Washington, D.C., April 22, 2008 The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment. The projects will be honored at the AIA 2008 National Convention and Design Exposition in Boston.

The project descriptions highlight both the design innovations and sustainable strategies, along with the metrics achieved in terms of reduced carbon emissions, reduced energy consumption and improved building functionality.

“These projects were judged against a rigorous set of criteria to determine the best examples of sustainable design concepts and intentions,” said Henry Siegel, FAIA, chair of the AIA Committee on the Environment. “In addition to examining their architectural innovation, the buildings had to have shown design elements within their regional / community context, land use and site ecology that benefits surrounding ecosystems, resource conservation through bioclimatic design and the health benefits associated with improved lighting and indoor air quality.”

The 2008 COTE Top Ten Green Projects program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. They make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.

Siegel added, “All of the projects succeed in all the measures. Some projects demonstrated true innovation in one or more measures, and all of them help illustrate how much farther the design and construction community will need to go in the coming years to reach truly sustainable design.”

Members of the jury include: Glenn Murcutt, Hon. FAIA, Glenn Murcutt Architecture; Jason McLennan, AIA, CEO of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council; Susan T. Rodriguez, FAIA, Polshek Partnership Architects; Gail Brager, PhD, University of California at Berkeley; Marvin Malecha, FAIA, North Carolina State University; and Rebecca Henn, AIA, PhD candidate at the University of Michigan.

The 2008 Top Ten Green Projects (listed in alphabetical order):

Aldo Leopold Legacy Center
The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc., Cedarburg, WI
Completed in spring, 2007, the 12,000sf building includes office and meeting spaces, interpretive hall, archive and workshop. The Center was envisioned as a small complex of structures organized around a central courtyard. This design provides flexibility in managing energy use based on program requirements, creates outdoor spaces for work and gathering, and reduces the scale of the buildings on site. The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center is the first building recognized by LEED as carbon-neutral in operation.

Photo credit: Mark F. Heffron

Juror Marvin Malecha said, “Through its demonstrable energy conservation and reduced heating, cooling and operating costs, this is an excellent example of how a building can achieve carbon neutrality.”

Cesar Chavez Library
Line and Space, LLC, Tucson, AZ
In order to protect the outdoor and indoor space from the sun’s radiation, the building uses extensive overhangs to create a ‘hat’ in the desert. The scarcity of water led to roof top rainwater collection for irrigation, while water reducing fixtures are used indoors. Always a concern in the desert, an area of high consumption, the building was carefully cut into the site and the excavated material was used to berm the building for further thermal mass. The windows are also properly shaded to reduce solar gains.

Photo credit: Bill Timmerman

Juror Susan T. Rodriguez said, “We saw leadership on the part of the city here, given the selection of this site for this building—it’s in a place where it can help solve a problem. There’s a 37,000 square foot roofscape that is a part of irrigating a 40-acre park. We felt this showed strong vision to solve multiple problems at once.”

Discovery Center at South Lake Union
The Miller/Hull Partnership, Seattle, WA
A primary program element for this particular center, alongside numerous other environmental goals, was to create a building and core that could provide adaptable exhibit space, capable of being reconfigured and reused for the presentation of multiple residential neighborhoods throughout the South Lake Union Region over a lengthy period of time. In addition to creating flexible interior space, the building itself was designed to be demountable, separating at three integrated joints to break into four separate modules capable of being transported along surface streets.

Photo credit: Lara Swimmer Photography

Juror Jason McLennan said, “I really like the notion of saying, ‘This building type was supposed to be temporary, and we are going to reject that in favor of disassembly.’ This is sustainable at the elemental level.”

Pocono Environmental Education Center
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Wilkes-Barre, PA
The building is designed to reinforce the mission of environmental stewardship and education. Through careful site and materials selection, analysis and design of building systems, the structure outwardly expresses the principles of sustainable design. The building is a flexible, multi-purpose gathering space for dining, meetings, lectures and other environmental learning activities. As part of the site design, native grasses were planted to provide a landscape that is low maintenance and integrates the project into its natural surroundings.

Rodriguez added, “This is a dramatic transformation of a site by using the materials removed from its cleanup, to create the exterior envelope, which is exciting to see. The use of the recycled tires and the texture they produce are inventive.”

Garthwaite Center for Science and Art, Cambridge School of Weston
Architerra, Inc., Boston, MA
The facility is designed to advance sustainability, creating an exemplar and educational tool through a design process that engaged the entire community. This LEED Platinum design incorporates dozens of green features that students can view as well as measure and manipulate. The result is a compelling model for educational institutions. Fifty-five detailed sustainability goals included renewable energy, no water to be discharged to the local sewer, 100% storm water infiltration on-site, artificial lighting designed to less than one watt per square foot and minimal maintenance for 20 years.

Juror Rebecca Henn said, “There is a lot of education here; this is a true teaching tool. The students participated in the design of the building. They treat all their wastewater, and these strategies are integrated into the pedagogy. There are only three small spaces that are conditioned in this building; all other spaces are naturally ventilated.”

Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life
VJAA, Minneapolis, MN
The existing building was stripped to the concrete frame, expanded by 33% and redesigned with a variety of environmental systems. The hot and humid New Orleans climate is further tempered with strategies for expanding the comfort zone; including programming for thermal zoning, and technically innovative systems for variable shading, moving air and radiant cooling. Despite its high ambitions, the project had a modest budget and was completed for $189/SF, fourteen months after Hurricane Katrina. Since then, Tulane sees the project as a new model for sustainable design in New Orleans.

Photo credit: Paul Crosby

Juror Glenn Murcott said, “One intriguing feature of this project was that it has a Punkah, a traditional Indian system to move air.”

