The AIA; Institute Honor Awards for Architecture 2015

The Institute Honor Awards program recognizes achievements for a broad range of architectural activity to elevate the general quality of architecture practice, establish a standard of excellence against which all architects can measure performance, and inform the public of the breadth and value of architecture practice. These days, it has been presented their selection of winners for 2015.

28th Street Apartments

Koning Eizenberg Architecture Inc. The 28th Street YMCA, designed by architect Paul R. Williams and opened in 1926 in Los Angeles, was a beacon of African American social life in the era of segregation.

Brockman Hall for Physics

KieranTimberlake. The parklike environment of the Rice University campus, planned by Ralph Adams Cram in the early 20th century, comprises a clear and timeless vision, continuously studied and nurtured in an ongoing collaboration among architects, planners, and administrators.

California Memorial Stadium & Simpson Training Center

HNTB Architecture. Built in 1923, UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium is a beloved and iconic campus structure. Over the years, however, deferred maintenance and poor planning diminished its functionality and its significance.

Cambridge Public Library

William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc. This project reveals the perfect marriage of old and new: the original Romanesque library building, designed in 1889 by Van Brunt & Howe, has been rigorously renovated and seamlessly connected to a striking new 76,000-square-foot glass building.

Danish Maritime Museum

BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group. How does one breathe new life into an abandoned dry dock while also preserving views of a UNESCO World Heritage site, in this case the Kronberg Castle in Elsinore, made famous in Shakespeare’s Hamlet?

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP. Located on 11th Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets, John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s new building provides all the functions of a traditional college campus within the confines of a single city block.

Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology

WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism. Nanoscale research is at the core of cutting-edge breakthroughs that transcend the disciplinary boundaries of engineering, medicine, and the sciences.

LeFrak Center at Lakeside Prospect Park

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. This project restored 26 acres of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in the 19th century, and added a new 75,000-square foot, year-round skating and recreational facility.

Sant Lespwa, Center of Hope

Rothschild Doyno Collaborative. Located in the central plateau area of Haiti, this community center is the first phase of a master plan intended to provide resources and build capacity in the region.

United States Courthouse, Salt Lake City, Utah

Thomas Phifer and Partners. The design of the new Salt Lake City courthouse resulted from a search for a physical symbol to express the American system of justice—the form had to be strong, iconic, transparent, and egalitarian.

Wild Turkey Bourbon Visitor Center

De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop. Located on a bluff overlooking the Kentucky River, the visitor center is the newest component of recent additions and expansions to the Wild Turkey Distillery Complex, one of seven original member distilleries of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

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Brockman Hall for Physics. KieranTimberlake. The parklike environment of the Rice University campus, planned by Ralph Adams Cram in the early 20th century, comprises a clear and timeless vision, continuously studied and nurtured in an ongoing collaboration among architects, planners, and administrators. Photograph © Peter Aaron_OTTO.

California Memorial Stadium & Simpson Training Center. HNTB Architecture. Built in 1923, UC Berkeleyís Memorial Stadium is a beloved and iconic campus structure. Over the years, however, deferred maintenance and poor planning diminished its functionality and its significance. Photograph © Michael OíCallahan; Proehl Studios; Tim Griffith; Jim Simmons.

Cambridge Public Library. William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc. This project reveals the perfect marriage of old and new: the original Romanesque library building, designed in 1889 by Van Brunt & Howe, has been rigorously renovated and seamlessly connected to a striking new 76,000-square-foot glass building. Photograph © Chuck Choi; Robert Benson.

Danish Maritime Museum. BIG_Bjarke Ingels Group. How does one breathe new life into an abandoned dry dock while also preserving views of a UNESCO World Heritage site, in this case the Kronberg Castle in Elsinore, made famous in Shakespeareís Hamlet? Photograph © Luca Santiago Mora.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP. Located on 11th Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets, John Jay College of Criminal Justiceís new building provides all the functions of a traditional college campus within the confines of a single city block. Photograph © Eduard Hueber, Archphot; Brett Beye.

Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology. WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism. Nanoscale research is at the core of cutting-edge breakthroughs that transcend the disciplinary boundaries of engineering, medicine, and the sciences. Photograph © lbert Vecerka.

LeFrak Center at Lakeside Prospect Park. Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. This project restored 26 acres of Brooklynís Prospect Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in the 19th century, and added a new 75,000-square foot, year-round skating and recreational facility. Photograph © Michael Moran OTTO.

Sant Lespwa, Center of Hope. Rothschild Doyno Collaborative. Located in the central plateau area of Haiti, this community center is the first phase of a master plan intended to provide resources and build capacity in the region. Photograph © Sarah Spanagel.

United States Courthouse, Salt Lake City, Utah. Thomas Phifer and Partners. The design of the new Salt Lake City courthouse resulted from a search for a physical symbol to express the American system of justiceóthe form had to be strong, iconic, transparent, and egalitarian. Photograph © Scott Frances.

