Michael Joyce ’91 and Stantec were recently awarded the 2020 AIA Honor Award for the Western New York Welcome Center. The award ceremony was held at the AIA Rochester in late September as a virtual event due to the pandemic and was attended online by architects and design professionals across the state. Michael was the Lead Design Architect for the project and led the Boston Stantec team from conceptual design through final construction.
Located on Grand Island just outside of Buffalo, the center is one of eleven regional centers that focus on the unique history, culture, and commerce across the Empire State. The project had unique challenges in that the State requested the design team to consider the important legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright to Buffalo, while addressing the larger mission of welcoming visiting tourists from nearby Canada and the Niagara region.
Inspired by these challenges, Michael explored many seminal Wright buildings in the area including the nearby Darwin Martin House while also developing long-term spatial strategies to accept programmatic change over time. This included a daylit gathering space that could eventually serve as a community center to Grand Island. In the spirit of Wright’s Prairie Style, the landscape and architectural design work together to deliver a seamless expression between the indoors and outdoors to support a local farmers market and outdoor events.
The building and grounds employ sustainable design strategies including a building system natural ventilation concept that turned out to work well for recent need for ventilation during the pandemic.
Learn more about the Honor Awards here.