RPI School of Architecture Professor Matt Burgermaster and his office MABU received a 2024 Tri-State Design Award from the American Institute of Architects for the project “Twenty Ways Home”. The Tri-State Design Awards is a bi-annual program that recognizes regional design excellence across the states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. This adaptive reuse project reimagines a historic church and grounds in Albany, N.Y. into a multi-building complex for a social services organization that supports global refugees/immigrants during the resettlement process in the Capitol Region. The design features an integrated combination of variable site topography, mass timber canopy structures, and discreet interior interventions into the church’s historic fabric. RPI SoA alum Ziyuan (Sam) Wu, Class of 2023, was a key member of the MABU team for this project.

To see the full list of award winners, please visit the AIA’s website: https://aiapa.org/tri-state-conference-recap/

This project was initiated in the undergraduate design research studios in the RPI School of Architecture through a community engagement initiative called the RPI-RISSE Design Studio. This program was run in collaboration with Refugee + Immigrant Support Services of Emmaus, Inc. (RISSE) and concluded in the Fall 2023 semester. It was taught by Prof. Matt Burgermaster in the Spring and Fall 2023 semesters and co-taught with Prof. Alec Walker in the Fall 2023 semester. The students that contributed to the project’s preliminary development were: Mars Ben, Dennis Colucci, Christian Demchak, Rebecca Gregg, Tess, Lightly, Ashlyn O’Neil, Anthony Toma, Peter Zitao, Nora Wright, Christiana Bevilacqua, William Carlisle, Sami Detwiler, Urja Hurkute, Owen Lawler, Yuselbio Novas, Brian Quinn, Joe Pelton, Danielle Pettway, Julia Schneider, Ethan Sedano, Megan Ung, Rebecca Victori, Elyssa Yontz, Sam Zhang.