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| Expo Real selects winner of John Jacob Astor Competition The city of Lodz in Poland wins the John Jacob Astor Award with the redeveloped 19th century Ludwik Grohman factory. The prize, a complimentary 20 m² exhibition area at Expo Real 2014 worth €10,000, was accepted by the city's mayoress. The John Jacob Astor Award was presented yesterday, Monday 7 October for the second time at Expo Real. The project, realized between 2011 and summer 2013 entailed the renovation and extension of the former industrial buildings while preserving their historical character, creating a modern office building as the headquarters of the Lodz Special Economic Zone Joint Stock Co., the project's investor, as well as a culture and conference center for more than 250 people. Second place went to one of the first Passive House standard laboratory/office buildings: SKYLABS in Heidelberg. Third place was taken by Splash e Spa Tamaro, a domed building, in Rivera-Monteceneri in Ticino, in Italian-speaking Switzerland. Both of them will receive an invitation to the next Oktoberfest for 10 people each and entrance tickets for EXPO REAL 2014. 38 projects in all were submitted for the competition, 14 more than the year before. The variety of the project submissions ranged from shopping centers, via office buildings and hotels to rented loft apartments. And the submissions also had a more international flavor, coming from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the USA. Particularly sought after were socio-cultural, economically or environmentally sustainable commercial property projects realized between 2007 and 2013. Everyone was free to take part via the Expo Real Blog, with the social media community casting their votes. The man, for whom the competition was named, John Jacob Astor, originally a German by the name of Johann Jakob Astor, emigrated to America in 1784 where he was the first immigrant citizen to make it as a millionaire. He invested the money in real estate, going on to become the first real estate tycoon in history. He also established a family tradition: hotel business. One of his hotels, the most refined of its day, "Astor House", laid the foundation for the later Waldorf Astoria. write your comments about the article :: © 2013 Exhibition News :: home page |