Macallen Building Condominiums
Office dA Inc. and Burt Hill Inc., Boston, MA
The 140-unit condominium is a conscious and deliberate effort by both client/developer and the architectural and engineering team to incorporate sustainable design measures. It utilizes green design as a way of marketing a lifestyle and concern for the environment, while simultaneously increasing revenue from the design project as a business strategy. The building, just completed in South Boston, is striving for LEED Gold certification in sustainable design. Some of the green building features include innovative technologies that will save over 600,000 gallons of water annually while consuming 30% less electricity than a conventional building.

Malecha added, “This project was built on an environmentally challenged site that was previously unused space. So not only does in enhance the environment, but it provides valuable inner city housing and shows a certain amount of urban savvy.”

Queens Botanical Garden Visitor & Administration Center
BKSK Architects, New York, NY
In looking to the future, the Garden has propelled itself into the front ranks of its field as the first botanical garden in the country devoted to sustainable environmental stewardship. The goal has been to integrate a beautiful contemporary building into the experience of its varied gardens and landscapes, heightening the visitor experience of the natural environment and conveying the key elements of successful sustainability. A water channel surrounds the building and weaves through the garden, fed by rainwater that cascades off of the sheltering roof canopy.

Juror Gail Brager said, “I especially appreciated the focus on water—which is a critical and often overlooked aspect of sustainable design. In addition to the project’s significant attention to storm water management, rainwater collection, and a graywater system, water was also used as a strong design element to unify the building and landscape, and raise people’s awareness of the water cycle at the site and building scale.”

The Nueva School, Hillside Learning Complex
Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, San Francisco, CA
The 33-acre campus, located in the semi-rural coastal hills of the San Francisco Peninsula, features a thriving coast live oak woodland ecosystem, a variety of dispersed structures and dramatic views of San Francisco Bay. The design is grounded in the desire to integrate straightforward, appropriate and cost-effective sustainable design solutions within the broader language of contemporary architectural expression. Through a variety of simple, observable systems and strategies, reduce site energy use by at least 65% from the national average for schools and meet the 2030 Challenge.

McLennan added, “This seemed to be a very successful project. They did a good job of balancing design and performance; they had particularly notable energy and water metrics.”

Yale University Sculpture Building and Gallery
KieranTimberlake Associates LLP, Philadelphia, PA
Situated on a former brownfield site, the new complex is comprised of three new buildings. To provide maximum daylight and exceptional energy efficiency, a wall system was designed that incorporates solar shading, a triple glazed low-e vision panel, 8-foot high operable windows and a translucent double cavity spandrel panel. Consequently, the entire skin of the building admits natural light. The green roof on the gallery and native plant landscaping, which includes mature trees, serves as a connective habitat patch for avian species moving through the urban corridor between these parks.

Photo credit: Peter Aaron, Esto

Brager added, “The high-performance façade is impressive in the way it balances warm and cold season operation, integrating shading and alternating panels of operable windows, aerogel insulation, and ventilation aperatures in a double-skin thermal cavity.”

Honorable Mention 2008 Top Ten Green Project:

Internal Revenue Service – Kansas City Service Center
BNIM / 360 Inc., Kansas City, MO
Natural light and open views of the surrounding urban fabric were salient sustainable design features for this project. Through architectural techniques, including clerestories, skylights, atrium, and building orientation, an unprecedented 80 percent of workspaces are served by natural light. Internal courtyards provide views of vegetated environments that also serve as workday respites. From inside the IRS processing Center one gets a sense of being part of a bigger whole; one that represents equilibrium between nature and the build environment, public and private, community and government.

About the AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Awards
The AIA’s Committee on the Environment represents more than 8,700 AIA members committed to making sustainable or “green” design integral to the practice of architecture. The AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project Awards initiative was developed by the AIA in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and BuildingGreen.com, publishers of Environmental Building News magazine. In 2003 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® Program joined as an additional sponsor.

San Francisco, May 2, 2008 A Bay Area architect and professor at the California College of Arts has been chosen as this year’s winner of the prestigious Metropolis Next Generation® Design Prize.

Next Generation® Design Prize winner Eric Olsen (Image: Amy MacWilliamson)

The winner, Eric Olsen, was honored by the architecture and design community at a gala awards celebration last night at the BATH+BEYOND showroom in San Francisco. The event was cohosted by competition sponsors Duravit and Geberit. Herman Miller, Inc., Maharam, and Sherwin-Williams also sponsored the competition. Olsen was presented with the $10,000 Next Generation® prize for his innovative design of an easy-to-carry device for transporting and purifying water.

Image: Eric Olsen

Olsen’s design is a Solar Water Disinfecting Tarpaulin, a flexible, adaptable vessel that can be easily filled with water and carried home, where it works to make the water potable. The pleated tarpaulin-constructed from laser-cut clear low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and dark rubberized nylon-is designed to hold up to 20 liters of water and can be rolled into a bundle or worn as a shawl-like kanga for carrying. It can be laid across a rooftop, spread on the ground or hung vertically to allow ultraviolet radiation from the sun to disinfect the water inside. This World Health Organization-approved purification method takes only five hours in hot climates. The tarpaulin is designed for use in a wide variety of settings, from urban disaster sites to remote third-world villages. Ten additional Next Generation proposals were also honored as runners-up at the awards event. (See below for details.)

Image: Eric Olsen

“This year’s winner and the very noteworthy runners-up once again confirm our belief in young designers’ ability to address complex social, cultural and environmental issues with enthusiasm and a high level of creativity,” said Metropolis publisher Horace Havemeyer III. “I’m also proud of them for submitting clear-headed business plans,” adds Havemeyer, noting that the “competition is unique among design competitions in that it asks for entrants to submit a business plan.”

