January 10, 2005

The American Institute of Architects on Friday announced the winners of the 2005 AIA Honor Awards, the profession’s highest recognition of excellence. Selected from over 650 submissions, the 35 winners will be honored in May at the AIA 2005 National Convention in Las Vegas.

	Click image to see it larger
	Conservatory of Flowers
	Gannett/ USA Today Headquarters
	Jubilee Church
	Seattle Central Library
	Emerson Sauna

ARCHITECTURE

Agosto House, San Juan Island, Washington
Patkau Architects, Inc.
This private residence was built for a couple relocating from Manhattan to a small rural island off the Pacific coast. The house, which includes living space, an office, and a garden, is clad in light-gauge galvanized sheet steel to protect it from weather extremes and wildfire.

Conservatory of Flowers, San Francisco, California
Architectural Resource Group
Originally completed in 1878 and damaged during a 1995 storm, repair and preservation of the graceful glass and steel structure allows new interpretive exhibits and enhanced visitor accomodations.

Contemporaine at 516 North Wells, Chicago, Illinois
Perkins + Will
The 28-unit condominium building contains a 4-story base for retail and parking and an 11-story residential tower. Located in Chicago’s River North area, it successfully mediates the varying scale and context with its sculptural tower.

Emerson Sauna, Duluth, Minnesota
Salmela Architect
On Finnish immigrants’ pioneer farmsteads, the sauna was often the first building erected. The intent of the clients, reared in Northern Minnesota’s Scandinavian culture, was to revive the social aspect of the sauna. The brick interior provides ample radiant heat and the cooling porch allows breezes off the lake to pas through while providing privacy.

Gannett/ USA Today Headquarters, Mclean, Virginia
Khon Pederson Fox Associates PC
To consolidate facilities and promote communal interaction between USA Today and parent company Gannett, the company relocated to a suburban Washington, D.C. location. The project consists of two linear buildings on a common base, with each structure spiraling up to enclose an exterior "town square."

University of Michigan Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Quinn Evans Architects
Architect of Record Alberg Kahn + Associates, Inc.
Designed by Albert Kahn and completed in 1913, Hill Auditorium is a masterpiece of Classic Revival architecture. To transform this historic gem into a modern performance venue yet retain its original character, the team restored historic figures, increased patron comfort and accessibility, performed building code compliance upgrades, and replaced and modernized the building’s mechanical and electrical systems.

Holy Rosary Catholic Church Complex, St. Amant, Louisiana
Trahan Architects APAC
The master plan of this rural campus creates a strong sense of place for all functions of the parish, drawing a distinction between the program’s sacred and secular components. Secular components of the campus take form as edge buildings framing a courtyard where the oratory is located. Position, formal purity, and height reflect the importance of the spiritual program and serve to distinguish the chapel from its surroundings.

Jubilee Church, Rome, Italy
Richard Meier & Partners Architects, LLP
This church was conceived as a new center for an isolated housing quarter outside central Rome. The paved sagrato to the east of the church extends into the heart of the housing complex and provides a plaza for public assembly. The three concrete shells that, with the spine-wall, make the body of the nave, imply the Holy Trinity and the pool reflects the role of water in Baptism.

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Mill City Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd.
Declared a National Historic Landmark in the 1980s yet vacant since 1965, the building was gutted by fire in 1991 leaving an eight-story high, block-long shell filled with debris. Located within the burned-out walls of the mill complex, the Mill City Museum focuses on the stories of grain farming and trading, water power, the mill building, flour milling, and railroading.

Mountain Tree House, Dillard, Georgia
Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects
The arrival of grandchildren prompted the owners to convert their North Georgia garage/potting shed into a combination playroom, guest room, bamboo deck, and garage. The bedroom above is cantilevered over the work-yard, open and airy in contrast to the concrete garage below. The bathroom is clad in steel, with walls that swing wide open for outdoor showers and spring cleaning.

Seattle Central Library, Seattle, Washington
OMA/LMN—A Joint Venture
Seattle Central Library is organized into spatial compartments that are dedicated to and equipped for specific duties. The library’s unique "book spiral" addresses the ongoing problem of subject classification. Instead of using the Dewey Decimal System, the architects arranged the collection in a continuous ribbon—running from "000" to "999"—the subjects form a coexistence that approaches the organic.

Shaw House, Vancouver, Canada
Patkau Architects, Inc.
Overlooking English Bay, this private residence is organized simply, with living spaces on grade, private spaces above grade, and a music room below grade. Small spaces are enlarged by generous ceiling heights, while the location of the lap pool brings both daylight and reflected light deep into the central areas.

