Brunel Awards traveling exhibit wrapping up eastern tour

The Center for Industrial Design in Transportation, Inc. is closing out its 2011 Brunel Awards International Railway Design Competition activities by supporting the traveling Brunel Awards Exhibit.

During 2012, the Exhibit has been in Grand Central Terminal New York, Philadelphia 30th Street Station for the 8th World Congress on High Speed Rail, and is now in Philadelphia’s Market East Station (pictured) under the auspices of SEPTA through Aug. 31, 2012.

At the close of the SEPTA event, the exhibit will be given to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, Pa., where the museum has committed to a display that will run approximately one year.

The Brunel Awards competition recognizes and promotes the best in railway architecture, engineering, landscape and environmental design, product design, locomotive and car design, graphic arts, and corporate branding among the world’s railways. For the 2011 competition, more than 150 entries were received from railway and government organizations throughout the world that own or operate railway services and/or manage rail infrastructure.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) and the International Union of Railways (UIC) last year jointly announced the 44 projects from 12 nations that were recognized for design excellence in the 2011 Brunel Awards The winners were selected by a panel of judges in Washington, D.C. 


Brunel Awards, the highest level of recognition, were bestowed on 20 entries, while 24 others received Commendations. 
 The U.S. and Japan won the most Brunel Awards, with five each. Other nations receiving awards were Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. The official award took place in Washington on Oct. 14, 2011, with representatives of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the AAR, the UIC, and the Watford Group making presentations to the winners. Honorary co-chairs of the Brunel Awards Committee were FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo and AAR President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger. 
Railway Age and International Railway Journal were official media sponsors.

The Brunel Awards jury was composed of international leaders from the design and railway fields; chaired by Professor Ronald Kemnitzer, FIDSA, of Virginia Polytechnic and State University in Blacksburg, Va. The jurors were: Chase Rynd, CEO of the National Building Museum; Angela Brady, president-elect of the Royal Institute of British Architects; Roy Allen, CEO (retired) of TTCI; Ignacio Barron, director of the UIC Passenger Department; Niels Diffrient, noted American industrial designer; Pamela Loeffelman, past vice president of the American Institute of Architects, and Professor Lars Lallerstedt, Swedish designer and educator.

The Brunel Awards are sanctioned by the Watford Group of International Railway Designers, an organization founded in 1963 and composed of railway design professionals from 20 countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The Brunel Awards were created in 1985 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of England’s Great Western Railway, designed by the renowned British architect and engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Subsequently, the competition has been held at three-year intervals rotating among the Watford member nations. The last time it was held in the U.S. was in 1994. 


Joining AAR and UIC in the effort was the Center for Industrial Design in Transportation, Inc. (C4IDT), a non-profit educational corporation whose mission is “to promote outstanding visual appearance and design in all modes of transport incorporating both infrastructure and vehicles, and to educate transport owner/operators and transportation officials on the value of applying industrial design as an integrated process from the outset of new projects.” C4IDT’s president in U.S. railway industrial designer Cesar Vergara.

BRUNEL AWARDS RESULTS BY COUNTRY

(Asterisk indicates Brunel Award; other projects received Commendations)

Austria

Freudenauer Harbour Bridge*/Austrian Railways (OBB)


Vienna Heiligenstadt Station/OBB

Salzach Bridge/OBB

Public Information Box at Vienna Station*/OBB

China

Wuhan Station*/China Ministry of Railways

France

Orleans Multi-modal Transport Hub/SNCF Gares & Connexions


Redevelopment of Vichy Station/SNCF Gares & Connexions


Bellegarde sur Valserine Station/SNCF Gares & Connexions


Facilities at Rungis National Food Market Paris/SNCF Semmaris

Germany

Frankfurt Station “Kaffeepunkt” Pavilion*/German Railways (DB)

Japan

Izamizawa Station*/Japan Rail Hokkaido


Shin Tosu Station*/Japan Railway Construction Transport Agency


Kumanmoto Station Passageway/Japan Rail Kyushu


Shin Tamana Station/Japan Railway Construction Transport Agency


Maglev and Railway Park Museum/Central Japan Railway


Hakata City Station Roof Garden and Park/Japan Rail Kyushu


Hakata City Station Tile Art Project/Japan Rail Kyushu


Kyushu Shinkansen Travel Campaign/Japan Rail Kyushu


Series E5 Shinkansen Trainset*/East Japan Railway


Narita Express E259 Trainset*/East Japan Railway


Series N700 High Speed Trainset*/West Japan Railway/Japan Rail Kyushu


HB-300 Hybrid Sightseeing Train/East Japan Railway

Netherlands

Hilversum Station*/ProRail


Emmen Zuid Station*/ProRail


Drontemeer Tunnel Facility Service Bldg.*/ProRail

Portugal

Rossio Station/Portuguese Rail Infrastructure Manager (REFER)


Sado River Bridge*/REFER

Lisbon Operations Control Center/REFER

Spain

Cuenca High Speed Rail Station/ADIF

New Seating at Laguna Station*/ADIF

Sweden

Malmo Railway Station Extension*/Jernhusen AB

Switzerland

Brig Station/Swiss Federal Railways (SBB)


Chur Station/SBB


Zurich Letten Viaduct Shops/SBB


Ee992 Dual Voltage Shunting Loco/SBB

United Kingdom

Corporate Offices Branding Program/Network Rail

United States

Joseph R. Biden Jr. Wilmington Delaware Station*/Amtrak


Ft. Washington/Ambler/North Wales Stations*/SEPTA

Massachusetts Avenue and Columbia Road Bridges/MBTA

Heartland Corridor Project/Norfolk Southern 


Croton Harmon Locomotive and Car Shop*/MTA Metro North Railroad


Washington Union Station Bike Transit Center*/District of Columbia DOT


Heritage Locomotive Fleet Program*/Union Pacific Railroad


Superliner I Coach Overhaul Program/Amtrak (pictured)