AIA Seattle 2009 Honor Awards
Seattle’s American Institute of Architects held their 59th annual Honor Awards on Monday night and team BUILD was there getting the scoop. Apparently there were a total of 175 entries this year, 139 of which are built and another 36 pretend projects. Check out the full roster here.
Sitting in on the jury this year was Nigel Dancey of Foster + Partners in London and Mark Rios of Rios Clementi Hale in Los Angeles. Teddy Cruz didn’t show for reasons that were not made clear to the audience. The jury was moderated by Elizabeth Meyer from the University of Virginia.
AWARD OF HONOR
Grand Teton Discovery and Visitor Center by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
Comments: The building holds its own but still allows the national park to be the star of the show. The structure articulates the history of building and achieves a timeless fit within the context.
Wing Luke Asian Museum by OSKA
Comments: The project achieves sustainability on many levels. The design remembers the past but projects into the future. The program isn’t heavy handed and allows the building to tell stories. Too often in restoration work it’s all or nothing, this project was careful to leave certain aspects untouched. It’s a project that makes the community better.
Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center by Jones & Jones Architects
Comments: The siting strategy of the project relates well to the educational mission as a learning laboratory. The facility does an excellent job of preserving trees in the surrounding wetlands and water becomes an element of play in the design. The jury was surprised at how well crafted the buildings are for a public work. The design seems rigorous and spare to the point that if anything were taken away the project wouldn’t work; every single thing was doing its job.
Vancouver Convention Centre West Expansion by LMN
Comments: The project sets an example for convention centers with elements like the park roof. The design pushes the perceived definition of architecture. Elements like water and nature are dealt with fantastically.
MERIT AWARDS
Topline Corporate Headquarters by NBBJ
Comments: Using an eloquent set of forms, the project redefines the collaborative workplace. It becomes a laboratory for shoes and allows people to work closely from designing to making.
North Beach Residence by Heliotrope
Comments: Although the jury interrogated high-end, single family residential architecture the project impressed them with the high quality of detailing, the careful relationship if inside to outside and its simplicity. The project is more than just a beautiful thing.
Waipolu Gallery by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
Comments: The project is beautifully crafted and when a project is really good it looks effortless – even though we know that’s not the case at all.
Hinoki House by Rex Hohlbein Architects
Comments: The residence becomes an amazing set of experiences. Forms open up to landscapes and the sequence becomes an incredible choreography. Every design decision seems to have been carried through to resolution, at the same time the work doesn’t overwhelm the neighboring houses. The house is still part of the neighborhood, it’s not a compound.
Safari Drive by Miller Hull
Comments: There was a nice relationship between density and sustainability. The design of the dwelling spaces offers extraordinary options and there is a quality rare to multi-family projects.
ACCOMMODATION AWARDS
Conrad Prebys Music Center, University of California, San Diego by LMN
Comments: The building adds up to something larger than the sum of its programs. It appears that the architects developed an urban idea and promoted it throughout. Pedestrians have a deliberate place in the design and the work lends to a sense of community. Teddy works across the street and is supportive of the project.
Novelty Hill Januik Winery by Mithun
Comments: The program takes on a larger relationship between the building and surrounding wetlands. There is a clear and intelligent experience throughout the spaces and the process of production is transparent. The blurred relationship between the interior and exterior is also pleasant.
FutureFactory Amenities Upgrades Program by DLR Group
Comments: Although a tenant improvement, the project is so large that it was like urban design. The design accomplished an effective means of way-finding. The diagrams which accompanied the submittal were clever.
ENVISIONED CITATION AWARD
BIO(da)TA by Zero Plus & STAVE
Comments: The presentation had clear graphics and demonstrated a dynamic project which lives, breathes and evolves.
Credits
Giving proper credit for projects is important and AIA Seattle has done a very nice job documenting the teams for each of the projects above, you can check it out here.
