Center for Active Design

Gensler Newport Beach, Newport Beach, CA, photo: Nick Merrick, Hedrich Blessing Photography

The Center for Active Design announces its annual excellence awards recognizing innovation in design. The Center is committed to transforming the approach to neighborhood and building design to make health a central priority. It maintains a multidisciplinary perspective in its promotion and expansion of NYC's Active Design Guidelines, serving urban designers, architects, landscape architects, interior designers, planners, policy makers, community activists, educators, and students. The selection criteria for the awards required built projects to have implemented at least one of the Center's four active design categories: Active transportation, active recreation, healthy food access, and active building. A few of the winning projects:

Gensler Newport Beach (above image). Gensler, a global design firm, recently unveiled its new creative workspace in Newport Beach, California. The firm realized its Healthy Workplace Initiative through the extensive renovation of their own office space, incorporating active building strategies. One component of this initiative is to encourage greater employee movement. The open office plan provides places for focus and collaboration to encourage staff to move away from their desks and into alternative work environments throughout the day. Company-owned scooters, bikes and skateboards are used for interoffice travel.

Greenbridge Plan, King County, Washington, street view with public art, photo: GGLO

Greenbridge, King County, Washington. Community-based design firm GGLO developed a plan for the revitalization of Park Lake Homes, an affordable housing complex in Seattle. The Greenbridge Plan integrates active recreation and active transportation strategies into a neighborhood that connects its residents through walkable and bikable streets. The design transformed the single-use residential configuration into a mixed-use site, emphasizing four elements: Connectivity, open space diversity, adjacent uses, and placemaking. Pedestrian paths and trails establish a variety of routes for residents to walk instead of drive. Community parks, gardens and recreation spaces are located alongside adjacent uses, such as homes, schools and community centers.

Arbor House, Bronx, Blue Sea Development Company, rooftop hydroponic farm, photo: Bernstein Associates

Arbor House, South Bronx. Blue Sea Development Company has been at the forefront of green building for decades. Company president Les Bluestone pioneered the implementation of active design strategies in affordable housing. Arbor House, a low-income rental building completed in the South Bronx last year, uses all of the applicable active design strategies and is LEED platinum certified. It addresses the lack of access to healthy food in this neighborhood by integrating a 10,000 sf hydroponic rooftop greenhouse--a community supported agriculture (CSA) arrangement in which Arbor House residents can purchase shares of chemical-free herbs, fruits and vegetables. The building has indoor and outdoor fitness areas that encourage active recreation for people of all ages. Stairs are directly visible from the building's main entrance and act as an option for vertical circulation. The lobby features a living green wall installation.

Gammel Hellerup High School  gymnasium and multipurpose hall, Hellerup, Denmark, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, photo: Jens Lindhe

Gammel Hellerup High School's gymnasium and multipurpose hall. BIG is a Copenhagen- and New York-based group of architects, designers and builders. The local high school (Hellerup, Denmark) requested a space in which its students could participate in physical activities and socialize. Implementing active recreation and active building strategies, BIG's solution was to build the gymnasium sixteen feet below ground. Sports are the typical activity in the 12,500 sf space, which is equipped to serve as a multipurpose venue that can accommodate a variety of large group gatherings. The new facility is placed in the existing underutilized courtyard while maintaining sight lines and connectivity with the 1950s-era school building. The gymnasium's roof is accessible from the sidewalk and acts as a hilly schoolyard with informal congregation spaces in distinct areas for school activities as well as social purposes. A new entry to the school removes the preexisting barrier between the neighboring community, which has enabled the school to host community events.

NYC now requires implementation of active design strategies in the design of all new construction and major renovation projects. "For years, architects and planners have been making it easier for people to be sedentary," says David Burney, FAIA, the Center's chair of the board. "The active design movement asks design professionals to be part of the solution and find new ways to encourage movement, both in buildings and on the streets."