Two Garvin Design Group projects received Design Awards at the American Institute of Architects South Carolina (AIA SC)’s annual awards presented virtually on November 19, 2021. Garvin Design Group received a Citation Award in Interior Architecture for Vikor Scientific at South Carolina Research Authority’s West Edge in Charleston, and a Merit Award in New Construction for Hammond School’s Science and Innovation Center in Columbia.
Presented annually, the AIA SC Design Awards are intended to recognize individuals, organizations, and projects exemplifying the very best in architecture. Design Awards honor projects executed and designed by the organization’s members or project teams consisting of at least one AIA SC member in good standing in South Carolina. Winning projects are selected by a jury of architects and designers from outside the state. This year the jury reviewed more than 79 submissions for awards in categories including New Construction, Residential, Adaptive Reuse/Preservation, Interior Architecture, and Unbuilt Projects.
Garvin Design Group’s 16,500 sf upfit project for biomedical company Vikor Scientific won a Citation Award in Interior Architecture. Carefully tucked within Charleston’s multi-tenant mixed-use building 22 West Edge, Vikor Scientific’s space includes laboratories, meeting rooms, classrooms, and office spaces. Interior architecture accommodates a highly varied program within a limited interior space while celebrating Vikor’s sophisticated brand identity. The jury noted that, “the bright surfaces, clean lines, and tightly integrated systems unify a tightly packed plan of discrete workspaces. This project produces a clear aesthetic statement derived from its program while delivering a bold and refreshing identity.”
Completed in 2018, Hammond School’s 30,000 sf Science and Innovation Center is designed to prepare K-12 students through engaged, hands-on learning. With features like a SciDome and a saltwater aquarium, the facility is a building that teaches. The Design Awards jury took particular note of how the building organizes structured and informal learning environments to produce complex spatial relationships between varied curricular programs and informal learning environments. They also noted the creative use of varied volumetric spaces and a sectional transparency that ties them together.
“It’s truly rewarding that Vikor Scientific and the Hammond Innovation Center received this recognition,” said Scott Garvin, President of Garvin Design Group. “Both projects were a result of amazing collaboration with our clients and construction partners.”