Out of a field of 90 entrants, H2M recently won second place in 3form’s 7th-annual People’s Choice Best Installation Contest. 3form, a manufacturer of sustainable building materials and architectural hardware solutions, provides the opportunity for architects, engineers, and designers to submit projects that utilize 3form building materials. Participants then vote on one another’s submissions to determine the best interior and exterior installations.
With an overall score of 4.6 out of 5.0, H2M’s project submission, Mineola Union Free School District’s Hampton Street Elementary School Library, was a crowd favorite, earning such compliments as, “It brings life to an old school” and ”I wish we had a library like this when I was a child.”
The library at Hampton Street was designed for pre-K through 2nd grade students, and the building itself tells a story. The exterior masonry is built to resemble books stacked on a shelf; inside, as the stories unfold, the space opens up with large expanses of glass, showing children that their minds can expand to imagine many things. On the ceiling, a colorful alphabet forms the phrase, ”Reading is fun,” with each letter sculpted from 3form’s Chroma solid surface material.
The building addition has many green elements as well, including an energy efficient building envelope, daylight harvesting, and environmentally friendly finishes such as linoleum flooring and carpet woven from a high percentage of recycled material.
H2M’s full contest entry can be viewed at http://www.3-form.com/installations/contest/entry/id/1435