“It is clear to us that the next generation of designers cares deeply about our natural resources,” says Metropolis editor in chief Susan S. Szenasy. “Their inventive proposals were focused on water, an endangered resource worldwide, and serve to create a dialogue around a crucial topic. Designers, they’re saying, have useful answers to offer a thirsty world.”

The judges for the 2008 Next Generation Design Competition were Lance Hosey, director at William McDonough + Partners; Eric Chan, president of ECCO Design Inc.; Fiona Cousins, principal and mechanical engineer at Arup; and Pam Light, senior vice president at HOK. Szenasy moderated the deliberations.

Created by Metropolis magazine, the annual Next Generation Design Competition, now in its fifth year, recognizes outstanding ideas from young architects and designers for making our built environment better, safer and more sustainable. This year, entrants were asked to submit proposals relating to water.

Image: Eric Olsen

2008 Next Generation Design Prize Runners-Up:

Andrea Brivio, Davide Conti and Fabio Galli (Italy): “S_M_L,” a housing project designed for the city of Melaka, Malaysia, that harnesses the power of the region’s daily rainfall and uses it to produce electricity and replenish gray water systems

Yuichi Watanabe, Katz Miyahara and Yoshi Ogawa (Seattle): “Polarfloat,” large floating structures in the Arctic Ocean that provide places for polar bears to land as the ice melts

Joseph Cory and Eyal Malka (Israel): “WatAir,” a simple unit with an integrated infrastructure for collecting dew and rainwater

Paul Giacomantonio, Vera Templeman, William Sorich and Kat Taylor (Pescadero, CA): “The Sun Curve,” a self-sustaining aquaponic food growing system, powered by solar and wind energy

Charles Lee (San Francisco): “Pacific Coast Interpretive Center for Ocean Health,” living systems that recycle gray water and runoff by filtering wetlands, cooling the gray water with ocean water and producing energy with tidal generators

Lars Mayer (Germany): “Sustainable Water,” a surface water purification solution that is suited to the needs of developing countries and based on natural processes, using the seeds of the moringa tree

Robyn Perkins (Boston): “emergeMUMBAI,” a method of rainwater harvesting that is used as a spatial backbone, a flood mitigation tool, and a water source for redeveloping public housing lands in Mumbai, India

Gerald Lindner, Jeroen Tacx, Beate Lendt, Peter Heidman, and Martin Oostenrijk (Netherlands) “Water Harvester,” a double-tubed solar water distiller that is made of polyethylene film and uses a solar-powered water desalinator to make fresh water from polluted or salt water

Renata Fenton and Enrique Lomnitz (Mexico): “Isla Urbana,” small, modular, inexpensive and expandable rainwater harvesting systems that can be affordably purchased by the low-income households in Mexico City most affected by the rapidly increasing water shortages

Thomas Kosbau and Tyson Gillard (New York): “Vena: Water Courses from Air,” a biomimetic low-cost, low-energy solution for people in climates that lack consistent rainfall or clean ground sources to harvest vast amounts of drinking water from the atmosphere

“Flip a Strip,” a design competition organized by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [SMoCA], generated 95 completed submissions, from architectural teams in 46 cities and six countries. This innovative project intends to inspire creative, new visions for the renovation of the small-scale strip shopping plazas that line the streets of this metropolitan area—and virtually every suburban zone in the country. Finalists in the competition will be featured in an exhibition at SMoCA from the evening of October 4, 2008 – January 18, 2009.

One of the three competition sites: Bell Road Center, 17236 N 28th Street, Phoenix, AZ (Photo: Flip a Strip)

One of the three competition sites: Bell Road Center, 17236 N 28th Street, Phoenix, AZ (Photo: Flip a Strip)

The competition was a hybrid, both a national open call and an invitation to fifteen diverse firms. Participants were invited to select one of three typical strip-mall sites, (submitted by the city planners of Scottsdale, Phoenix and Tempe) to re-think and re-design. Projects were juried in a two-stage process. Proposals first underwent a technical review by local experts, followed by a rigorous design review by a prestigious architectural jury. Aaron Betsky, director, Cincinnati Art Museum, and former director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam; Julie Eizenberg, Konig Eizenberg Architecture, Santa Monica, California; Merrill Elam, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, Atlanta; Richard E. Eribes, former dean of the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and founding director of the Center for Urban Studies at Arizona State University, Tempe; and Grady Gammage, Jr., partner, Gammage & Burnham, Phoenix, an expert in land-use regulation, senior research fellow at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy and adjunct professor at the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Arizona State University, Tempe, comprised the Design Jury. Per the competition’s parameters, projects were displayed anonymously, so that the juries had no indication of the authorship of any of the entries.

See http://www.flipastrip.org for further details on the Design Jury, the sites and the competition brief.

Competition site #2: 2200 N Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, AZ (Photo: Flip a Strip)

Competition site #2: 2200 N Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, AZ (Photo: Flip a Strip)

The Design Jury awarded three monetary prizes and three honorable mentions, which will be announced at the opening of the exhibition on the evening of October 4, 2008, at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.

The following ten firms are the finalists, invited by SMoCA to further develop a three-dimensional presentation of their projects for the exhibition: Aptum Architecture, Canton, Michigan; Architecture-Infrastructure-Research, Scottsdale, Arizona; Avery Architecture & Design, Chicago; AEDS, New Orleans; Gould Evans, Phoenix; Marlene Imirzian & Associates Architects, Phoenix; Miller Hull Partnership, Seattle; MOS, New Haven, Connecticut; Roger Sherman Architecture & Urban Design, Santa Monica, California; and Studio Luz Architects, Boston.

