Congratulations to Whitten Architects for their AIA New England Merit Award for Design Excellence

Whitten Architects’ Englishman Bay Retreat wins a Merit Award at the 2019 AIA New England Design Award program.

photo credit: Trent Bell Photography

AIA Maine member firm,  Whitten Architects, an architectural firm with a 30-plus year history of excellence in Maine won a Merit Award for Design Excellence for the firm’s Englishman Bay Retreat Project, led by project architect Tom Lane and principal architect Russ Tyson.

The Englishman Bay Retreat is a project that highlights Whitten’s dedication to site-specific design and innovation. The home is perched on steel columns that lightly touch the moss- and rock-filled forest floor, which allows for better views of a protected cove on one side and open ocean with a distant island lighthouse on the other. The use of natural materials and ample glass gives it a transparent nature, camouflaging it within the trees and allowing it to unfold gradually rather than reveal itself all at once. The design preserves the pattern of use the family had established from walking between properties over many years and brings the path inside so that the house becomes an extension of it.

“It’s a tremendous privilege for us to accept this award on behalf of our work at Whitten for the Englishman Bay Retreat,” said Tyson. “This project captures what we do best and we’re incredibly honored to have had the opportunity to work with this family.”

Lane has practiced in architectural offices in Boston and Salt Lake City where he worked on a variety of project types including art museum, library and custom residential. He has been with Whitten since 2017. Tyson has been a member of the Whitten team since 2007, becoming principal alongside Rob Whitten and associate principal, Jessie Carroll in 2018. Tyson has always enjoyed the spontaneity of sketching and design, and as an architect, enjoys using his skillset and experience to help clients realize their dreams for a home.

About the AIA New England Design Awards and Conference.

AIA Western Massachusetts hosted the 2019 AIA New England Design Conference & Awards. The Conference theme – The Future is Now – emphasized that environmental changes and challenges are impacting humans and the rest of the natural world now and asked how we, as architects, can take action toward solving these challenges? The Conference included tours of several pioneering, sustainably-designed buildings in Western Massachusetts: the new Science Center at Amherst College, the Kern Center at Hampshire College, the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, Crotty Hall at UMass and the Olver Design Building at UMass (where the conference was held). The keynote speaker was Charles C. Mann, author of The Wizard and the Prophet, 2018. The evening concluded with the presentation of the 2019 AIANE Design Awards. The AIANE Design Awards are highly competitive. This year there were 225 entries; 22 projects were recognized with awards.

The full list of award winners can be found here.