A moving façade. A glowing blue meeting room. An ultraflexible theatre. An architectural video wall. A virtual reality room: This year's AV Awards winners push the bounds of technology and architecture.
ARCHI-TECH partners with InfoComm International® for the annual awards program, now in its sixth year. During the nomination period, which ran from November 1, 2007, through February 25, 2008, entries for projects, which hailed from around the world, included such variety as corporate/office, worship, retail, education, medical/health, entertainment, and museums.
Each of the six judges—two architects, two AV integrators, and two technology consultants—independently evaluated the entries using the following criteria: concept, design, innovation, scheduling, teamwork, and solution. Sustainability was also considered. On March 28, the judges discussed via conference call each submission and decided award winners.
They also named two honorable mention projects: the Illinois State House and Senate chambers in Springfield, IL, and the GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall in Beijing, China. The winners and honorable mentions were recognized on June 18 during an awards event held during InfoComm's annual trade show. The winners are:
Victory Park Screens, Dallas, TX
Best Project Under $1 Million:
Blue Room Theater at Chesapeake Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, OK
Winners:
Harman Center for the Arts, Washington, D.C.
InterActiveCorp Video Wall, Chelsea District, New York City
Iowa State C6 Virtual Reality Room, Ames, IA
Honorable Mentions:
GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, Beijing, China
Illinois State House and Senate Chambers, Springfield, IL
The following professionals served as judges for this year's awards program.
Robert Capozello is an AV systems engineer at Herndon, VA-based Applied Visual Communications. He has more than 18 years of experience in acoustical and audiovisual consulting and engineering. He has worked as an acoustical and audiovisual consultant at Polysonics Corp. for 13 years and has also worked with several audiovisual systems integration firms, providing sales and systems engineering. He is a member of InfoComm International and the Institute for Noise Control Engineering (INCE).
Bill Kistler is audiovisual department head and associate at Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon, and Williams, a Dallas firm that provides consulting and design services in sound, video, acoustics, audiovisual, telecom, and theatrical systems. Kistler has held positions with AMX, Sennheiser, and Vistacom.