DES MOINES, IA — The Brick Industry Association (BIA) has awarded RDG Planning & Design with a 2024 Brick in Architecture Bronze Award for the firm’s design for Des Moines University’s Medicine & Health Sciences Campus in West Des Moines, Iowa. Now in its 35th year, the annual competition highlights brick’s versatility to create sustainable designs that can achieve any aesthetic. The 2024 awards competition awarded 39 projects for Best In Class, Gold, Silver, and Bronze designations across nine different categories.

Des Moines University’s Medicine and Health Sciences campus features four interconnected buildings that frame outdoor university commons. RDG’s design uses hand-laid brick veneer for the building’s exterior, selecting the material for its timeless appearance and durability. Likewise, red Norman brick anchors the building’s forms to the hill with expanses of glass suspended above the manicured university quad.

The hand-laid brick veneer helps minimize the building’s environmental impact. Further enhancing the project’s sustainability, the masonry products used were manufactured or quarried within 350 miles of the job site, and the brick was manufactured within 20 miles of the campus.

Since 1989, the Brick in Architecture Awards has been a national architectural award program featuring the use of clay brick. Architecture firms throughout North America enter projects to be judged by a jury of their peers.