“It oozes smooth.” This is what 2019 Metal Architecture Design Awards judge Charles Bloszies, FAIA, SE, LEED AP, principal, Office of Charles F. Bloszies FAIA Ltd., San Francisco, says about the C.H. Robinson Midwest Headquarters in Chicago, the smooth metal wall panels award winner. “It undulates in a subtle way. In the class of parametrically modeled transitional shapes this is very controlled and subtle, and I love it.”

For showcasing how metal panels can be leveraged in a transformative retrofit project, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 134 headquarters building in Chicago won the 2019 Metal Architecture Design Award for renovations and retrofits. Metal wall panels were used in the adaptive reuse project to give the building a new identity, express its use and the importance of some spaces. The retrofit completely transformed a 1960s elementary school building into a labor organization’s modern headquarters, which includes a lobby, large meeting hall, offices, meeting rooms, lounges and gymnasium community center.