Eight projects named best in the field at the 2023 AIA Interior Architecture Awards

The American Institute of Architects has just announced its slate of winners for the 2023 edition of the AIA Interior Architecture Awards.

The group of eight projects was selected by a five-member panel for their demonstrated "design achievement, including sense of place and purpose, community access, ecology and environmental sustainability, and history."

Here is the full list of this year’s awarded projects.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
Mecanoo and OTJ Architects, Washington, DC

Project excerpt: "This project is the focal point of the Washington, DC Public Library's ambitious initiative to renew its aging infrastructure and reposition its libraries as vital resources in the digital information age. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, which opened in 1972, is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's only building in the district and his only realized library in the world. In addition to greatly enhancing library services and reorganizing its program, the team also created a test case for sensitively transforming an aging cultural complex into a socially sustainable engine for knowledge exchange."

800 Fulton Market
SOM, Chicago, IL

Project excerpt: "Standing as the gateway to one of Chicago’s most dynamic neighborhoods, 800 Fulton Market is a carefully integrated mixed-use workplace that includes a wealth of health and wellness-focused amenities. Carefully proportioned to reflect the rhythm and scale of Fulton Market district’s low-rise streetscape, this unique and LEED Platinum-certified new workplace respect’s the neighborhood’s character as it aspires to become a thriving business and recreational area."

Mount Auburn Cemetery Bigelow Chapel and New Crematory 
William Rawn Associates, Inc., Cambridge, MA

Project excerpt: "Consecrated in 1831 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003, Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, stands as one of the most important and complex landscapes in the United States. In addition to being an active cemetery, its functions as a public green space, botanical garden, and outdoor museum of funerary art. This project has transformed Bigelow Chapel, the historic first building constructed on the cemetery grounds, into a space for public programs for the first time in decades. A carefully placed addition also supports a new crematory that serves a wide range of families and religious groups, reflective of Mount Auburn’s forward-thinking approach to end-of-life services."

River Ranch
Jobe Corral Architects, Blanco, TX

Project excerpt: "This 3,592-square-foot home in Texas’ harsh Hill Country is an exploration of materials and the myriad benefits they can provide users. Rammed earth walls emerge from the landscape to form a protective shell and anchor the home to the site. In contrast, expanses of glass open physical and visual connections to the outdoors. Together, the home’s features work in concert to form a strong connection to the land."

Student Success District, University of Arizona
The Miller Hull Partnership and Poster Mirto McDonald, Tuscon, AZ

Project excerpt: "This project, on the University of Arizona’s Tuscon campus, unites the school’s essential yet siloed student support services. While comprehensive in nature, involving campus planning, exterior site improvements, and architectural interventions, the project is rooted in transformation and the connection of interior spaces that offer elevated experiences aimed at nurturing tomorrow’s leaders."

Three Gables
Aidlin Darling Design, Napa, CA

Project excerpt: "Nestled into the hills that overlook Napa Valley, this home for a family of three is clearly defined by its distinctive triad of gable roof structures. Constructed after a 2017 wildfire decimated the property, the modern and resilient home responds to the region’s agrarian vernacular and one of the owners’ roots in the countryside of Wales. The overarching design carefully balances spaces for individual reflection and communal gathering."

Southwest Public Library - Washington, DC 
Perkins&Will, Washington, DC

Project excerpt: "This new library delivers a sustainable and unique design to a community sorely in need of a facility filled with cutting-edge technology, spaces for gathering, and educational opportunities. It includes the innovative use of dowel-laminated timber to create the library’s distinctive roofline reflective of the shapes found throughout Washington, DC’s Southwest neighborhood. The folded plate evokes the cast-in-place concrete roof outlines of the 1950s, but it demonstrates how modern connection technology and low-carbon materials can shape a compelling massing with a memorable space waiting inside."

Willis Tower Repositioning
Gensler, SkB Architects, and OLIN, Chicago, IL

Project excerpt: "When it rose on Chicago’s skyline in 1973, the Willis Tower became an instant American architectural icon. This project, conceived as a 'street to sky' re-envisioning, is the biggest restoration project in the building’s history and shapes an optimistic new chapter for its future. Though constructed in an era of single-use buildings and urban flight, a modern mix of uses with active streetscapes that engage tourists, residents, and workers support Willis Tower’s evolution."