The 2007 Honor Awards for architecture occurred on Monday night, November 5th here in Seattle WA. Most of the nearly 200 entries were impressive works of architecture. The AIA hasn’t updated their website yet, so we’re going off of our alcohol saturated memories for the winners:

Honor Award
The Olympic Sculpture Park by Weiss Manfredi

Olympic Sculpture Park

Olympic Sculpture Park

Olympic Sculpture Park

Olympic Sculpture Park

Olympic Sculpture Park

Merit Award
Rolling Huts by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

Rolling Huts

Rolling Huts

Rolling Huts

Merit Award
Outpost by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

Outpost

Outpost

Outpost

Outpost

Outpost

Commendation Award
Bellevue City Hall by SRG

Bellevue City Hall

Bellevue City Hall

Bellevue City Hall

Bellevue City Hall

 

Commendation Award
Montecito Residence by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

Montecito Residence

Montecito Residence

Montecito Residence

Montecito Residence

Montecito Residence

Commendation Award for an unbuilt project
Centre for Music Art, and Design by Patkau Architects

Centre for Music Art and Design

Centre for Music Art and Design

Centre for Music Art and Design

The Jurors:
Frank Harmon, FAIA
Jeanne Gang, AIA
Joshua Prince-Ramus
Daniel S. Friedman, Ph.D., FAIA

The jurors commented that while the body of work was extraordinary in material and assembly the projects themselves lacked in performance. They communicated that with such a highly educated population here in the northwest, a wealth of natural environment, and local affluence that more could have been done with the idea of architecture. The jurors eluded that it’s not enough to make little gems of architecture set within pristine landscapes, that as architects we need to develop a larger thesis, a significant purpose for built-form. They also had very insightful criticisms of the presentations – they generally found the submitted material to lack process. The jury commented that most of the material seemed to be polished photographs of the finished products, which is only a slice of any given project.

We found this years awards to be a well spent couple of hours. The AIA brings in several talented architects each year to broaden our perspective and roughen us up a bit and that’s exactly what we got this year. We’re also up to date on dozens of amazing projects that have been built recently in the northwest. Curiously there were no entries whatsoever in the category of urban planning (built or unbuilt) – should we be worried here in Seattle? For more information on the awards visit the AIA website.