Each year, the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) hosts their Design Awards to recognize architectural excellence in New England and around the world.

For the 2023 Design Awards program, two Sasaki projects were selected as winners in the Built Design Excellence category: Lehigh University Singleton, Hitch, and Maida and Eastway Regional Recreation Center.

Lehigh University Singleton, Hitch, and Maida Residential – Winner in Built Design Excellence Category

The Lehigh University Houses were designed to create parity, support student growth, and embody the client’s inclusive and accessible goals for living & learning. A network of diverse student life spaces – fitness center, café, dance studio, multi-use study hubs – supports wellness for students immersed in rigorous academic endeavors. This whole-student focus coincides with universal accessibility goals: the design traverses the steep campus terrain with cascading entry courts and terraces. Inside, spaces interlink horizontally and vertically to create accessible and inclusive pathways both between the Houses and to the campus beyond.

Architecturally, the buildings establish their own bold identity while harmonizing with the campus context. Each House is sculpturally crafted within the scale of surrounding residence halls, distilling their architectural and siting characteristics into a unique and sophisticated response.

View from up on the indoor track looking down into the open gymnasium courts with natural light in the windows, and boldly colored geometric patterns on the far wall

Eastway Regional Recreation Center – Winner in Built Design Excellence Category

The Eastway Regional Recreation Center is the first new community recreation facility to serve Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. Nestled between the creek, a knoll, and the fields, the building replaces a former parking lot, preserving existing tree groves and minimizing new impervious surfaces. The input collected throughout several work sessions shaped the building’s program, which is organized off a central lobby that features clear views to the outdoors and throughout the building. Programming includes a demonstration kitchen, nutrition classrooms, a sound mixing room, an instructor pool, an interactive garden, a free senior lunch program, an outdoor turf field, and culturally-focused wellness spaces

Congratulations to the two project teams for this recognition by the 2023 BSA Design Awards!