Firm Wins People's Choice Award
September 29, 2009 - The American Institute of Architects’ Connecticut Chapter declared Mark P. Finlay Architects, AIA a winner of this year’s People’s Choice Award.
The firm won for “The Place in Which I’d Most Like to Study” for a library the firm designed at a private residence in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The three-story library is 3,500 square feet and contains an extensive collection of more than 30,000 books and museum-like items such as dinosaur bones, an ancient bible collection and an original Sputnik Satellite. Designed to be about the human imagination and inner workings of the owner’s brain, this space is marked by etched glass paneled bridges and staircases, illuminated from under the handrails with color changing fiber optics. These panels, etched with images representing stories of the owner’s life, give the illusion that the individual platforms float in the space. The placement of this engagement space at the extreme end of the public area of the home makes the library a destination room which can either be open to guests or closed off as a private room for the owners. The library was featured in the October 2008 issue of Wired Magazine.
Voting for the awards was open to the public and ran from September 8th through September 24th. Submission boards were exhibited at three different locations around the state: Milford Public Library, West Hartford Town Center and Scranton Library in Madison. Visitors were asked to vote on five categories: The house in which I’d most like to live, the space in which I’d most like to study, the space in which I’d most like to work, the place in which I’d most like to play and the place in which I’d most like to worship. Boards were displayed at each location for about one week and voting was also available online at the AIA Connecticut website (aiact.org).
This is the second year Mark P. Finlay Architects, AIA won a People’s Choice Award. In 2007, the firm won for “the house in which I’d most like to live” for their design of a shingle style residence on the water in Southport. To view the other winners of this year's award program, visit www.aiact.org.