John Jay College IDEAS2 Presidential Award Ceremony

NEW YORK, N.Y., July 9, 2015 — The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) selected Leslie E. Robertson Associates’ John Jay College of Criminal Justice project for the top honor of the year, the IDEAS2 Presidential Award of Excellence in Engineering. William Faschan, Partner and Jason Stone, Senior Associate of LERA were on hand to accept their award at a ceremony at John Jay College from AISC Marketing Manager, Larry Flynn. Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, John Jay College, CUNY, DASNY, and Owen Steel Company were also honored for their parts in the collaborative project effort.

The IDEAS2 awards honor excellence in steel-frame building design; the award is the highest honor bestowed on building projects by the structural steel industry in the U.S. The judges’ comments included high praise from Judge, Peter Lynd, who declared the project “a masterful execution of innovative structural engineering, providing creative solutions to a myriad of challenging programmatic and site specific conditions; excellence in engineering personified.” Cathleen McGuigan of Architectural Record acclaimed the building to be “a handsome urban tower on a tight city site made remarkable by the cantilevered engineering of its floor plates and its ingenious accommodation of the rail infrastructure for Amtrak running under one corner of the project.” Envisioned as an “academic city within a city,” the 620,000-sf multi-use project houses classrooms, research laboratories, faculty offices, auditoriums, cafeterias and social spaces including a landscaped roof plaza. LERA’s innovative design incorporated the existing Amtrak rail lines and included perimeter hangers, supported by a grid of trusses at the roof level which enable the longspan spaces and grand cascade stairs and gathering areas. Below are photos from last week's ceremony at John Jay College Campus.