UD Bookstore wins brick architecture design award

11:14 a.m., July 17, 2013--The University of Delaware Barnes and Noble Bookstore has been named a bronze award winner in the 2013 Brick in Architecture Competition sponsored by the Brick Industry Association (BIA). 

One of America’s most prestigious architectural award programs, the Brick in Architecture Competition has several categories, including for K-12 educational facilities and for college and universities.

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President Barack Obama recently presented the National Medal of Science to University of Delaware alumnus Rakesh Jain.

Warren Award

Rosalind Johnson, assistant dean for student success in the NUCLEUS Program in UD's College of Arts and Sciences, was presented the John Warren Excellence in Leadership and Service Award during a May 26 ceremony.

• Warren Award
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The firm DIGSAU of Philadelphia, Pa., served as the architect on the project and Buccini/Pollin of Wilmington, Del., was the design-build contractor. The building, which opened in August 2011, is home to the UD Bookstore, the Apple Authorized Campus Store and the Office of Development and Alumni Relations.

The materials used on the bookstore’s exterior are brick, glass, metal, cedar, concrete block and bluestone. The brick bond pattern is based on UD’s typical monk bond pattern, but emphasizes slight 3D qualities by insetting and projecting the surface of some of the brick.

“The award is well-deserved recognition for DIGSAU, the excellent design firm that provided the University and the city of Newark with a special urban building,” Peter Krawchyk, University architect and campus planner, said. 

In entering the UD Bookstore in the BIA competition, Jeff A. Goldstein, principal at DIGSAU, remarked that the project reshaped the typical big-box mass structure to permit an exterior pedestrian plaza and thoroughfare while the interior also integrates the urban space through by a parallel series of paths and spaces. 

The UD Bookstore design also earned DIGSAU a Merit Award at the AIA Philadelphia 2012 Awards for Design event last October.

“There is an interesting use of materials and color, both inside and out,” Krawchyk said. “The building creates an urban courtyard that both University and city residents can use.”

Complementing the contemporary public space is a brick learning wall that graces the lower level of the west side of the Newark Opera House building. 

The wall showcases 35 different kinds of brick patterns or bonds, including those used on 18th and 19th century buildings.

“The wall is very special,” Krawchyk said. “It is a teaching tool for UD students in historic architecture and design, and is a reminder of the site’s building history and a commemoration to the masons who built the wall.”

Article by Jerry Rhodes

Photo by Ambre Alexander