commentInternational Fund for Animal Welfare Headquarters
BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Awards Citation
After years operating out of five separate offices around Cape Cod, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a 40-year-old animal welfare and conservation organization, needed its own facility.
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The nonprofit’s first attempt, in the late 1990s, to build a new headquarters was saddled with problems and never realized. In 2005, IFAW approached Boston-based designLAB with the challenge to design a large complex for 200 employees on a difficult site in Yarmouth Port. The 5-acre property was a brownfield in need of remediation, and it also fell within the Kings Highway historic district, putting significant code restraints on the project.
The landscape architecture firm Stephen Stimson Associates worked to restore the damaged field, instead of merely capping it, to mitigate the harmful effects of heavy metals found there. That effort allowed the client to avoid a costly environmental evaluation and brought it goodwill in the community, according to the architect.
In terms of design, the IFAW “wanted a contemporary building” that paid homage to the Cape’s vernacular architecture, explains Robert Miklos, FAIA, head of designLAB. “We found a useful metaphor in a sailing boat that’s very popular on the Cape called the Herreshoff,” he says. “It has a white fiberglass exterior and a mahogany interior.” And so the architects employed white-painted wood for the exterior of the new 54,000-square-foot building; for the walls surrounding an interior courtyard, they opted for glass with wooden louvers. Inside the light-filled building, there is a series of large, loft-like work areas, with meeting rooms interspersed.
According to the IFAW, the new building has heightened its profile in the community, attracting about 50 visitors each week. Moreover, a variety of sustainable features earned the building a LEED Gold rating and an AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) award. In this case, an organization with a conscience was given a building with a conscience.
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