The Poudre Garage, Confluence Fort Collins, and the Butterfly Café, all designed by [au]workshop architects+urbanists have been selected as Fort Collins Urban Design Award winners for 2022 in a juried competition organized by the City of Fort Collins that tapped 11 projects in various categories from a field of 40 entries.
Every second or third year, The City of Fort Collins celebrates great places and people who design them in a process that promotes awareness of urban design and its importance for the quality of life in the community. According to the organizers, “Urban design ranges from a city or city subarea to a single outdoor space and considers the look and feel, as well as environmental, economic and social consequences of design. It is not simply concerned with new development but also with the maintenance and enhancement of existing development”.
“We are delighted to be presented these awards for work that represents the heart and soul of our design focus: Architecture that thoughtfully addresses the street, neighborhood and scale of the skyline in established urban neighborhoods”, said Randy Shortridge AIA, the design principal at [au]workshop.
The selection process starts with a call for entries and ends with a committee made up of local designers, city board members, and city staff selecting winners from the applications. The process culminates this year with an awards ceremony on September 8 at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins.
“All three of these buildings respond to neighboring historic structures or are valuable themselves locally historic. Scale, rhythms, proportions and selected finish materials are all important when designing in the urban context.” added Jason Kersley AIA, [au]workshop’s managing principal for all three award winning projects.
The Architecture category seeks, “a built building or group of buildings that...achieve design excellence through unique relationships with immediate surroundings because of the site, massing, architecture and pedestrian amenities.” according to the city’s website. Both The Poudre Garage and Confluence Fort Collins were selected as Architecture honorees.