Thrilled and honored that an architectural project I photographed on 445 Main Street, Medfield, MA, for my client David Sharff Architects, won the Grand Prize in the 2017 James Hardie Design Contest.

In March we were announced as one of the five finalists. The Grand Prize winner was then decided by public voting that ran till March 24th on James Hardie's website, and the winner was announced at the end of April at the AIA 2017 Conference in Orlando, FL.

James Hardie, a leading international building materials company and the world leader in fiber cement siding, held the contest for architects from across the U.S. and Canada for multi-family and commercial projects showing off the design versatility of their products. The contest gave architectural firms the opportunity to showcase their top multi-family and commercial projects featuring James Hardie® products. More than 170 entries were submitted for a chance to receive a grand prize package, including a full-page ad in Dwell magazine and a custom video shoot.

I photographed this building, known as James Ord's Block, which was originally built in 1891. My architect client completely renovated and restored it for commercial and residential use and utilized HardiePlank® lap siding with ColorPlus® Technology.

In order to show case and photograph the building in the best possible light I went there on three different occasions. On the first visit, I photographed it early in the morning with the warm morning light hitting the front and right sides of the building.

On the next visit I photographed in the late afternoon sunlight and stayed on until dusk to photograph as well.

For one of the dusk photographs I wanted a higher vantage point. So I went back again on a Thursday, which is the one day each week that the Medfield Town Hall next door stays open until later in the evening. I requested and was granted access to a third floor office and photographed from an open window. That gave me the higher vantage point of the building at dusk I wanted and was able to make a more compelling image .

For my architectural work my goal is to always photograph and showcase the buildings in the best possible light that brings out the building's character and tells a story. Like in this case, that often requires me to visit the site at different times of day and photograph from different angles and vantage points.