Strawberry Stand Wins Awards

The American Institute of Architects Design Awards program awarded prizes in two categories to the Strawberry Stand Wetland Learning Center on Saturday, May 7, 2005. As the San Diego Union Tribune reported, "In stark contrast to the other five refined projects that won Honor Awards, the sixth went to a rudimentary, shed-like structure called the Strawberry Stand Wetland Learning Center. The temporary visitor's center, designed by a team led by Rinehart Herbst for the San Dieguito River Park, rises from the edge of a lagoon under restoration near dwindling strawberry fields and within sight of Interstate 5 near Del Mar.

Hailing its minimal intrusion upon the land, sensitive siting, and reliance on recycled materials, the jury also gave the Strawberry Stand the SDG&E Energy Efficiency Integration Award.

"The Center, designed as a temporary educational structure, is a quintessential example of how great design and low budgets do not have to be mutually exclusive. The original walls and roof of the strawberry stand have been unsheathed and extended to form the shell. It is comprised of exposed wood studs and joists filling the perimeter of the building volume. The foundation, employing steel helical piers to stabilize and lift the floating wood foundation beams, is designed for removal. 'We loved this project,' the jury said. 'The economy of means - doing more with less, the recycled materials into a structure that treads lightly on its site and requiring no energy, is a return to the very roots of sustainability.'"

The modest shed with straw bales for outdoor seating, "is doing more with less, making real and symbolic gestures that relate back to the mission," said Chicago-based juror Ralph Johnson of Perkins+Will before the annual awards ceremony at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

"On top of that, it's poetic," said juror Lawrence Scarpa of Pugh + Scarpa of Santa Monica." The Pugh + Scarpa firm specializes in energy-efficient design and construction with environmentally friendly materials.

The third award-winning juror on the panel that selected the 2005 Design Award winners was Michael Folonis, principal, Michael W. Folonis and Associates, Santa Monica.

Another piece of news is that the recent conversion of the old strawberry stand on Via de la Valle into an award-winning show piece is the subject of a new interpretive panel to be installed at the Strawberry Stand Wetland Learning Center next week. The funding for the interpretive panel came from a William Turnbull Jr. FAIA Environmental Education grant that focused on adaptive reuse and recycling of a structure to meet evolving community needs. Click here for a view of the new panel.

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