Miller Hull

The First Living Building in the Southeast United States is Awarded the Highest Honor in Architecture

(Seattle, WA) February 2022 — The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Tech received a National AIA Honor Award for Architecture, showcasing the alignment of high sustainability and beautiful design. The achievement makes The Kendeda Building Miller Hull’s first project to be awarded both a Committee on the Environment (COTE) and Architecture Award from the institute and is the first fully certified Living Building to do so. The prestigious award celebrates the best contemporary architecture across the United States regardless of budget, size, style, or type, and highlights the many ways buildings and spaces can improve our lives. This year’s nine-member jury selected submissions that demonstrate thoughtful design and include a sense of place, purpose, history, and environmental sustainability.

“Sustainable architecture has made significant leaps in the past decade and has demonstrated that regenerative design is both imperative and beautiful. This new building offers an iconic design that is equally aspirational and reflective of the partnership’s values.” – AIA Jury

Designed by The Miller Hull Partnership in collaboration with Lord Aeck Sargent, The Kendeda Building achieved Living Building Challenge certification in 2021 followed by an AIA COTE Top Ten award later in the year. Meeting all seven Petals in the Living Building Challenge — Place, Water, Energy, Health + Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty — the project is the first Living Certified building of its scale in the Southeast U.S., where a mixed-humid climate featuring periods of intense rainfall poses many challenges. Over the course of the performance period, the building generated enough energy from its rooftop solar panels to power all of its electrical systems, store additional power in its batteries, and export excess to other campus facilities.  It also collected, treated, and infiltrated 100% of the site rainfall while supplying potable water for all its building functions.

The building’s goal is to support the educational mission of Georgia Tech while transforming the architecture, engineering, and construction industry in the Southeast U.S. by advancing regenerative building and innovation, and showcasing synergies between environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic development. Regenerative buildings create more resources than they use, including energy and water. Through the act of creating buildings that are regenerative, the project team and Georgia Tech are charting a path for others to reverse climate change, support human health, and address social inequalities

About The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP is an internationally recognized architecture, planning, urban and interior design firm that works to create a regenerative and inclusive future through the built environment. Since its founding in 1977, Miller Hull has been designing dynamic and environmentally responsible buildings that provide enduring value for their communities. The firm has a studio in Seattle and San Diego with work extending across multiple typologies for a range of public and private clients where people Live, Work, Learn, Gather and Serve. Widely recognized for innovative, timeless designs and a partnership-driven practice, Miller Hull has received over 350 local, regional, national, and international awards for design excellence, including the American Institute of Architects Firm Award and Architect 50’s Top Firm for Sustainability. For more information, please visit www.millerhull.com.

About Lord Aeck Sargent
Lord Aeck Sargent is an award-winning architecture, planning and interior design firm serving clients in the college and university, K-12 education, multi-family housing/mixed-use/commercial, and urban design/planning markets with specialization in sustainable design, science and technology, arts and culture and historic preservation. The firm’s experts in these practice areas have deep regional and national experience and collaborate across firm offices located in Atlanta; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Austin, Texas; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Lexington, Kentucky; and Washington, D.C. Lord Aeck Sargent has been named one of Atlanta BusinessChronicle’sTop 25 Architectural Firms 15 times, received the American Institute of Architects’ National Honor Award and has been in Engineering News-RecordMagazine’sTop500 Design Firms list 10 times. LAS is consistently ranked on ENR’s Top 100 Green Design Firms list and has been named a Top Green Design firm by multiple publications. www.lordaecksargent.com.

Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is a top-10 public research university developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its nearly 40,000 students, representing 50 states and 149 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society. http://gatech.edu/

The Kendeda Fund
The Kendeda Fund is a private Atlanta-based grant making foundation that supports the dignity of individuals and the sustainability of communities through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. Founded in 1993 under the guidance and vision of Diana Blank, the Fund has made more than $800 million in grants since its inception. By the time Kendeda concludes its grant making at the end of 2023, the Fund hopes to have developed new pathways for solving seemingly intractable problems and advanced solutions benefitting people and planet. http://www.kendeda.org/

Skanska
Skanska is one of the world’s leading construction and development companies. In the U.S., Skanska’s core operations include building construction, civil infrastructure and developing self-financed commercial properties, which together generated $7.6 billion in revenue in 2019. As a developer in the U.S., Skanska has invested a total of $2.7 billion in commercial and multi-family projects. With U.S. headquarters in New York City, Skanska has offices in 28 metro areas with 7,900 employees nationwide. Skanska is an industry-leading innovator in both safety and project execution, and offers competitive solutions for both traditional and complex assignments to help build a more sustainable future for our customers and communities. Global revenue of parent company Skanska AB, headquartered in Stockholm and listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, totaled approximately $18.7 billion in 2019. https://www.usa.skanska.com/