Twenty-five additional stellar projects will be featured in the exhibition in two continuously running, large-scale computer projections. Invited firms: Alter Studio, Austin, Texas; Wendell Burnette Architects, Phoenix; D&G, Scottsdale, Arizona; El Dorado Architects, Kansas City; Ibarra Rosano Design Architects, Tucson, Arizona; PLY Architecture; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Richärd + Bauer, Phoenix; Julie Snow Architects, Inc., Minneapolis; SUMO Studio, Long Island City, New York; and UrbanLab, Chicago. Respondents to the open call: Al-Mimariya, Beirut, Lebanon; Frank Andre, Atlanta; Bredella Lahusen, Berlin; Will Bruder + Partners, Phoenix; Field Paoli Architects, San Francisco; Gensler, Phoenix; Brantley Hightower, San Antonio, Texas; LLa architecture, Ltd., Grand Junction, Colorado; Looney Ricks Kiss, Dallas; MOBIUS, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Moran Architects, Scottsdale, Arizona; OWP/P, Chicago; Rudabeh Pakravan, Berkeley, California; Shepley Bulfinch, Boston; and Sustainable Architecture Urban Design , San Francisco.

Competition site #3: 524 W Broadway Road, Tempe, AZ (Photo: Flip a Strip)

Competition site #3: 524 W Broadway Road, Tempe, AZ (Photo: Flip a Strip)

Of the 95 submissions, the Scottsdale site generated 44 design concepts; the Tempe site 24; and the Phoenix site 27. (Note: this is an idea-generating competition, not a design/build project.)

Projects range from astute interventions that have major impact for minimal investment; to projects that bring sustainable agriculture into an urban context; to projects that creatively address the perennial problem of parking; to creative mixed-use developments that invent new energy and recycling systems.

“Flip a Strip” continues SMoCA’s commitment to creating a forum for public issues of both local and national importance and to generating ideas that better the quality of civic life. Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross states, “As Scottsdale continues to revitalize our southern areas, it’s important that we seek opportunities to enhance existing infrastructure in our community. Strip plazas have long played an important role in our community by providing neighborhoods with valuable services and products. The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Flip a Strip” competition is a unique opportunity to glimpse into the future of our strip plazas.”

COMPETITION ADVISORS:
Jones Kroloff design services is the competition advisor. Led by Casey Jones (formerly of the U.S. General Services Administration Design Excellence Program and a founder of Van Alen Institute, an architecture and urban-design research center) and Reed Kroloff (director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Museum, former editor-in-chief of Architecture magazine and a Phoenix native), the firm has managed many of the recent major architectural competitions across the country, including: Design the High Line in New York; the September 11th Memorial Competition for the Pentagon; the Brad Pitt / Global Green Sustainable Design Competition for New Orleans; the Jose Vasconcuelos National Library of Mexico; and the Motown Center for Detroit, MI. Jones Kroloff is known internationally for its vast knowledge of both emerging and established architects and its expertise in managing complex competitions that yield functional and forward-thinking results.

ABOUT SMoCA:

Located in the center of one of America’s fastest growing and most dynamic regional economies, SMoCA contributes to its communities’ vitality and provides a forum for creative dialog. The Museum is dedicated to advancing public awareness and knowledge of architecture and design, building on the proud legacy of visionary architecture in this community, epitomized by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin and Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti.

Founded in 1999, the Museum is a unique and vital cultural resource for the Southwest, serving local audiences as well as visitors from throughout the United States and abroad. Designed by award-winning architect Will Bruder, SMoCA’s minimalist building has five galleries for showcasing changing exhibitions and works from the Museum’s growing permanent collection. SMoCA also features an outdoor sculpture garden housing James Turrell’s Knight Rise, one of the renowned artist’s few public skyspaces, and Scrim Wall, a monumental curtain of prismatic glass by James Carpenter Design Associates. The Museum presents a wide variety of educational programs and special events for adults and families, including lectures, docent-led tours, workshops and classes.

CITATION
Through this medal, the UIA honours and highlights a lifetime of work devoted to the realisation of an architecture that reflects an era, its social reality, its culture and its traditions.

Teodoro González de León: Torres Arcos Bosques, Mexico City, 2008

The work of Teodoro González de León is part of the architecture of the Modern Movement, with a vocabulary that is constantly renewed enriched and reinterpreted.

Teodoro González de León: Mexican Embassy in Berlin, 1999

His architecture is monumental, in the positive sense of the word and the intelligent use he makes of materials, of light and different textures confer on his realisations a particular presence, imposing in the urban as well as in the natural context.

JURY
The jury for the 2008 Gold Medal met in Bratislava, on 16 and 17 April 2008. Under the presidency of Gaëtan Siew, UIA President, it was composed as follows: Jordi Farrando (Spain), UIA Secretary General, Donald J. Hackl (USA), UIA Treasurer, Louise Cox (Australia), 1st UIA Vice-President, Martin Drahovsky (Slovakia), 2nd Vice-Président, Giancarlo Ius (Italy), Mauricio Rivero Borrell (Mexico), Seif Alnaga (Egypt), UIA Vice- Presidents, Wolf Tochtermann (Germany), Director of the UIA International Competitions Commission.

BIOGRAPHY
Teodoro González de León was born in 1926 in Mexico and studied there at the National School of Architecture from 1942 to 1947. He was granted a scholarship by the French government and worked in the Le Corbusier Atelier between 1947 and 1949, notably on the St Dié factory project. He returned to practice in Mexico in 1950.

His works represent a wide variety of programmes: public buildings, housing and residences, urban spaces, parks and gardens. His most famous works of the 1970-1980 period are the Mexican embassy in Brazilia, the Mexico College and the INFONAVIT building with Abraham Zabludovsky, then the Tomás Garrido Canabal Park in Villahermosa, Tabasco, in1986 , with Francisco Serrano and Aurelio Nuño, and, more recently, the archaeological museum on the Tajin site in Veracruz (1992), the Superior School of Music in Mexico (1994) and the Mexican Embassy in Berlin, in 1999, with Francisco Serrano.