Wild Turkey Bourbon Visitor Center. De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop. Located on a bluff overlooking the Kentucky River, the visitor center is the newest component of recent additions and expansions to the Wild Turkey Distillery Complex, one of seven original member distilleries of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Photograph © De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop.

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Architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien

Tod Williams & Billie Tsien. They began working together in 1977 and co-founded our architectural practice in 1986. Located in Midtown Manhattan, their studio focuses on work for institutions including schools, museums, and not-for-profits—organizations and people that value issues of aspiration and meaning, timelessness and beauty. They believe that architecture is the coming together of art and use. Their buildings are carefully made from the inside out to be functional in ways that speak to both efficiency and the spirit. A sense of rootedness, light, texture, detail, and most of all, experience, are at the heart of what we design. From the early sketches through construction completion, they are personally involved in every project their studio takes on.

Over the past three decades theye have received more than two dozen awards from the American Institute of Architects as well as numerous national and international citations. Outside the studio, they are active participants in the cultural community and have long-standing associations with many arts organizations. Parallel to their practice, they maintain active academic careers and lecture worldwide. As both educators and practitioners, they are deeply committed to making a better world through architecture.

Tod Williams (born 1943, Detroit, Michigan) received his undergraduate, MFA, and Master of Architecture degrees from Princeton University, New Jersey after graduating from the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and serves as a Trustee of the Cranbrook Educational Community. He has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Academy, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Billie Tsien (born 1949, Ithaca, New York) received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Yale University and her M. Arch. from UCLA. She has worked with Williams since 1977 and they have been in partnership since 1986. Tsien is currently President of the Architectural League of New York and Director of the Public Art Fund. She has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Academy, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tsien was one of the recipients of the Visionary Woman Awards presented by Moore College of Art and Design in 2009.

Tod Williams & Billie Tsien. Teaching. Williams and Tsien have taught at the Cooper Union, Harvard University, Cornell University, University of Texas, City College of New York, and Yale University.

Recognition. Williams and Tsien are the recipients of more than two dozen awards from the American Institute of Architects. They received a 2014 International Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the 2013 Firm of the Year Award from the American Institute of Architects. In 2013, each were awarded a National Medal of Arts from President Obama. They have also received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Brunner Award, the New York City AIA Medal of Honor, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture, the Municipal Art Society’s Brendan Gill Prize, and the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design.

THOMAS PHIFER

Thomas Phifer. Since founding Thomas Phifer and Partners in 1997, he has completed the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, N.C;, the Raymond and the Susan Brochstein Pavilion at Rice University in Houston, Texas; and the Salt Point House, the Millbrook House, and the Taghkanic House, all in the Hudson River Valley of New York State.

Work under construction includes the United States Federal Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah and the prototype of a new street light fixture for New York City. The firm is also designing a museum for the Glenstone Foundation in Potomac, Md.; a field house and velodrome for Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, N.Y.; a federal office building in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and houses in Madison, Wis., and Dallas, Texas.

Phifer’s buildings have been repeatedly honored by the American Institute of Architects, including six AIA National Honor Awards and 21 AIA New York Honor Awards. In 2011 the North Carolina Museum of Art won a National Honor Award from the AIA and in 2010 the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion also won a National Honor Award. The international competition-winning design for the City Lights light fixture for New York City won a Research and Development Award from Architect magazine in 2009, and in 2008 the Salt Point House won an American Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum. His projects have been published and exhibited extensively in the United States and overseas.

In 2004 Phifer was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest award given to an individual or firm, from the New York Chapter of the AIA. In 1995 he received the prestigious Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, and in 2011 he was elected an Academician of the National Academy of Design. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and is serving as a Peer for the General Services Administration. He received his Bachelor of Architecture in 1975 and his Master of Architecture in 1977, both from Clemson University.

BJARKE INGELS

Bjarke Ingels (born in Copenhagen, 1974) studied architecture at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen and at the School of Architecture of Barcelona, obtaining his degree as an architect in 1998. He is the founder of the BIG architecture studio - (Bjarke Ingels Group), studio founded in 2005, after co-founding PLOT Architects in 2001 with his former partner Julien de Smedt, whom he met while working at the prestigious OMA studio in Rotterdam.

Bjarke has designed and completed award-winning buildings worldwide, and currently his studio is based with venues in Copenhagen and New York. His projects include The Mountain, a residential complex in Copenhagen, and the innovative Danish Maritime Museum in Elsinore.

With the PLOT study, he won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2004, and with BIG he has received numerous awards such as the ULI Award for Excellence in 2009. Other prizes are the Culture Prize of the Crown Prince of Denmark in 2011; and Along with his architectural practice, Bjarke has taught at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University and Rice University and is an honorary professor at the Royal Academy of Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen.

In 2018, Bjarke received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Dannebrog granted by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II. He is a frequent public speaker and continues to give lectures at places such as TED, WIRED, AMCHAM, 10 Downing Street or the World Economic Forum. In 2018, Bjarke was appointed Chief Architectural Advisor by WeWork to advise and develop the design vision and language of the company for buildings, campuses and neighborhoods around the world.