'62 Center Wins Architectural Award

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WILLIAMSTOWN - The national American Institute of Architects has presented its national AIA 2008 Honor Award for Interior Architecture to the Williams College
'62 Center for Theatre and Dance and its architects, William Rawn Associates, Architect Inc. of Boston.

Ten projects around the country have been so honored in this category this year. The award will be given to Williams and the architects at the AIA Convention in May; it was announced Jan. 4.

"We were fortunate to have an architect as talented as Bill Rawn to express so functionally and so beautifully the vision for this project set by the college and by lead donor Herbert Allen," said Morton Owen Schapiro, president of Williams College. "This award is further indication that the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance will benefit students, faculty, staff, alumni, and local residents for generations to come."

The award focused on the building's four major performance venues together with the lobbies and the interior public passageways that connect the entire building. The awards jury commented: "From the lightness of the dance studio with its soaring views to the machinelike flexibility of the black box theater, each space is functionally and aesthetically suited for its use."

This represents the fifth and most prestigious AIA award that the '62 Center has received since its opening. Others include the 2006 Honor Award of the New England AIA and three separate awards from the Boston Society of Architects (covering the state of Massachusetts) for General Design, for Interiors and for Educational Facilities.

The '62 Center was also selected as one of two buildings nominated to represent the United States at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial for Theater Design (the other being Frank Gehry's Center at Bard College).

This is the ninth national AIA Honor Award that William Rawn Associates, Architects has received since 1994.

"We are deeply indebted to everyone at Williams College for this award," said William Rawn. "For us, it is a very satisfying affirmation of President Schapiro's commitment to the project and the support of the trustees and the theater and dance faculty for the building design."
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Williamstown Planning Board Narrowing in on Subdivision Bylaw Changes

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board late last month discussed specific features of what it plans to pass as a new subdivision control bylaw this year.
 
The board long has discussed the complex set of regulations as being out of date and cumbersome to both potential developers and the board itself, which has needed to hear requests for waivers of outdated rules for the handful of residential subdivisions that have been proposed in town in recent years.
 
This spring, the town engaged consultants from Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning to go through the existing bylaw, compare it to more contemporary regulations in other communities and help craft a revised bylaw.
 
Unlike the zoning bylaw, where amendments require approval of town meeting, the subdivision control bylaw is a creation of the Planning Board, which can make changes on its own after a public hearing process it hopes to complete this year.
 
At a special Planning Board meeting on May 26, Dillon Sussman of Dodson and Flinker and his colleagues walked the board through a dozen different decision points that the board must resolve — either by leaving the bylaw as is or making a change — and offered suggestions based on best practices.
 
All of the issues are technical and ranged from the fundamental, like how the bylaw will define types of subdivisions, to the highly specific, like what turning radii will be required in new streets that are constructed to serve planned developments.
 
One example of a topic that came up in the recent approval of a four-home subdivision off Summer Street is stormwater management.
 
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