News

January 2010

Whitman College Receives Industry Awards

Whitman College, a spectacular new residential facility at Princeton University, received industry recognition at both the 2009 New Jersey Golden Trowel Awards and the General Building Contractors Association of Philadelphia’s 2009 Construction Excellence Awards.

The Golden Trowel Awards honor the design and construction excellence of New Jersey’s top architects, contractors, owners and suppliers. Awards are given annually to "best of" categories that include commercial, educational, community, residential, landscape and restoration projects, with one project named Grand Prize winner. In 2009, the New Jersey Golden Trowel selection committee was compelled to designate an entirely new top level of recognition for Whitman College, the Significant Project Achievement Award.

Whitman College is designed in the Collegiate Gothic style and used more than 6000 tons of fieldstone (bluestone) and limestone from quarries in New York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. The collection of 10 buildings house over 500 students in 280,000 square feet.

Whitman College was also selected by the General Building Contractors Association of Philadelphia in its annual Construction Excellence awards. The project was first place winner in the "Excellence in Craftsmanship" category for 2009. The award recognizes a project that has demonstrated the highest level of modern craftsmanship — including exceptional care in detail, utilization of new or alternative materials and technologies, and/or the coordination of intricate building techniques.

"We took extraordinary care to ensure the quality of the stonework in the Whitman project and it shows in the result," said Project Director John Ziegler. "Some years ago, there were people who said that the Collegiate Gothic style couldn't be done with current materials and modern labor. I believe we proved that wrong. Most of the masons came from the tri-state area. In spite of all the challenges on that project, the masons really put their heart and soul into their work and it all came together. It was worth it."

The Whitman College construction team included Porphyrios Associates, design architect and Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, executive architect and engineers. Torcon was construction manager in a role that included both preconstruction and construction phases.