UIA GOLD MEDAL
When creating this medal in 1984, the aim of the UIA was to bestow it with a prestige equivalent to that held by the Nobel Prize in the fields of Arts, Sciences and Social Sciences. This unique international distinction, free of any interests, national or private, is the supreme honour an architect can receive from his/her peers. It is awarded to a living architect, in recognition of his/her achievements and contributions made throughout his/her life and career, to the benefit of man and society, and the promotion of the art of architecture.

Since its creation, the UIA Gold Medal has been awarded to:

• Hassan Fathy (Egypt), in 1984
• Reima Pietila (Finland), in 1987
• Charles Correa (India), in 1990
• Fumihiko Maki (Japan), in 1993
• Rafael Moneo (Spain), in 1996
• Ricardo Legorreta Vilchis (Mexico), in 1999
• Renzo Piano (Italy), in 2002
• Tadao Ando (Japan) in 2005

The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will celebrate outstanding achievement in design this fall with its ninth annual National Design Awards program. Today, Cooper-Hewitt director Paul Warwick Thompson announced the winners and finalists of the 2008 National Design Awards, which recognize excellence across a variety of disciplines. The Award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner Oct. 23 at Cooper-Hewitt.

“The work of this year’s honorees has made a broad and powerful impact on our society,” said Thompson. “The innovations of visionaries like Google, this year’s Corporate Achievement winner, and Lifetime Achievement recipient Charles Harrison, are a testament to design’s ability to connect with a wide audience and affect all areas of daily life, from the way we work, use technology and interact with our environment.”

The 2008 National Design Awards nominations were solicited from a committee of more than 1,500 designers, educators, journalists, cultural figures and corporate leaders from every state in the nation. This year’s jury—a diverse group of leading design experts convened by Cooper-Hewitt—reviewed the nominations and selected a Lifetime Achievement recipient and winners and finalists in the Corporate Achievement, Design Mind, Architecture, Communications, Fashion, Interior, Landscape and Product Design categories. This is the first time the jury selected finalists in the Corporate Achievement and Design Mind categories due to the exceptional strength of this year’s nominees.

First launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the National Design Awards were established to promote excellence and innovation in design. The Awards are accompanied each year by a variety of public education programs, including special events, panel discussions and workshops. The first public program is a Jury Panel May 13, during which the 2008 jurors will discuss the current state of design in America and the selection process for this year’s honorees. A Winners’ Panel will take place Oct. 21 during National Design Week.

Cooper-Hewitt’s third annual National Design Week will be held Oct. 19–25. A series of public programs celebrating design will be held at the museum and online with the People’s Design Award, which gives the public an opportunity to nominate and vote for a design of their choice by logging onto http://www.cooperhewitt.org. The 2008 National Design Week and the National Design Awards are sponsored by
Target.

The 2008 National Design Award recipients are:

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT, CHARLES HARRISON

CHARLES HARRISON: View-Master. Manufacturer: Sawyer Manufacturing, Portland, OR; Design Firm: Robert Podall Associates, Chicago, IL. 1958. Photo: Joeffrey Trimmingham.

The Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing the work of an individual who has made a long-term contribution to the practice of design, is presented to Charles Harrison. An industrial designer at Sears, Roebuck & Company for more than three decades, Harrison has improved the quality of life for millions of Americans through the extraordinary breadth and innovation of his product designs. One of the first African Americans to enter the design field, Harrison began working for Sears in 1961 and eventually became the company’s chief designer. During his distinguished career, Harrison maintained an unwavering commitment to the needs of the average consumer, creating an astonishing 750 products—from radios and sewing machines to hair dryers—for nearly every area of the home. Among his most iconic designs are the first-of-its-kind plastic garbage can, a lighter, more durable alternative to its metal counterpart; and a redesign of the now classic View-Master. Harrison currently teaches design at Columbia College in Chicago.

CORPORATE ACHIEVEMENT, GOOGLE, INC.

GOOGLE, INC.: Google Homepage. 2004. Photo courtesy of Google, Inc.

The Corporate Achievement Award recognizes a corporation that uses design as a strategic tool of its mission and helps to advance the relationship between design and quality of life. The 2008 Corporate Achievement Award is presented to Google, Inc. Google has transformed the way millions of Internet users around the globe access information every day. Founded in 1998, the company has married a simple, easy-to-use interface with complex engineering, making it the leading source for news, images, and locations on the Web. The ingenuity of Google’s design is evident in the pared-down simplicity of its home page and extends to all of its products, which focus on the needs of the consumer. The company offers a new paradigm for how users navigate the world, providing unprecedented access to interactive, satellite technologies with services like Google Maps and Google Earth. Google is also recognized for rethinking conventional notions of corporate culture and the workplace. At the “Googleplex,” Google’s headquarters, creativity and play are central to the company’s philosophy and creature comforts are taken as seriously as productivity out of a belief that one cannot be had without the other. Google was featured in the 2006 “National Design Triennial.”

Finalists honored in the Corporate Achievement category are JetBlue, an airline that incorporates a strong design aesthetic into every phase of its business; and OXO International, whose products combine ergonomic design with a modern aesthetic and ease everyday home tasks for the broadest spectrum of users.

DESIGN MIND, MICHAEL BIERUT

MICHAEL BIERUT: Saks Fifth Avenue brand identity and packaging. 2007. USA. Photo: Saks Fifth Avenue.

