The Mount Maunganui College Resource and Research Centre redevelopment has won a national architecture award.
The project, by Dimensions Ltd, won a public architecture award in the 2010 Waikato Bay of Plenty Architecture Awards, announced last night.
Jurors said that creative planning, major renovation and extensive refurbishment had transformed the original outmoded
library to provide a flexible facility that had assumed a new identity and prime position on the college campus.
Taupo architect Sean Harris, a member of the judging panel, was impressed by features such as flexible "study pods" and the building's multiple uses including acting as the year 13 common room.
The awards programme, organised and run by the New Zealand Institute of Architects and supported by Resene, attracted a significant number of entries, with 42 submissions.
Other Western Bay winners included The Fraser Papamoa project, by Ambienti Architects, in the commercial architecture category.
The building is a flexible sales office for the Coast Papamoa Beach residential development, and was seen as an innovative approach to marketing offices and showroom.
The twin level pavilion, admired by jurors for its "crisp clean lines" has been designed so that it can be transformed, when required, into a community facility - with café, shops and offices.
Residential houses to win accolades included Orkney, a distinctive multi-level home at Mount Maunganui by Daniel Marshall Architect.
The house captured jurors' attention for its flair and imagination, and "sharply raking walls that mimic the prows of ships on the nearby harbour".
The Meldrum House in Tauranga, by DHT Architects, was also praised. Judges said the home took full advantage of a narrow sloping site, and provided "sweeping views" to Mount Maunganui.
