Nelson – Warren Byrd Landscape Architects, Charlottesville, Virginia
Landscape Architect of Record: April Philips Design Works, Sausalito, California
General Contractor: DPR Construction, Redwood City, California
Structural Engineers: Middlebrook + Louie, San Francisco, California
Mechanical Design-Build: Critchfield Mechanical, Inc., Menlo Park, California
Electrical Design-Build: Frank Electric, Milpitas, California

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To receive additional information or materials for this project, please contact:

Kira Gould
Director of Communications
media@mcdonough.com
William McDonough + Partners
700 East Jefferson St.
Charlottesville, VA 22902
vox 434.979.1111
fax 434.979.1112