Somis Hay Barn, Somis, California
SPF:a,
Guided by the dual/dueling philosophies of Modernism and wabi-sabi, the architect created this hay barn and stable. The barn itself is a 12-foot x12-foot structural steel grid—solid, permanent, modern, sleek, and unchanging. Hay is used as cladding to break the wind and insulate. The stable is earthy and constantly changing: hay changes odor, bales are used for bedding and feed, with horses sometimes eating hay right off the building.

INTERIORS

Ackerman International, London, England
Elliott + Associates Architects
On the client’s request, the architects worked to capture London as a place for this 1,800-square-foot advertising agency office. They focused on creating a space that is simultaneously very traditional and very Modern. The space was designed to be changeable, mobile, and transparent, allowing lots of light to pass through.

Boys Club of Sioux City, Sioux City, Iowa
Randy Brown Architects
Originally built as an armory in the early 1900s, this building became home to the Boys Club in the 1950s. While the location and size of rooms were predetermined, the architects were able to transform the spaces by the intervention of new architectural objects. Storage rooms were cleaned out and transformed into a custom treehouse/play structure while other found space became the Teen Room.

Chanel, Paris, France
Peter Marino + Assoc. Architects with associate architect Vigneron Architects
The Chanel boutique on Rue Cambon in Paris is an expansion and redesign of Mademoiselle Coco Chanel’s original boutique beneath her legendary studio and apartment in Paris. Upon entering the store, one is immediately introduced to the strong graphic statement of the iconic Chanel tweed in the form of a hand-hammered, gold-leaf glass wall.

East End Temple, New York, New York
BKSK Architects LLP
The new home of this temple formerly served as a residence built in 1883 by Richard Morris Hunt. Its façade and the front library room, all that remained reasonably intact, have been restored to their former elegance and adapted to the temple’s needs. The sanctuary was designed to embody many of the symbols of Jewish faith.

Elie Tahari Fashion Design Office & Warehouse, Millburn, New Jersey
Voorsanger Architects PC
The architects created the Elie Tahari Fashion Design Offices and warehouse complex from a renovated storage facility in suburban New Jersey. They brought light and landscape inside to the working staff by cutting into the roof structure to create two courtyards. The structural system was reinforced and the interior perimeter fitted with glass paneling, leaving the new spaces open to the sky and letting in natural light.

Hyde Park Bank Building Hall, Chicago
Florian Architects PC
The historic Hyde Park Bank occupies the second floor of this Chicago neighborhood’s principal office building. The program called for restoring the grandeur of an historic banking hall while conveying a sense of security, continuity, and the bank’s importance to the community. The architects redesigned the structural supports for metal mesh screens, glass walls, and teller canopy, refining them to minimal sizes.

McMaster University James Stewart Center for Mathematics, Hamilton, Ontario
Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects
This project is an adaptive reuse of 1929 Hamilton Hall, one of the oldest buildings on the McMaster University campus. The architects’ objective was to create a facility that recognizes the interactive nature of mathematics with spaces that promote team-based study and research. They chose a highly abstract and Modern interior in stark opposition to the historic Collegiate Gothic exterior.

Jigsaw, Los Angeles, California
Pugh + Scarpa Architects
For this film-editing facility, the architects transformed the interior of a rough 1940s bow-truss warehouse into an entirely surprising and inventive space. In the center of the space are two curvaceous volumes suspended over a shallow pool of water. This same relationship between object and space can be seen at a larger scale throughout the project, where the spaces among the objects and volumes in the warehouse become niches for informal encounters.

l.a. Eyeworks Showroom, Los Angeles, California
Neil M. Denari Architects
In working with the basic parameters of store design--such as the demand for transparency from the street and from the sales counter--the design shapes space and movement through a continuous suspended surface. The notable blue surfaces throughout perform many functions: perforated ceiling plane, window display, bench, shelving unit, and sales counter.

Paul & Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, Lafayette, Louisiana
Eskew + Dumez + Ripple for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Situated adjacent to the original 1967 University Art Museum, this new museum serves as a backdrop to the original. The 33,000-square-foot program includes lobby and public spaces, permanent collection and changing exhibit galleries, museum offices, archival storage, and art support spaces.

Pavilion in the Sky, London
Peter Marino + Assoc. Architects
Designed for a Modern art collector, this 4,800-square-foot residence occupies the top floor of a building along the River Thames. A shimmering cube of onyx surrounds the building’s core. From the center of the onyx core, a stone entry hall leads through Lalique crystal paneled doors and emerges to a landscape of sculptured forms that define the more private zones of the residence.

REGIONAL AND URBAN DESIGN

Anacostia Waterfront Initiative Framework Plan, Washington, D.C.
Chan Krieger & Associates, Inc., with Beyer Blinder Belle; Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut and Kuhn Architects; Simon Martin-Vegue Winkelstein & Morris; Greenberg Consultants Ltd.; and Landscape Architect Wallace, Roberts & Todd
The ambitious goals of the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative are to heal and rejuvenate the river, promoting sustainable development within the watershed; open waterfront access and improve infrastructure; construct a riverwalk to connect waterfront parks; create a cultural bridge connecting Anacostia to D.C.’s historic treasures; and enhance the tax base by building more than 20,000 new units of housing within walking distance of the river.

