On Feb. 26, AZRE hosted the 10th annual RED Awards reception at the Arizona Grand Resort & Spa in Phoenix to recognize the most notable commercial real estate projects of 2014 and the construction teams involved. RED Award trophies were handed out in 10 project categories, to six brokerage teams and safety, subcontractor, architect, general contractor and developer of the year awards were also presented. AZRE also recognized Sunbelt Holdings President and CEO John Graham with a lifetime achievement award. Click here to view all 2015 RED Awards Winners.
Architect of the Year: Gensler
Gensler’s projects seem to make the world a more modern place, not just through clean lines and cool furniture. There’s method to the modernity. The creative process is guided by research that has, for example, let the light into the traditionally dark wooden world of law firms with Rose Law Group’s new office in Old Town Scottsdale. When it came to designing the Great Hearts Academies’ four-building Arete Campus, the building elevations were derived from geometric proportion systems found in natural and man-made systems. The building facades even utilize the Fibonacci sequence. Even more cerebral, Gensler’s work, in collaboration with Architekton, on College Avenue Commons is meta and groundbreaking. The building, which houses a bookstore, bistro-type of restaurant and lecture rooms, is a didactic tool in and of itself. Home to the Del E. Webb School of Construction, among others, students can monitor and interact with building operations, using College Avenue Commons as a learning tool.
