Design firm earns award for SLCC building

SmithGroup wins silver award for design

International Interior Design Association Mid-Atlantic Chapter presented SmithGroup, an interior design, architecture, engineering, and planning firm, a Silver Award in the Educational/Institutional category for its design of the James Lee Sorenson Language and Communication Center (SLCC) at Gallaudet. This was one of two distinctions SmithGroup garnered April 22 at an annual design awards gala. The other was a Silver Award for its Smithsonian Institution at Capital Gallery in the category for commercial buildings over 100,000 square feet.

In collaboration with the University, SmithGroup created a unique interior for the 87,000 square foot SLCC with the aim of creating an organic design that results in a natural and predictable flow. The building incorporated principles of DeafSpace, a concept developed at Gallaudet.

Examples of interior elements that attracted the association’s attention are corridors that widen to enhance site lines and rounded corners to allow greater visibility at intersections. The SLCC, which opened in fall 2008, is also the campus’ first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified green building.