Washington, D.C. – January 12, 2018 – The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected the 2018 recipients of the Institute Honor Awards, the profession’s highest recognition of works that exemplify excellence in architecture, interior architecture and urban design. Selected from roughly 500 submissions, 17 recipients located throughout the world will be honored at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2018 in New York City.
2018 Institute Honor Awards for Architecture
The jury for the 2018 AIA Institute Honor Awards for Architecture includes: Lee Becker, FAIA (Chair), Hartman-Cox Architects; Anne Marie Decker, FAIA, Duvall Decker Architects; Susan Johnson, AIA, Strata; Anna Jones, Assoc. AIA, MOD Design; Caitlin Kessler, AIAS Student Representative, University of Arizona; Marilee Meacock, AIA, KSS Architects; Robert Miller, FAIA, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson; Sharon Prince, Grace Farms Foundation; and Rob Rogers, FAIA, Rogers Partners.
Audain Art Museum; Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
The Audain Art Museum is a private museum built to house and exhibit Michael Audain’s personal art collection, including British Columbia art from the late 18th century to the present. The design navigates three main determinants by connecting local culture with the permanent collection and traveling exhibits of all kinds, by spanning the revegetated floodplain of Fitzsimons Creek, and by strategically shedding the enormous snowfall typical of Whistler. The building’s minimal interiors recede behind the art and its calm exterior foregrounds the natural landscape.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Associate Firm: Gensler
With its innovative “veil-and-vault” concept, The Broad showcases artworks from the 2,000+ works in the Broad collection. The “vault” storage holding shapes the museum experience for visitors who enter the lobby below its carved underside, shoot through it in the elevator, stand above it in the galleries, and peer in through viewing windows. The vault is enveloped by the “veil,” an airy, honeycomb-like structure that filters daylight into public galleries. Since opening in 2015, The Broad has welcomed more than 1.7 million visitors and has been heralded as a catalyst for urbanizing downtown Los Angeles.
As early as Burnham and Bennett’s 1909 “Plan of Chicago”, the Main Branch of Chicago River was envisioned as a place of both leisure and commerce. Nearly a century later the Chicago Riverwalk has realized this vision. Through changes in its shape and form, the continuous river level path drives a series of new programmatic connections to the water. Above all, the Riverwalk honors the iconic quality of the existing urban context by embracing and interpreting Chicago’s layered history.
Gohar Khatoon Girls' School; Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan
Robert Hull, FAIA, and the University of Washington, Department of Architecture
Located in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan’s fourth largest city, the Gohar Khatoon Girls’ School is an important urban center educating several thousand girls every day. Commissioned by the Balkh Province Ministry of Education, in partnership with a U.S.-based non-profit organization, the school is integrated into the national education system expanding Afghanistan’s push toward the development of women and girls and their contribution and inclusion within Afghan society. Gohar Khatoon supports this process by promoting stability, comfort, and community engagement and has become a model for other girls’ schools in the country.
Manhattan Districts 1/2/5 & Spring Street Salt Shed; New York City
Dattner Architects in association with WXY architecture + urban design
Located at the edge of Manhattan in a dense mixed-use neighborhood, the Department of Sanitation’s garage and a salt shed were signature projects of NYC’s Design Excellence program. The 425,000-square-foot garage’s double skin façade is clad in perforated metal fins, reducing solar loading while providing a strong vertical articulation of the project’s mass. The 5,000-square-foot salt shed, with faceted concrete planes, has become an iconic structure, attracting photo shoots, architectural tourists, and curious locals. The design and siting of these two projects provide a dignified example of vital civic architecture.
Mercer Island Fire Station 92; Mercer Island, Washington
From the earliest ages, we are drawn almost magically to the firefighters, firetrucks and the equipment contained in these civic landmarks. The design for the 8,000-square-foot replacement of FS92, originally built in 1962, embraces this attraction by providing inviting views into the apparatus bay from the main pedestrian and vehicular thoroughfare in this small island community. This visibility promotes a greater connection to the people that the fire station serves, resulting in increased awareness and vocal advocacy for these vital services. The design team incorporated a number of sustainable features to reduce energy use and provide thermal comfort for the firefighters. The station boasts a thermally efficient envelope, and fast-acting bi-fold doors in the vehicle bays reduce the amount of time the doors are opened following an emergency response.
New United States Courthouse; Los Angeles
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
The New United States Courthouse – Los Angeles houses the U.S. District Court, Central District of California. The building’s architectural expression is an inextricable union of site orientation, environmental performance and principles that honor the public realm. An innovative hat-truss structure allows this cubic form to “float” above a stone base, opening up new public spaces, giving the project a clear civic presence and separating it from its commercial neighbors. The design is rooted in classic principles of American civic architecture as seen through the lens of 21st Century Los Angeles.
Vol Walker Hall & the Steven L. Anderson Design Center; Fayetteville, Arkansas
The Steven L. Anderson Design Center is a contemporary addition to a carefully restored and renovated historical building, Vol Walker Hall, the University of Arkansas’s original library and home to the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design since 1968. The coupling of old and new creates a striking hybrid, invigorating the historical center of the university’s campus and revitalizing the educational environment of the School. The expanded facility unites all three departments – architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design – under one roof for the first time, reinforcing the School’s identity and creating cross-disciplinary, collaborative learning environments.
Washington Fruit & Produce Company Headquarters; Yakima, Washington
Company leaders desired a new office/headquarters that would serve as a refuge from the industrial agribusiness landscape that surround them. They asked for warmer materials, little-to-no concrete, non-boxlike forms, protection from the freeway, and a spare office aesthetic that minimized visible equipment or devices. The approach for the new 16,500-square-foot office was to create an inwardly focused oasis. The building is light, from the delicate, expressive structural beams to the ample amount of daylight throughout. The building tucks into its environment to merge with nature.
2018 Institute Honor Awards for Interior Architecture
The jury for the 2018 AIA Institute Honor Awards for Interior Architecture includes: Brian Caldwell, AIA (Chair), THINKTANK Design Group; Joshua Aidlin, AIA, Aidlin Darling Design; Kiyomi Kurooka, AIA, DWL Architects + Planners Inc.; John Paquin, AIA, Statesville; and William T. Ruhl, AIA, RUHL WALKER Architects.
Chicago Public Library, Chinatown Branch; Chicago
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
The Chicago Public Library, Chinatown Branch serves as a civic, educational, and social hub for the city’s Chinatown neighborhood. The most visited branch in the Chicago Public Library system, the library provides a much-needed public gathering place geared toward community activities and technology-based learning. Anchored by a skylit two-story central atrium, the building’s interiors are open concept, flexible, and sustainable, and feature daylighting, panoramic neighborhood views, with bright, comfortable furnishings for visitors of all ages, including a vibrant site-specific 60-foot mural on the history of Chicago’s Chinatown painted by a local artist.
