HKP Architects Receives Two NWW AIA Design Awards

HKP Architects Receives Two NWW AIA Design Awards

Children’s Museum of Skagit County and Bhakti Marga North America Meditation Center projects lauded with 2021 Awards

MOUNT VER­NON, WASH­ING­TON, De­cem­ber 9, 2021 — HKP Architects is thrilled to an­nounce that their firm re­ceived two Awards at this year’s Amer­i­can In­sti­tute of Ar­chi­tects North­west Wash­ing­ton Sec­tion De­sign Awards. Ju­rors in­cluded renowned Dr. Sharon Egretta Sut­ton, FAIA (New York, Par­sons School of De­sign), con­struc­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tiffani Can­dler (Greater Seat­tle, Ly­dig Con­struc­tion), and artist rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rik Allen (Na­tional and In­ter­na­tional, Sk­agit County).

The HKP pro­jects that were awarded at the vir­tual event in­clude the Children’s Museum of Skagit County and the Meditation Center (un­built).

The Children’s Museum of Skagit County is the third col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween the or­ga­ni­za­tion and HKP Ar­chi­tects. Faced with the clos­ing of their cur­rent leased space, the mu­seum seized the op­por­tu­nity to find a new lo­ca­tion that could serve an even wider, larger au­di­ence, and pro­vide more ex­plo­ration and learn­ing. Ac­ces­si­bil­ity for chil­dren and adults to the ex­hibits and su­per­vi­sion are key pri­or­ity de­sign fea­tures, sec­ond only to pro­vid­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for chil­dren to have fun, ex­plore, learn, grow, and de­velop their mo­tor skills. A fo­cus on mak­ing things as real as pos­si­ble has been a theme through­out, so that chil­dren learn in real-world en­vi­ron­ments.

The ju­rors were im­pressed that the fir­m’s ser­vices dur­ing the mu­se­um’s re­lo­ca­tion in­volved strate­gic plan­ning for a move that kept the mu­seum op­er­a­tional, and in re­de­ploy­ing the ex­hibits, the firm reused ma­te­ri­als and re­con­fig­ured them for new site con­di­tions.

The Meditation Center, a new 4,000 square-foot event space build­ing lo­cated in Sk­agit County, is de­signed for Bhakti Marga North America. The space is en­vi­sioned to be a mixed-use space used for med­i­ta­tion prac­tices, re­treats and work­shops, as well as spe­cial events and cel­e­bra­tions. The Cen­ter is pro­posed to be built on the foot­print of the now-de­mol­ished barn build­ing north of the ex­ist­ing house. Stay­ing within the orig­i­nal foot­print of the barn al­lows the cen­ter to have zero im­pact by avoid­ing the ad­di­tion of new im­per­vi­ous area, and also elim­i­nat­ing the need for ad­di­tional stormwa­ter de­ten­tion and fil­tra­tion. Pre­vi­ous paving is also pro­posed in or­der to main­tain a net-zero change in pol­lu­tion gen­er­at­ing sur­face area.

The ju­rors ap­pre­ci­ated that the ar­chi­tects have cre­ated a com­pact, two-story build­ing that is ac­ces­si­ble with­out stairs and has func­tions tucked within a dra­matic hip roof. The ju­rors em­pha­sized its con­serv­ing ap­proach to site plan­ning that was made pos­si­ble by thought­ful pro­gram­ming.

AIA NW Design Awards

HKP Architects is a full-ser­vice ar­chi­tec­tural de­sign firm in Mount Ver­non, Wash­ing­ton, serv­ing pub­lic and pri­vate clients through­out Wash­ing­ton State since 1952. Our port­fo­lio in­cludes civic build­ings and spaces, ed­u­ca­tional fa­cil­ity plan­ning, non-profit and com­mu­nity-ori­ented pro­jects, and pri­vate homes. All of our pro­jects em­pha­size long-term value for the client through ef­fi­cient use of space, ap­pro­pri­ate use of ma­te­ri­als, sus­tain­abil­ity, and the ben­e­fits of nat­ural light through­out our build­ings.