Pickard Chilton’s Clayton and Barnett Honored with AIA Connecticut Awards along with HQ for Norfolk Southern project

 

 

New Haven, CT According to Pickard Chilton, associate principal Nancy Clayton has received a Women in Architecture Award from AIA Connecticut (AIA CT) while associate Andrew Barnett was recognized with the organization’s Emerging Professional Award of Excellence.

The firm’s design of the Norfolk Southern headquarters was also the recipient of the AIA CT Business Architecture Award of Excellence.

Nancy Clayton: AIA CT Women in Architecture Award
The AIA CT Women in Architecture Award honors registered and practicing female architects in Connecticut who demonstrate design excellence, promote equitable & sustainable practice, and are affecting change in the profession.

Clayton brings collaborative leadership, practical know-how, high design aspirations, and a focus on user experience to every project. Clayton’s buildings create memorable environments that positively transform neighborhoods and catalyze urban centers. Given the scale of her projects, she often leads large interdisciplinary teams, including Pickard Chilton’s designers and diverse consultants.

With nearly three decades directing a broad range of corporate, academic, and cultural projects, Clayton has served as design director for several significant corporate high-rise and campus projects. She is currently directing the design for Sherwin-Williams’ new corporate headquarters in Cleveland. Previously, she directed 2+U, a mixed-use office tower in downtown Seattle; Barack H. Obama Magnet University School in New Haven; the Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons in Milwaukee; components of the ExxonMobil Global Campus in Houston; Devon Energy Center in Oklahoma City; and the West Campus expansion of ConocoPhillips’ headquarters in Houston.

In 2017, Clayton was the recipient of the Connecticut Professional Women in Construction’s Woman of Achievement award. She advocates for equity and diversity within the architecture profession by volunteering as secretary and board member of the Connecticut Architecture Foundation. Clayton is a role model for architects through her involvement in panel discussions such as AIA CT’s Women in Architecture events, and in her mentorship of younger colleagues within Pickard Chilton. In 2010, Clayton co-founded The 10.05 Fund to benefit the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven which focuses on supporting youth, arts, and cultural organizations.

Clayton graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a bachelor of arts in Architecture and holds a master of architecture from Princeton University.

Andrew Barnett: AIA Emerging Professional Award of Excellence
The AIA CT Emerging Professional award recognizes and supports emerging, graduate architects who have made outstanding, innovative contributions to the discipline and/or profession, and have rendered exemplary service in the public realm. Barnett was nominated by Pickard Chilton principal Jon Pickard, FAIA.

Barnett is a respected member of the Pickard Chilton studio. Joining the firm in 2018, he has held key roles and collaborated on numerous large-scale, international mixed-use, corporate, commercial, life science, and master planning developments. Barnett brings intelligence to his work, team, and clients, making many significant contributions to the firm’s projects.

He is currently project manager for The Binney St. Campus, a new laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., and also served as designer for Google Cambridge’s headquarters at 325 Main, a next-generation office building in the city.

Passionate about sustainable design, Barnett has been a key designer for nearly 1.5 million s/f of mass timber campuses, further honing his design expertise.

Barnett is a LEED green associate. He holds a bachelor of architecture from The Pennsylvania State University, and since 2020, has been active in the Penn State Architecture Alumni Mentor Program.

For the past four years, Barnett has been a dedicated mentor with the ACE Mentor Program at both the local and state levels. Prior to the pandemic, he personally mentored over 30 students. He was instrumental in transitioning the organization from in-person to virtual and led a team of professionals statewide in mentoring 110 students. He is currently a group leader and an ACE board member for both the New Haven and Connecticut chapters. Barnett sits on the K-12 committee of the National Organization of Minority Architects Connecticut (NOMAct) chapter and serves as the liaison between ACE and NOMAct. Most recently, Barnett participated in the local Junior Achievement Program to address middle and high school students about careers in architecture.

Norfolk Southern: AIA CT Business Architecture Award of Excellence
The AIA CT Business Architecture Award of Excellence is a statewide honor that recognizes architects for solving business problems for their clients, thereby demonstrating the power of architecture to shape business performance, to improve peoples’ lives and provide a value-added service to clients in a business setting that far exceeds the costs of that service. The award for Norfolk Southern is the fourth AIA CT Business Architecture Award that the firm has garnered for its corporate work in as many years.

Pickard Chilton was engaged by Cousins Properties to design the new Atlanta headquarters for Norfolk Southern, one of the nation’s premier transportation companies . The company relocated its headquarters from Norfolk, VA to a 1 million s/f office tower at 650 West Peachtree St. in Atlanta’s Technology Sq. district. Norfolk Southern’s new headquarters features two office towers connected by a five-story campus-style hub that serves a destination for employees to work and collaborate throughout the day. The towers are clad in a high-performance enclosure with floor-to-ceiling glass to maximize daylight and views. An entry plaza welcomes employees and guests into the building’s lobby, which has high ceilings and a coffee shop open to the public.

On-site amenities include a vibrant dining facility, an adjacent rooftop garden and private greenspace, a comprehensive fitness center, conference and training facilities, on-site child-care, and a variety of individual and shared workspaces to serve employees’ diverse needs while promoting interaction and collaboration.