Awards

Metal façade of Humboldt Fitness Center wins AIA Kansas City Divine Detail Award

We’re excited to share that the Humboldt Fitness Center’s metal façade was awarded a Divine Detail Citation Award form the annual AIA Kansas City Design Excellence program.

The Humboldt Fitness Center was first imagined as an amenity to boost the wellness plan for employees of B&W Trailer Hitches, a company that employs 400 people in the town of 1,800. We were challenged to design a facility that was challenging and new, but also fitting for this small Kansas town.

While the project quickly evolved into an amenity for the entire community, we found ways to keep the B&W roots intact. In a close collaboration with B&W’s engineers, the design team mapped out a solution for the industrial fabricator to play a heavy hand in shaping this project. Our goal was to use multiple locations to highlight some of the manufacturing techniques B&W specializes in. Fixed diamond-shaped panels, fabricated by B&W, protrude from the east and west facades of the building, changing color as the day progresses and metal patina matures.

From the jury:
“We thought that there was a lot to commend for this project. First, on the larger scale, that was a fitness center for company employees and, by extension it sounds like, the community at large. That alone distinguished the project in a competitive field. The details themselves, though, lent some great visual interest and specificity to the fitness center building on the exterior. We were particularly taken by the fact that the fabrication of the folded steel plates was something that was an extension of what the company does itself in its industrial practices.”

A video by Alistair Tutton Photography recaps the project.