The Design Mind Award recognizes visionary individuals or firms that have affected a shift in design thinking or practice through writing, research and scholarship. The 2008 recipient is Michael Bierut, a partner at the New York design firm Pentagram. Bierut is recognized for his extraordinary body of critical writing and graphic design. His ability to articulate and deconstruct the design process has raised the level of consciousness for the field and helped spark a national dialogue. A senior critic in the graphic design program at the Yale University School of Art, Bierut is the co-editor of the “Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design” book series (Allworth Press), and a co-founder of DesignObserver.com, a widely read blog focused on design and culture. His clients have included the New York Times, Saks Fifth Avenue, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Harley-Davidson, Princeton University, the Walt Disney Company and the New York Jets. His most recent book, “Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design,” was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2007.

Finalists in the Design Mind category are Bruce Nussbaum, assistant managing editor at BusinessWeek magazine and a leading voice in bringing the culture of design to the world of business; and Michael Sorkin, a singular voice in exploring the social context of the city in his role as academic, writer, critic and designer at Michael Sorkin Studio and director of the Graduate Urban Design Program at Architecture at the City College of New York.

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN, TOM KUNDIG

TOM KUNDIG: Rolling Huts. Mazama, Washington. 2008. Photo: Tim Bies/Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects.

The Architecture Design Award, recognizing work in commercial, public or residential architecture, is given to Tom Kundig, a partner in the Seattle-based firm Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects. Kundig’s projects seamlessly integrate architecture and landscape, and pay uniquely meticulous attention to detail and the materials used, which are often left in their natural, raw state. His ingenuity lies in the experiential nature of his work, the use of kinetic architectural features, and the reinvention of structural elements that are often overlooked, such as doors, windows and stairs. Kundig has garnered recognition for projects ranging from small cabins to high-rises across the American West and throughout North America. In 2006, Princeton Architectural Press released “Tom Kundig: Houses,” a book that introduced Kundig’s work to an international audience. Kundig was a National Design Award finalist in this category in 2005.

The Architecture Design category also honors finalists LOT-EK, a firm led by partners Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano and noted for its inventive reuse of prefabricated objects and industrial materials; and Weiss/Manfredi, founded by Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, is recognized for its integration of architecture, art, infrastructure and landscape design.

LOT-EK: MDU. Anywhere, Traveling Prototype. 2002. Photo: Courtesy of LOT-EK.

WEISS/MANFREDI: Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle Art Museum. Aerial View of Park. 2007. Seattle, WA. Photo: Benjamin Benschneider.

COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN, SCOTT STOWELL

SCOTT STOWELL: GOOD magazine. 2006. Designed with Susan Barber, Robert A. Di Ieso Jr., Gary Fogelson, Carol Hayes, Serifcan Ozcan, Nicholas Rock, and Ryan Thacker. Photo: Open.

The Communications Design Award, which honors work in graphic or multimedia design, is presented to Scott Stowell. Since 1998, Stowell has been the proprietor of Open, an independent, New York–based design studio that works across a range of media, including identity systems; print design, such as advertising, packaging and publications; motion graphics; and Web design. Many of Open’s projects integrate design solutions that encompass more than one of these categories. Stowell has garnered acclaim for translating the ideas of a diverse set of clients into engaging campaigns that speak to a wide audience. Open’s clients include the PBS documentary series Art:21, Bravo, GOOD magazine, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the New York Times, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Planet Green and WNYC Radio. Stowell has served as vice president of the New York Chapter of AIGA and teaches graphic design at Yale University and the School of Visual Arts.

Finalists honored in the Communications Design category are Stephen Doyle, recognized for his extraordinary body of work in graphic and editorial design for clients, including the New York Times, AIGA, Vanity Fair and Knopf; and Prologue Films, a motion graphics design company led by Kimberly and Kyle Cooper, is recognized for its innovative work in film title design.

FASHION DESIGN, RALPH RUCCI

RALPH RUCCI, Photo: Chado Ralph Rucci.

Recognizing work in clothing, accessory or footwear design, the Fashion Design Award is presented to Ralph Rucci, who established his womenswear label, Chado Ralph Rucci, in 1994. Named after the Japanese tea ceremony, Chado embodies Rucci’s highly intricate yet restrained aesthetic, which is influenced by sources ranging from Balenciaga to Asian symbolism and abstract painters such as Cy Twombly. An ambassador for American fashion, Rucci presented his first haute couture collection in Paris in 2002, becoming one of only two Americans in history to be on the official calendar of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Both his ready-to-wear and haute couture lines distinguish themselves with their impeccable craftsmanship, luxurious fabrics and subtle embellishments. Rucci’s work has been featured in Cooper-Hewitt’s 2006 “National Design Triennial’ and in retrospectives at the Costume Institute of the Kent State University Museum, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Phoenix Art Museum.

Finalists in the Fashion Design category are menswear designer Thom Browne, who is distinguished for his ability to update classic silhouettes and an aesthetic rooted in a truly American sensibility; and Zac Posen, whose refined, intricate womenswear line is recognized for its flawless construction, playfulness and wit.

INTERIOR DESIGN, ROCKWELL GROUP

ROCKWELL GROUP: Kodak Theatre, Hollywood, CA, 2001, Photo: Rockwell Group

The Interior Design Award, given for work in domestic, corporate, cultural or interior design, is awarded to Rockwell Group, an architecture and design firm specializing in cultural, hospitality, retail, product and set design. Founded in 1984 by David Rockwell, the firm crafts a unique narrative and an immersive environment for each project. Rockwell’s interest in theater has informed much of the firm’s work, including the W Hotel, W Union Square Hotel, and the Adour Alain Ducasse restaurant in New York; the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles; Nobu restaurants worldwide; and groundbreaking set designs for Broadway productions of “Hairspray” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” Rockwell Group is currently at work on Imagination Playground, a new model for community playgrounds, designed in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation; and the interior of the new JetBlue terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Finalists in the Interior Design category are Deborah Berke & Partners, a firm specializing in mixed-use, commercial, hospitality, institutional and residential projects and recognized for its attention to detail and distinctive use of materials; and Diane Lewis, principal of Diane Lewis Architect, known for intimate and highly crafted projects for a range of private, institutional, cultural and commercial clients.

