2008 COMMUNITY DESIGN AWARDS WINNERS CARD!

Photos from the event can be purchased from The Digital Hub.  www.thedigitalhub.biz

The Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission singled out 28 projects for their contributions to the quality of life in Hillsborough County at the 26^th Annual Community Design Awards held April 3 at the Historic Tampa Theatre in Downtown Tampa.  Over 300 people attended this highly anticipated event.

The Chairman’s Award was bestowed upon Tampa Tribune Editorial Page Editor Rosemary Goudreau for her steadfast support of visioning, community planning and support of multimodal transportation options.  Executive Director Robert B. Hunter, FAICP presented the Executive Directors Award to syndicated political cartoonist Paul Combs for his January 2008 cartoon concerning sprawl in Hillsborough County. 

The 2007 restoration of the Berriman-Morgan Cigar Factory in West Tampa earned top honors receiving the Jan Abell Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Community in the category of historic preservation.  Originally constructed in 1903, the factory was once occupied by the Berriman Brothers Cigar Company and the Morgan Cigar Company.  After 35 years of neglect and abandonment, the Berriman-Morgan Cigar Factory building has been painstakingly preserved and restored to its original architectural splendor by engineer, Nicholas Jammal, P.E. of Jammal Engineering, Inc.  The building can now accommodate a variety of multi-use services including professional offices, medical offices, retail and banking.

Awards of Outstanding Contribution to the Community went to six other projects.   The most notable were:

Tampa’s first universally accessible playground, Freedom Playground at MacFarland Park. It started as one mother’s dream in 2001 to create a place where all children, regardless of ability, could play together side by side.  With the help of her friends, family and an initial donation of $5.00, Stefani Busansky created the Freedom Playground Foundation. The Foundation partnered with the City of Tampa’s Parks and Recreation Department to find a site and share costs. The design firm of Hardeman Kempton & Associates, Inc. was then commissioned to create an innovative play environment that includes elements of art, nature, water and history. The playground’s innovative design creates opportunities for structured and imaginative play for children with and without abilities so that, together, they can share the joy and freedom.

Woodland Corporate Center Building the first speculative office building to be completed in the state of Florida seeking LEED Certification under the USGBC’s “Core and Shell Development” category.  The building was constructed in 2007 and early 2008 by the Tampa office of Liberty Property Trust, a nationally recognized leader in the development of “green”, high performance buildings.  Upon review of all final submittals to USGBC, it is predicted that the building will achieve LEED “Gold” status.  The project architect is Horton, Harley & Carter and the general contractor is Hennessy Construction Services.

Learning Gate Community School in Lutz is an environmental charter school situated on 30 acres of woodlands and ponds. The school serves 490 students from Kindergarten through the eighth grade. The school’s mission is to foster environmental stewardship through an innovative curriculum that pairs classroom lessons with hands-on environmental learning experiences on the school’s unique campus. In the 2006-2008 academic years they expanded their Seed-to-Soup Organic Garden project, earned the Recycling Award for Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful, and announced their new “green” classrooms, which will be the first LEED® Platinum Green Modular Classrooms in the nation.

Other Awards of Outstanding Contribution to the Community include:

·         Clemmons Architecture for Seybold Lofts in Historic Hyde Park in Tampa for Historic Preservation.

·         Novare Group an intown group for the SkyPoint residential tower in Downtown Tampa for Urban Infill

·         Terra Tectonics for the Interstate 4 Urban Design through Ybor City for Public Infrastructure

15 Awards of Excellence were given to:

The Sanctuary at James Shimberg Estates (Affordable Housing), Ventana (Residential), Mitchell Elementary School (Historic Preservation), Learning Gate Community School Historic Log Cabin (Historic Preservation), Tampa Firefighter’s Museum (Historic Preservation), CF Industries Stream and Wetland Restoration (Environmental), Mosaic Costal Education center at Fiddler’s Cove (Environmental), Newman Branch Fisheries Habitat Restoration (Environmental), City of Tampa Stormwater Sediment Removal Pilot Project at Epps Park (Environmental), Plant City Midtown Redevelopment Plan (Master Planning and Urban Design), Drew Park Strategic Action Plan (Master Planning and Urban Design), South County Recreational Corridor Plan (Master Planning and Urban Design), MPO Transit Study (Master Plan and Urban Design), Palm River Youth Corps Internship Program (Public Participation) and Walker Brands Communications (Green Projects). 

Six Awards of Merit were given to:

The Gardens at Southbay (Affordable Housing), Hillsborough Community College (Residential), Kentucky Avenue Church (Historic Preservation), Fast Lane Clothing Company (Urban Infill), Bern’s Steakhouse Compactor Facility (Commercial) and the Bette S. Walker Discovery Garden (Environmental).

Judges reside outside Hillsborough County and are prominent in the fields of planning, architecture and landscape architecture, reviewed the entries and determined the winners. 

Major sponsors included Tampa Electric and WilsonMiller, Inc.

2008 Community Design Awards Winners Card!