在40多年的时间里，范·吉尔伯特（Van Gilbert）将他对新墨西哥州的地形，历史和文化的热爱与不仅仅是设计建筑物的建筑物，而且对有助于建立社区的建筑物的热情同样热情。

“建筑实践可以为社会做出广泛的贡献，这一贡献通常超出建筑物，以支持社区和机构的复杂需求和目标，”今年西南旧奖奖获得者吉尔伯特说。

该州最大，最古老的承包商布拉德伯里·斯塔姆（Bradbury Stamm Construction）的主席吉姆·金（Jim King）说：“从一开始，范（Van）就是一位真正的建筑师，他相信设计最高质量的建筑物，对细节的关注毫不妥协。”金是2019年遗产奖得主。

His company has collaborated with Gilbert’s firm, Albuquerque-based VHGA, on 21 projects in New Mexico, including the 1997 design of the aquarium at ABQ BioPark in Albuquerque. “Building a Van Gilbert design has always been challenging and uncompromising,” King adds. “But his passion for the work brought out the very best in everyone on the team and led to wonderful results.”

School Design

吉尔伯特（Gilbert）是当代区域主义的拥护者，已经设计了数百个项目（超过90％是与教育有关的项目，并且大多数是在新墨西哥州与州内承包商一起完成的18luck官网 - 从K-12学校到各种各样的大学校园结构。

“He definitely will be remembered as one of the greats in K-12 design,” says Karen Alarid, executive director of capital construction and director of facilities design and construction for Albuquerque Public Schools. “He has touched so many APS campuses.”

One noteworthy example is the 9th Grade Academy at Rio Grande High School, which opened in 2016, hosting an underserved population. “Instead of a renovation of old facilities,” Gilbert says, “the new academy is open, bright, an energizing and inviting presence as the students approach it each day.”

在阿尔伯克基的新墨西哥大学,胃肠道lbert has completed six buildings, more than any other architect. To honor his accomplishment, the UNM School of Architecture + Planning named Gilbert a Distinguished Alumnus in 2005. Three additional projects are restorations of landmark buildings by John Gaw Meem IV (1894–1983), whose pueblo revival work has inspired Gilbert throughout his career. One of those projects is Meem’s 1938 masterpiece, UNM’s Zimmerman Library, which Gilbert expanded and restored in 1994.

The Domenici Building at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces combines two structures to create the Institute for Public Policy, which honors the late Sen. Pete Domenici for his six terms in the U.S. Senate. “With its red tile roofs, deep overhangs, tower elements and portals, the building design ties to NMSU’s historic California Mission design idiom,” Gilbert says.

吉尔伯特（Gilbert）的职业生涯还包括动物园和其他对野生动植物敏感的景点以及公共空间委员会，例如1988年的阿尔伯克基（Albuquerque Biopark）乐队壳牌和湖泊。他说：“这些地方是各个年龄段的人们聚在一起体验我们所有人共同的人类的地方。”

Critical Relationships

For every project, the architect must hear what the client is expressing and then intuit the goals, explains Gilbert. “When in the early programming and planning stages I’ve heard, ‘That’s what I was trying to say,’ I knew we were on track and could consistently go on to produce beyond what was envisioned.”

In the same way, successful projects require engaged relationships and collaborations. “I’ve always focused on the process as a team endeavor between owner, designer and contractor and am thankful for the firm’s good fortune of working with so many exceptional New Mexico contractors,” he says.

The Albuquerque Aquarium’s shark-tank walls, for example, required satin-smooth finishes because shark skin is surprisingly delicate. “Jim King and his Bradbury Stamm team ran their hands over every inch of the surface to ensure they had achieved a smooth finish,” Gilbert recalls.

在学校的设计,架构目标合并with pedagogical ones. Through collaborations with environmental-design pioneer Anne Taylor, professor emeritus at the University of New Mexico, Gilbert integrated the concept of the classroom as a learning tool. “In this way,” he says, “each project enhances learning and strengthens the campus context.”