LANDSCAPE DESIGN, OLIN PARTNERSHIP

OLIN PARTNERSHIP: Columbus Circle. New York, NY. 2005. Photo: ©Peter Mauss/Esto.

The recipient of the Landscape Design Award, which is presented for work in urban planning or park and garden design, is Olin Partnership, one of today’s leading American landscape architecture firms. The Philadelphia-based studio has been dedicated to sustainability and green design since its inception in 1976. Olin Partnership collaborates with renowned architects, planners, public agencies, corporations, institutions, development groups and foundations worldwide. Its diverse projects include public parks, civic spaces, educational and cultural institutions, and mixed-use urban developments, such as the Fran and Ray Stark Sculpture Garden at the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Gap headquarters in San Francisco, the Bryant Park restoration and reconstruction and Columbus Circle in New York, Exchange Square in London and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, in collaboration with Peter Eisenman in Berlin.

The finalists honored in the Landscape Design category are Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, a multidisciplinary practice led by partners Kathryn Gustafson, Jennifer Guthrie and Shannon Nichol specializing in high-use landscapes in complex urban contexts; and Stoss Landscape Urbanism, a Boston-based studio that practices at the juncture of landscape architecture, urban design and planning.

PRODUCT DESIGN, ANTENNA DESIGN

ANTENNA DESIGN: 23/6 Ultra-Mobile PC; Fujitsu. Computer Concept (2005). Photo: Ryuzo Masunaga.

Given for work in the design of consumer goods, technology or home and office furnishings, the 2007 Product Design Award is presented to Antenna Design. Co-founded by Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa in 1997, Antenna combines technological complexity with a sense of humanity. The firm’s work often blurs the line between installation and product, incorporating new media and an interactive, thought-provoking aspect to engage the user. Antenna’s projects range from public to commercial, realized to exploratory, for an international clientele, including Bloomberg L.P., Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Fujitsu and Microsoft. The firm designed three new fleets of subway cars and the MetroCard ticket vending machines for New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority; and the hardware and screen interface for JetBlue’s check-in kiosks nationally. Antenna has also created installations for Artists Space, Creative Time, Bloomingdale’s, Häagen-Dazs and the Walker Art Center; and contributed “Cherry Blossom,” a site-specific, interactive installation, to Cooper-Hewitt’s 2003 “National Design Triennial.”

Finalists honored in the Product Design category are Boym Partners, a design studio led by Constantin and Laurene Boym that brings a playful, experimental approach to a range of products and environments for an international roster of companies, including Alessi, Swatch and Vitra; and New York-based designer Karim Rashid, who has created a range of products for such companies as Dirt Devil, Umbra and Method.

The 2008 jury was comprised of a diverse group of leading figures in design, including:

• Tim Brown, jury chair and chief executive officer and president, IDEO
• James Carpenter, principal, James Carpenter Design Associates
• Francisco Costa, creative director, Calvin Klein Collection for women, Calvin Klein, Inc.
• Camilo Pardo, design chief, Special Vehicles Team and Living Legends Studio, Ford Motor Company
• Mark Robbins, dean, Syracuse University School of Architecture
• Georgianna Stout, founding partner and creative director, 2×4
• Raquel Tudela, global creative director, Bloomberg L.P.
• Lauren Zalaznick, president, Bravo and Oxygen Media

The People’s Design Award invites the public to express their views on what constitutes good design, whether an everyday object, a design classic or an architectural landmark, from Sept. 22 through Oct. 21 at http://www.cooperhewitt.org. The winning design will be announced Oct. 23, at the National Design Awards Gala. In addition, the museum’s Web site now features the year-round “Design Across America” clickable map listing design-oriented events throughout the country.

The chair of the Oct. 23 gala is Richard Meier, and the vice chairs are Beth Comstock and Chris Travers, Simon Doonan, John Kamen, Ambra Medda and Craig Robins, Madeleine Rudin Johnson and W. Bruce Johnson, Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer.

Located on the hillside north west of Oslo center, Holmenkollen stands out as an iconic landmark for the city of Oslo as well as for the entire nation.

The new ski jump will replace the existing ski jump and will be built at the same site where it has resided since the first Holmenkollen ski jump was erected in 1892. Since then, the jump has been rebuilt 18 times.

The new ski jump will be completed in time for the 2011 World Championship and bring the Holmenkollen ski jump up to date with new standards and regulations in accordance with the international skiing federation. The silhouette of the new tower has a sharp and simple cut. The profile follows the jumpers descent and is offset to create necessary wind protection. The smooth and bended rectangle hosts the slope, the main structure and circulation with an inclined elevator running from the bottom to the top where a 50 m2 bar/jumpers lounge and jump platform is located. The top is cut horizontally to accommodate a viewing platform with a 360º panorama view over the Oslo city landscape.

Danish JDS Architects have just opened a new office in Oslo.

NEW YORK – On May 28th 2008, Jesse Reiser and his partner Nanako Umemoto will receive the Cooper Union Presidential Citation from President George Campbell for outstanding practical and theoretical contributions to the field of architecture.

Shenzhen Airport

Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto graduated from the Cooper Union in 1981 and 1983 respectively and began their partnership in 1985. Their innovative design work, which embraced a range of scales from residential to regional, is widely recognized internationally.

