A Grand Slam for OPN at AIA Iowa’s 2020 People’s Choice Award

We are excited to announce that OPN swept AIA Iowa’s 2020 People’s Choice Award, which celebrates the role people play in architecture by allowing the public to reward the designs they love by voting.

1st Place- Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center

2nd Place- United Township Highschool

3rd Place- University of Iowa College of Pharmacy

Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center is a community wellness center that serves both as a formal and informal gathering space for community groups and residents as well as a multi-purpose wellness facility. The design includes a simple, axial layout that was conceived of as two bars slightly offset from each other. One bar groups program functions that require solid walls and organizes them along a linear connection spine that runs the full length of the building to physically and visually connect all spaces at both levels. The other bar houses the gym components. Three materials define the buildings exterior palette: precast concrete, glass and brick.

United Township High School was a 32,000-square-foot renovation and addition to the high school. It realizes the district’s desire to have a building that reflects the pride the community places in the school. It features a dramatic and transparent student commons addition that creates a new façade, addresses security with a new vestibule and entry, updates the cafeteria, relocates and reimagines the media center, and consolidates administration and student services.

The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy is a new, state-of-the-art building, designed by OPN in collaboration with The S/L/A/M Collaborative, is a space commensurate to the college’s world-class contemporary pharmacy education that prepares its graduates to be the health care leaders and scientists of the future. The exterior of the new 210,000-square-foot building is a reflection of the college’s role. Strategic placement of glass and the location of key programmatic spaces within the building offers a glimpse into the internal workings of the building and its occupants. The building form is a juxtaposition of a six-story academic/research tower and a three-story sculptural object that houses the large educational spaces and a multi-functional commons area.

We’re also proud of the renovation and addition of Des Moines Metro Opera, which we also submitted and came in fourth in the People’s Choice contest. The opera had diligently maintained the building’s historic integrity, with the original building layout intact and only minor insertions above the height of original bookstacks. OPN worked with the organization to imagine an addition that would respect the history of the original building while meeting the modern-day needs of opera staff and after-hour community use.