NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ— Philadelphia-basedarchitectural design firm Ballinger has received aMerit Award from the New Jersey chapter of the AmericanInstitute of Architects for its imaginative design of theNew Jersey Institute of Food, Nutrition andHealth, a building that will serve as RutgersUniversity's focal point for interdisciplinarycollaboration between the school's departments of foodscience, nutrition, public policy, pharmacy, exercise science andsport studies, genetics, agriculture and health sciencesresearch.

“At Rutgers University,Ballinger has created an extremely compellingdesign that sets an example for educational institutions in NewJersey and beyond,” says Kurt Kalafsky, AIA,president of AIA-NJ. “The design ofthe New Jersey Institute of Food, Nutrition andHealth focuses on sustainability, but the sustainablefeatures of the building also elicit joy from an aestheticperspective. From a human participation point of view, the buildingis incredibly appealing.”

The New Jersey Institute of Food, Nutrition andHealth, brings together researchers of many departments,and serves as a community gathering place through a pre-school,conference areas, labs and community areas, includes wet and drylaboratories, shared instrumentation space, computing facilities,faculty and administrative offices, a computer server room, “smart”lecture halls and classrooms (with smart board technology), andflexible spaces to accommodate the changing needs of theprogram.