Shenzhen Airport

Reiser + Umemoto gained considerable international attention last year when they were awarded first place honors during the international jury phase of the Shenzhen Airport Competition. Other competing firms included Lord Norman Foster, Foreign Office Architects, Kisho Kurokowa, and Massimiliano Fuksas. Reiser + Umemoto’s cutting edge concrete shell design, a radical shift away from airport ‘Hi-Tech,’ ultimately proved too challenging to the local Chinese jury, but nevertheless confirmed Reiser + Umemoto’s status as leading practitioners in the field of architecture, thus contributing to the decision for their presidential citation.

Shenzhen Airport

The firm has also recently won first prize in the International Competition for the design of the Alishan Tourist Infrastructure in Taiwan, People’s Republic of China, which is due to begin construction in the coming year.

Shenzhen Airport

Currently, Reiser + Umemoto’s ‘Green Tower’ O-14 is under construction in Dubai. The building broke ground in February 2007 and sub-groundwork was completed in September 2007. The first four levels of lacelike concrete exoskeleton is now visible on the Dubai skyline, with the final 22 stories slated for completion in the spring of 2009.

In addition, Reiser + Umemoto are currently producing a prototype wall for the MoMA Home Delivery exhibition, scheduled to open in July 2008.

Shenzhen Airport

A comprehensive monograph of the firm’s architectural design work, Projects and their Consequences, is currently in production and is scheduled for publication by the Spanish publisher Actar in Spring 2009. Their book Atlas of Novel Tectonics was released by Princeton Architectural Press in March 2006 supported by grants from the New York State Council of the Arts as well as from the Graham Foundation. The book which is now in its fourth printing has consistently been on the Amazon.com Bestseller List for the past two years, and was the recipient of the 2007 Gutenberg Prize from the Bundesamt fur Kultur in Bern.

Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto (Toronto, ON)
architectsAlliance & Behnisch Architekten

photo: Tom Arban

Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre (Osoyoos, BC)
Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden architects

photo: Nic Lehoux

Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India)
Le Groupe Arcop

photo: Eye Piece photography & design

Canada’s National Ballet School Project Grand Jeté (Toronto, ON)
Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects & Goldsmith Borgal & Company Ltd. Architects, Architects in Joint Venture

photo: Tom Arban

ROAR_one (Vancouver, BC)
Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture Inc. and Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects, Associated Architects

photo: Nic Lehoux

House at 4a Wychwood Park (Toronto, Ontario)
Ian MacDonald Architect Inc.

photo: Tom Arban

New Canadian War Museum (Ottawa, ON)
Moriyama & Teshima Architects, Griffiths Rankin Cook Architects: Architects in Joint Venture

photo: Harry Foster

Gleneagles Community Centre (West Vancouver, BC)
Patkau Architects

photo: James Dow / Patkau Architects Inc.

Winnipeg Centennial Library Addition (Winnipeg, MB)
Patkau / LM Architectural Group

photo: James Dow / Patkau Architects Inc.

Communication, Culture and Technology Building, University of Toronto (Mississauga, ON)
Saucier + Perrotte architects

photo: Marc Cramer

Scarborough Chinese Baptist Church (Scarborough, ON)
Teeple Architects Inc.

photo: Shai Gil

Trent Chemical Sciences Building (Peterborough, ON)
Teeple Architects Inc. and associate architects Shore Tilbe & Irwin

photo: Tom Arban

“The creations of the twelve recipients of the Governor General’s Medal in Architecture make us appreciate the degree to which Canadian architects have transformed the places where we live, work, share culture and come together into a celebration of beauty and human genius,” said Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada.

“All art forms contribute to improving our quality of life and the communities we live in, but architecture has a particularly immediate and direct impact on our surroundings,” said Simon Brault, Vice-Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts. “The outstanding buildings that are being honoured with this year’s Governor General’s Medals are a testament to the creativity, ingenuity and overall excellence of Canadian architects, and the Canada Council is proud to participate in the administration of this award.”

“It is very encouraging to note that our educational, cultural and community institutions have embraced inspirational contemporary Canadian architecture,” said RAIC President Kiyoshi Matsuzaki, FRAIC. “This year’s winners include buildings for higher education, community and cultural centres, a church and a museum as well as two residences. The award-winning projects are indeed world-class and demonstrate that, as architects, we Canadians can create buildings that are second to none.”

The Governor General’s Medals in Architecture will be presented at 6 p.m. Oct. 16, 2008 at Rideau Hall by Her Excellency.

The Governor General’s Medals in Architecture recognize outstanding achievement in recently built projects by Canadian architects. This program, created by the RAIC, contributes to the development of the discipline and practice of architecture, and increases public awareness of architecture as a vital cultural force in Canadian society. These awards are administered jointly with the Canada Council for the Arts, which is responsible for the adjudication process and contributes to the publication highlighting the medal winners.

Descriptions, biographies and downloadable images of the architectural firms and their winning buildings are available at http://www.raic.org and http://www.canadacouncil.ca.

The 2008 Governor General’s Medals in Architecture recipients were selected by a jury of the following distinguished architects: Prof. Manfred Sabatke, (Stuttgart, Germany); Pina Petricone, MRAIC (Toronto); John McMinn (Toronto); Anne Cormier (Montréal); and Steve Christer (Reykjavik, Iceland).

Established in 1907, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada is a voluntary national association representing almost 3,700 architects. As the leading voice of architecture in Canada, RAIC works to affirm architecture matters; to celebrate the richness and diversity of architecture in Canada; and to support architects in achieving excellence.

McGraw-Hill Construction generously sponsors the RAIC’s awards programs.

The Canada Council for the Arts, in addition to its principal role of promoting and fostering the arts in Canada, administers and awards over 100 prizes and fellowships in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering. In addition to its partnership with the RAIC in the administration of the Governor General’s Medals, the Canada Council recognizes achievement in architecture through the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture, the Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners, and the Ronald J. Thom Award for Early Design Achievement.