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Machado Silvetti’s “sublimely articulated” Center for Asian Art wins 2016 BSA Honor Award for Design Excellence

The Center for Asian Art in the Dr. Helga Wall-Apelt Gallery of Asian Art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL. Image courtesy Anton Grassl | ESTO.

The Center for Asian Art in the Dr. Helga Wall-Apelt Gallery of Asian Art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL. Image courtesy Anton Grassl | ESTO.

Machado Silvetti, the firm founded by GSD faculty members Rodolfo Machado (emeritus) and Jorge Silvetti, has won a 2016 Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Honor Award for Design Excellence for its design of the Center for Asian Art at the Ringling Museum of Art, located in Sarasota, Florida. This is one of two top prizes given to a pool of 122 entries.

The project was led by a number of GSD faculty and alumni, including Rodolfo Machado, professor in practice of architecture and urban design, emeritus; Jeffry Burchard (MArch ’08), design critic in architecture; Craig Mutter (MArch ’92); and Jamie Setzler (MArch ’05). Sweet Sparkman Architects contributed to the project’s design.

Hailed as “sublimely articulated” by the BSA jury, the Center for Asian Art includes 19,000 square feet of renovation, as well as a 7,500 square foot addition to the existing museum.

“The addition could have been a glass box reflecting nearby palm trees, but instead, the beautifully crafted pavilion skin is an extraordinary overlay of terra cotta panels,” comments the jury.

The Center for Asian Art in the Dr. Helga Wall-Apelt Gallery of Asian Art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL. Image courtesy Anton Grassl | ESTO.
The Center for Asian Art in the Dr. Helga Wall-Apelt Gallery of Asian Art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL. Image courtesy Anton Grassl | ESTO.

The BSA Honor Awards for Design Excellence consider projects from Massachusetts-based architects, as well as projects located in Massachusetts from out of state firms.

Two other firms led by GSD alumni and faculty were also honored by the BSA:

Anmahian Winton Architects, the Cambridge-based firm founded by Alex Anmahian (MArch ’90) and Nick Winton (MArch ’90), won an Award for the Gemma Observatory in central New Hampshire.

MERGE Architects, the Boston-based firm founded by Elizabeth Whittaker (MArch ’99), associate professor in practice of architecture, won an Award for Grow Box, located in Lexington, Massachusetts.

View images of the designs and read the jury’s full comments on the BSA 2016 Honor Award for Design Excellence website.