Feature Article - May 2012

Tenth Annual Innovative Architecture & Design Awards

Innovations Abound

This year marks a decade's worth of Innovative Architecture & Design Awards competition. Welcome!

As always, this special section takes you on a visual and descriptive tour of some outstanding, innovative, new and renovated recreation, sports and fitness facilities located throughout the United States and Canada.

Each year's winners raise the bar a bit higher, and this year's competition saw a host of facilities that go above and beyond—from innovative energy savings to creative designs that bring gigantic facilities down to a more human scale, from smart partnerships to get more bang for your buck to makeovers that take existing facilities from blah to bravo!

Thumb through these pages, and you'll surely be inspired. Perhaps you'll even find new ideas as you make your own plans for new construction or renovations at your existing facilities.

All of the entries were carefully considered by our panel of judges, with the goal of scoring each facility on its own merit. We also asked for their comments and critiques, as well as their thoughts on what made their top choices so remarkable.

From their top choices, we selected the eight highest-scoring projects as winners, as well as one facility that scored near the top for our Editor's Choice award. These winners are all featured in the pages that follow.

In addition, we also provide highlights of some of our other entries—facilities that missed out on the top scores, but are still worthy of showcasing.

We hope you enjoy reading through and learning how these facilities are offering innovative solutions. And, we hope you'll consider submitting your own new or renovated facility for next year's competition. Look for entry forms to be available in Fall 2012, with entries due in January 2013.