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There's a heady dose of Modernism in this year's AIA Honor Awards. Clean lines and restrained material palettes are evident in both the architecture and interior design categories. One can even detect a whiff of Brutalism in the bold, expressive work of Antoine Predock, FAIA, this year's Gold Medalist. This may sound like a series of design flashbacks, if we can call them that, to the 1950s and '60s. But neither spare lines nor compositional rigor seem to have gone out of style in the past 60 years. Jurors also praised the way projects respect, and in many cases help heal, their surrounding neighborhoods: a hallmark of much 21st-century design.
Another very contemporary characteristic that this year's projects share is a sensitivity for ecologically sound schemes. Sustainability is especially evident in the urban design category. Moore Ruble Yudell's University Square, for instance, features an "eco-stream" to capture and recycle rainwater at the campus of the University of British Columbia. Moore Ruble Yudell, incidentally, also snagged the Firm of the Year Award.
Even the old-timers among this year's winners showed they're green at heart. In the architecture category, SRG Partnership and associate architect Einhorn Yaffee Prescott proved that LEED standards can be applied successfully while rehabilitating an 80-year-old building—in this case, the Washington State Legislative Building. And Fay Jones & Associates' Thorncrown Chapel, which won the 25 Year Award, remains a study of how a building can harmonize with the landscape, and reflect the sublime. —James Murdock
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