ARCHITECTURE | CITATION  

Entry Name: Centennial Research Facility
Firm: HDR Engineering, Inc.
Owner: US Department of Agriculture 
Photographer: Tom Kessler

The Centennial Research Facility, located in Madison WI, is a crowded urban complex on the south edge of University of Wisconsin campus. The Facility sits adjacent to Gifford Pinchot Drive which leads up a steep hill to the agency Headquarters. Through the south glass of the facility visitors get a great view of the composites laboratory. The laboratory is constructed with massive six foot deep glulam beams on the interior. The exterior glulams are treated with chemicals the lab helped develop and the vertical fins are manufactured with wood and plastic composites.

Jury Comments: The architects crafted an expression of the building's purpose through transparency and material choice in a typically challenging building size and function and in doing so activated the street edge and respected the surrounding buildings.