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The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc. to Receive
2006 Architecture Firm AwardDownload: MSWord document Press Photo1 Press Photo 2
Madison (April 20, 2006)— The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc., in Cedarburg has been selected to receive the prestigious 2006 Architecture Firm Award from AIA Wisconsin, the state society of The American Institute of Architects (AIA). Celebrating its 25 th anniversary, the firm is well known for its award-winning architecture and leadership in sustainable design.
The AIA Wisconsin Architecture Firm Award will be presented to The Kubala Washatko Architects at a special luncheon program on Wednesday, May 10, at the Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center in Madison. This awards event will be held in conjunction with the annual AIA Wisconsin Convention.
The Architecture Firm Award is the highest honor that AIA Wisconsin can bestow on a member-owned firm. It is awarded in recognition of outstanding achievement in the advancement of the architectural profession.
“We are most honored to be recognized by the Firm Award and are grateful for this affirmation of our core philosophy,” said Tom Kubala, AIA, a co-founder of The Kubala Washatko Architects.
“It reflects our belief in the inter-connectedness of all things, a philosophy of wholeness, which is expressed in our unique process of design for clients and their projects.”
The distinguished jury for the 2006 Architecture Firm Award included: George Austin, Madison, president of the Overture Foundation; William Beyer, FAIA, a principal of Stageberg Beyer Sachs Inc., an architecture firm in Minneapolis, and the senior North Central States director on the national AIA Board of Directors; and Paul Meinke, Green Bay, founder of Arketype Inc., a strategic design and marketing communications firm, and member of the Wisconsin Arts Board.
In its unanimous selection of The Kubala Washatko Architects for this year's Architecture Firm Award, the jury noted, “The broad diversity of the firm's body of work, in only 25 years, is impressive and shows a dedication to sustainable design.” According to the jury, “Their core philosophy reflects values and a sensitivity for what each project needs; and they seem to have a very unique firm culture.”
The Kubala Washatko Architects was nominated for the award by A. Richard Williams, FAIA, a distinguished visiting professor of architecture at the University of Arizona. “The cumulative body of the firm's work ranks right at the top not only in Wisconsin, but nationally as well,” Williams stated in his nomination. His relationship to the firm's founders, Tom Kubala, AIA, and Allen Washatko, AIA, began when they were students at the University of Illinois at Urbana / Champaign , where Williams was director of the Graduate Program of Architecture. “Over the past 25 years, I have had the opportunity to observe the extraordinary diversity and consistent high quality of their work,” explained Williams. “Always present is a sensitivity to what each project wants to be in its own right, avoiding any self-conscious signature style,” he noted.
With a $150 loan from a friend, Washatko and Kubala opened their firm in 1980. Today, the firm has grown to 30 people who share a similar need to make buildings come to life. The firm's philosophy of wholeness – where the built world fully supports and enhances the human activities contained within it – has become the basis for all decisions taken within the studio, whether they are design, family or business related.
Recognized for its award-winning architecture, the firm believes sustainability is a natural by-product of a wholeness-based design philosophy. The Kubala Washatko Architects designed Wisconsin's first LEED Gold rated new building, the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. Other examples include the Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee, the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center near Baraboo and the Milwaukee Public Market in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward.
Other significant projects designed or under development by The Kubala Washatko Architects include: the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan; a major addition to the historic Frank Lloyd Wright First Unitarian Society Meeting House in Madison; The Madison Children's Museum; Roots Restaurant in Milwaukee; and numerous projects for the Harley-Davidson Corporation in Milwaukee and Harley-Davidson dealerships across the United States. The firm also has provided master planning and architectural design for large scale, mixed-use planned community developments such as Grandview Commons and Smith's Crossing in the Madison area, and for the lakefront Harbor Place development in Kenosha.
AIA Wisconsin established the Architecture Firm Award in 1998. The Kubala Washatko Architects is the fifth Wisconsin architecture firm to be recognized with this distinguished award.
AIA Wisconsin is a 1,500-member professional society representing registered architects, interns, students, and allied design and construction industry leaders. AIA Wisconsin members include architects in private practice, business, industry, government and education. Milwaukee architect, John Horky, AIA, chairs the special AIA Wisconsin committee that coordinates the Architecture Firm Award program.
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Contacts:
Bill Babcock, AIA Wisconsin, (608) 257-8477
Wayne Reckard, The Kubala Washatko Architects, (262) 377-6039AIA Wisconsin, 321 S. Hamiton St., Madison, WI 53703-4000, (608) 257-8477
©2008 AIA Wisconsin. All Rights Reserved.