Buildings and Place

As a native son, Gilbert was influenced early on by the landforms, colors, sky and light of New Mexico. “Protection from the seasonal elements was a constant: looking for shade, escaping the howling spring winds and the torrential summer rains and then being startled by the beauty of the landforms and spectacular sunsets behind the ancient volcanic formations,” he says.

“What the best architecture of the region accomplishes is a timeless harmony with the striking natural environment and an accommodation of the challenging climate,” he adds. While attending Valley High School in Albuquerque, he met a lifelong mentor, the late Don Schlegel, longtime chair and professor at the UNM School of Architecture and Planning. “It was always an honor when he would ask me later in my life to be part of the semester-end charrette of student projects at the university,” he says. Gilbert continues to mentor students at the university and other schools.

In the fall of 1958, Gilbert attended Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., then transferred to the University of New Mexico, completing a bachelor’s degree in 1964. While there, he worked part time for an Albuquerque firm where noted architect Antoine Predock was beginning his career.

After a year with the Air National Guard, Gilbert returned to UNM to complete the architecture program. A one-year tour of duty in Vietnam with the Air National Guard followed. He completed his studies at UNM with a master’s degree in architecture in 1971.

Predock then offered young Gilbert a job, and he worked with the architect for five years. “My time working with Antoine exposed and reinforced in me that the starting point of every design is to observe and evaluate the site, making sure the design is one with the site, that the design is strong but does not overpower it,” he says. “While Meem addressed the environment and acknowledged the indigenous values in place, Antoine encompassed the site into the design and created an unexpected but totally harmonious design solution.”

For VHGA’s first project in 1976, the Bird of Prey Exhibit at the Albuquerque Zoo, Gilbert found just the right place to accommodate both the species being watched and the species watching them. “I sited the exhibit facing south so the birds were warmed in the winter months and shaded in the summer by the long-standing cottonwood trees. And the south-facing exhibit means the sun is to the back of the visitors and does not impede the viewing experience.”

土著文化也激发了吉尔伯特。他从普韦布洛人那里学到了受保护的庭院在聚会和覆盖门户的重要性，从而在雨季提供了阳光和保护的救济。他解释说：“他们使北侧的建筑物更高，成为元素和较低建筑物的保护墙，南部的开口较大，以在冬季获得最大的热量增益。”例如，在2004年，圣达菲印度学校新校园取代了1880年代的学校，并结合了土著设计传统，可持续元素和当代技术。与他的K-12学校一样，除了提供安全外，封闭的庭院还主持了聚会功能。吉尔伯特说：“北部的多层教学建筑物为风缓冲了风，并允许室外教室和娱乐活动进行更多的上学日子。”

His award-winning Sue Cleveland High School Campus for Rio Rancho Public Schools, completed in 2009 by the Jaynes Corp., exemplifies site sensitivity, sustainability and technology enrichment. The first phase of the LEED Gold campus focused on academic facilities; the second added an athletic complex and the performing arts center, named an ENR Southwest Best Project in 2011. “The buildings were accurately laid out to integrate the views of the Sandia Mountains throughout the campus,” Gilbert says.

扩展他的服务

罗杰·施伦兹（Roger Schluntz）是UNM建筑与规划学院的终身教授和院长，要求吉尔伯特（Gilbert）从私人捐助者那里筹集300万美元，以供该校的Antoine Predock设计的乔治·珍珠音乐厅（George Pearl Hall）。Schluntz说，杰伊斯公司（Jaynes Corp）于2007年9月完成了约2200万美元的设施。吉尔伯特（Gilbert）“非常有帮助”。“在其他专业领导人的帮助下，我们能够超出大学在建设开始之前实施的目标。”

Gilbert hopes to be remembered as an architect for the extended community. “I want people to remember that I believed in and created timeless places people like to gather in—places in harmony with the environment, distinctive in expression, functional and efficient in operation, cost effective and sustainable.”