Battery Park City Streetscapes, New York, New York
Rogers Marvel Architects PLLC
Begun in 2002, this project improves the streetscape, connections, and perimeter security of the World Financial Center. Realizing that additional security measures would dramatically alter traffic patterns and pedestrian and public spaces, the design team worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study and test vehicle immobilization techniques.

Cady’s Alley, Washington, D.C.
Sorg & Associates PC, with Frank Schlesinger Associates Architects; McInturff Architects; Martinez & Johnson Architecture PC; Shalom Baranes Associates Architects; and Landscape Architect The Fitch Studio
Located next to the historic C &O Canal in Georgetown, this formerly rundown collection of 19th- and early-20th-century warehouses, workshops, stables, and small commercial row structures languished as the community’s other corridors thrived. Purchased by the owner-developer with the intent of creating an urban design center that would be an alternative to suburban big-box retail outlets, the revitalized thoroughfare contains 121,000 square feet of retail (mainly home furnishings), office space, and six apartment units.

City of Santa Cruz Accessory Dwelling Unit Program, Santa Cruz, California
RACESTUDIOS, with Mark Primack Architect; David Baker Partners Architects; CCS Architecture; SixEight Design; Boone/Low Architects and Planners; Peterson Architects; and Eve Reynolds Architects
With little remaining land for development and enormous growth pressures, Santa Cruz has turned to its primary asset for help—single-family neighborhoods. To maintain the character of its neighborhoods, the city introduced an innovative development program for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU). To encourage homeowners to develop ADUs, the city has relaxed zoning restrictions; introduced a development fee waiver and loan program; and offers community education workshops and a "how-to" guide.

Chongming Island Master Plan, Shanghai, China
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, with associate architect W. Cecil Steward, FAIA
One of the largest alluvial islands in the world, Chongming Island is the least developed of Shanghai’s five administrative districts. To plan for long-term development and create a showcase environmental community, this master plan uses six sustainable concepts: maintaining wilderness and ecosystems, transitioning to organic farming, incorporating green systems, improving eco-transportation, building green villages, and developing sustainable coastal cities.

Jackson Meadow, Marine on St. Croix, St. Croix, Minn.
Salmela Architect & Coen + Partners
Located within the oldest settlement in Minnesota, this new residential development is adjacent to 191 acres of permanently protected open land. Sited on 145 acres of meadows and wooded hills overlooking the St. Croix River, the architecture responds to the town’s cultural history by interpreting vernacular form, materials, detailing, and spatial organization.

North Allston Strategic Framework for Planning, Boston
Goody, Clancy & Associates
This Harvard University expansion plan embodies community-building principles to guide growth in the North Allston neighborhood and ensures that the collective will, interests, and goals of all major stakeholders are reflected. By emphasizing walkability, livability, and permeability the framework enriches the traditional character of the community while providing new opportunities for economic growth.

Northeastern University West Campus Master Plan, Boston
William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc.
The paramount goal of this master plan is to achieve the ideal balance between open public access, civic presence, and a threshold for learning. Guiding Northeastern University over a 10-year period, the plan provides for development of a new West Campus that ties together existing elements and adds more than 1,200,000 square feet in campus buildings

Ramsey Town Center, Ramsey, Minn.
Elness Swenson Graham Architects Inc., with Close Landscape Architects
A genuine downtown with a mix of goods and services that meet residents’ needs, Ramsey Town Center will provide a strong job and tax base and maintain the character of this community of 20,000. This master plan creates a unique heart to the community and will add over 2,500 units of mid-density housing, 600,000 square feet of retail, 460,000 square feet of office space, a medical center, civic buildings, and a K-12 charter school.

Riparian Meadows, Mounds & Rooms: Urban Greenway, Warren, Ark.
University of Arkansas Community Design Center, for Warren Townscape Committee
This plan proposes a public greenway along a creek in the City of Warren that combines innovations in stream design with community development. Stream restoration will provide corrective measures to address existing infrastructural problems. Corrective measures are supplemented with a vegetated riparian edge, return of stream sinuosity, and strategic bank armoring to prevent excessive erosion and sediment transport.

West Harlem Waterfront Park, New York City
W Architecture & Landscape Architecture LLC
Created by a neighborhood coalition of 40 groups, this master plan will make Harlem’s waterfront a destination by creating a park with piers that extend into the Hudson River. At present, the substantial workforce commutes outside the community; this plan will promote area revitalization and diversification, community involvement, job opportunities, and local entrepreneurship.