Metropolis Magazine has honored MSR Design with two Planet Positive Awards: the Best Adaptive Reuse Innovation Award for RIDC’s Mill 19 project and the Rising Star Award for Christopher Wingate, LEED AP, CPHC. Now in its third year, the Planet Positive Awards program recognizes the most creative projects and products from around the world that benefit people and the planet, as well as firms and professionals leading the way to a better built environment.

Mill 19 is an emblem of Pittsburgh’s transformation from its industrial steel-making past to a future of sustainable advanced manufacturing. The project interweaves 263,200 square feet of new speculative commercial space for the city’s robotics industry within the ruins of a historic 1,360-foot-long decommissioned steel mill. The passive design reduces energy demand and improves indoor environmental quality, while a bifacial glass photovoltaic array meets the buildings’ energy needs and helps control solar gain in the summer. Judges for the Best Adaptive Reuse Innovation Award included James Wasley, Professor of Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Paula Melton, editorial director of BuildingGreen, Inc.; and Avinash Rajagopal, editor in chief of Metropolis. Praising the Mill 19 project, Avinash states, “The buildings celebrate the industrial structure and prioritize materials that can be dissembled and reused on future projects.” He continues, “It’s a great case study of not just adaptive, but also adaptable, reuse.”

The Rising Star Award recognizes emerging professionals who are making a huge mark on the practice within their firms. An associate with MSR Design, Christopher Wingate was initially hired as a student researcher to investigate energy modeling software and recommend the best application for the firm. Since then, he has expanded his work on operational energy analysis to address embodied energy, daylighting, water conservation, and on-site energy generation. Chris has worked on the design of numerous national award-winning projects, including two AIA COTE Top Ten Award winners: Mill 19 and the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Tashjian Bee and Pollinator Discovery Center. MSR Design founding principal emeritus Tom Meyer, FAIA, states, “Chris leads with both technical acumen and humanity. He is working every day with passion to make the world a more sustainable, just, and beautiful place.” Avinash Rajagopal states, “[Chris] has played a central role in MSR Design’s focus on high-performance design. Thank you so much, Chris, for everything you are doing for the future of the built environment and the future of humanity.”