Summary comments from the jury:
Most striking to the jury were the projects that are shaping the social and ecological environment. The winning projects were very clear in their ideas. Most challenging to judge were the mid-size projects. They went back and forth several times and questioned their decisions all the way to the last minute. The jury was surprised that Northwest architects are struggling with the same things as architects elsewhere; they jokingly mentioned that they thought we might have the answers here in the northwest. Nonetheless, northwest architects should be proud of the work we’re doing and in this economy building projects is a luxury.
About half the projects resulted in the comment “the actual project was much better than the photos”.
The jury thanked Seattle and the community of architects for allowing them to tour the projects and comment on the work. They thanked everyone for inspiring them and commented that they were in awe of how many people attended the honor awards; an audience of this size doesn’t happen in most places.
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AIA Seattle Announces 2009 Honor Awards for Washington Architecture « — November 13, 2009 @ 12:06 am
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By Samuel, November 10, 2009 @ 7:58 am
These still look like holdover projects from a different (flusher) era, but if this quality can be maintained as we climb out of the economic mess, the northwest should be well positioned to do some truly inspired buildings.
By KSB, November 10, 2009 @ 9:10 am
Thanks for publishing this so quick. You scooped even the AIA website.
By Kelly, November 10, 2009 @ 9:56 am
The jury this year seemed much more humble compared to years past. I appreciated that they thanked Seattle and the room full of designers for inviting them and allowing them to comment on work here.
By Richter, November 10, 2009 @ 9:59 am
It drives me crazy that the awards include a category for hypothetical work, or excuse me “Envisioned Work”. They always look like school projects.
By Brad, November 10, 2009 @ 10:02 am
WTF? Where was Terry Cruz? He’s the only reason I showed up. No note from his doctor or his mother? What’s a guy got to do that’s more important than jurying an awards ceremony for a room of 700 architects?
By Gus, November 10, 2009 @ 10:13 am
FINALLY! An honor awards that recognizes more than just little steel cabins built for $1000 per square foot.
By KidA, November 10, 2009 @ 10:17 am
When did LMN start doing noteworthy work?
By Gus, November 10, 2009 @ 11:52 am
Glad to see that the focus was on public, civic and institutional work (projects that we can all enjoy) rather than private little gems this time around.
By Anonymous, November 10, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
The Januik Winery is really quite nice. Mithun did a nice job with the outdoor rooms and the relationships between interior and exterior are extraordinary.
By JT, November 10, 2009 @ 1:46 pm
My God those guys at zero plus need a new website.
By Brian, November 10, 2009 @ 2:36 pm
@ JT, Agreed. I shouldn’t have to work that hard just to look at a project
By designgeek, November 10, 2009 @ 5:28 pm
Having just completed a new home, my wife and I were curious about the architecture awards and attended last nights event. You architects might throw the dullest party in town. That we actually paid good money to spend our free-time in a somber room full of reticent, black-cloaked introverts was painful to say the least. The resemblance to a funeral was shocking and hilarious.
By mike, November 10, 2009 @ 9:29 pm
i was excited to see that not all the projects were single family houses.
not so great were the lackluster bunch of repeats posted every years since 2005. also, i’m not really sure many people understood the improv/improve aspect…
i was also a little bummed that so many projects that were awarded weren’t visited – i know we’re all graphic whores – but looking at a heavily edited/manipulated publication spread and actually visiting a project are two very different things. architectural jurors should not be in the business of rewarding good photographers.
will Build be tweeting the next one?
By janet, November 12, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
@ BuildLLC – Thank you for posting! Great to see and learn from this discussion.
@Brad – Teddy Cruz was wholly committed to the review of all project submittals and jury process. He was not able to join us Monday night due to an unavoidable project meeting with the City of San Diego. While disappointing to lose his live opinion, (and we all tried creative ways to enable him to stay) AIA Seattle whole-heartedly supported his need to keep his studio alive, and valued the more than 3-day commitment to project review he gave.
@Mike – of 13 awards, 12 were built, and 4 were too far away to visit. 4 awarded projects were visited by all jury. 1 was known to Teddy Cruz, 1 visited by Nigel Dancey. The odds of visited project awards and submittal review awards therefore was close to 50/50.
@ALL – please join our Honor Awards committee and help us shape the 2010 jury selection, guidelines, and live event!