2008 American Architecture Awards Honor 66 Buildings

AUGUST, 2008, Chicago, Illinois—The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, together with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd., announce sixty-six (66) new distinguished buildings selected this year in the Museum’s prestigious “American Architecture Awards®” program for 2008.

Established over 10 years ago, the awards program honors and celebrates the most outstanding new accomplishments for new architecture designed and built in the United States by leading American and international architecture firms practicing in the USA.

CAMINO NUEVO HIGH SCHOOL
Los Angeles, California, Architects: Daly Genik

THE NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM OF ART
Kansas City, Missouri, Architects: Steven Holl Architects, Associate Architects: Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell

156 WEST SUPERIOR CONDOMINIUMS
Chicago, Illinois, Architects: The Miller|Hull Partnership, Associate Architects: Studio Dwell Inc.

“The American Architecture Awards” have become the foremost, prestigious awards program for public recognition for Excellence in Architecture in the United States both nationally and internationally. The Awards identify the new cutting-edge design direction, urban philosophy, design approach, style, and intellectual substance in American Architecture today.

The Chicago Athenaeum, founded in the historic city where modern architecture was first realized by Louis H. Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe, is the only Museum of Architecture and Design in the United States and functions internationally as one of the foremost museums dedicated to both architecture and industrial design.

MEDEU SPORTS CENTER
Almaty, Kazakhstan, Architects: Audrey Matlock Architect

THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM
New York, New York, Architects: Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects LLP.

ALEXANDRIA EGYPT MASTER PLAN
Alexandria, Egypt, Architects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.

For “The American Architecture Awards” 2008, the Museum received hundreds of submissions from the best and most renowned design firms in the United States and international firms working in the US.

The submissions ranged from new corporate headquarters, skyscrapers, institutions, sports and transportation facilities, airports, urban planning projects, retail stores, hospitals, sacred spaces, and private residences and multi-family housing designed by architects in their countries of origin or abroad for both built and unbuilt projects alike, as of January 1, 2006.

TYROL TOWER
Wörgl, Austria, Architects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.

THE NEW BEIJING POLY PLAZA
Beijing, China, Architects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.

SALT POINT HOUSE
Salt Point, New York, Architects: Thomas Pfifer & Partners

The Awards Program is also open to all international architecture offices and U.S. firms with projects outside the United States, as well as international architecture firms building in the US.

This year’s jury for awards took place in Athens, Greece with the participation of noted Greek architectural practitioners, educators, government leaders, and architecture journalists serving as jury members including:

• Maro Kardamitsi-Adami, Architect, and Curator, Neohellenic Archives, Benaki Museum, Athens
• Pavlos Doukas, Architect, Pavlos Doukas Architect, Athens and Former Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
• The Honorable Christophe Farnaud, Ambassador, Embassy of France, Athens
• Argyro Konstantinidou, Sculptor/Architectural Consultant, Greece
• Manolis Anastasakis, Architect and Editor, greekarchitects.gr., Athens

The “American Architecture Awards” is curated and organized by Christian K. Narkiewicz-Laine, Director/President, The Chicago Athenaeum and assisted by Lary L. Sommers, Director of Administration/Marketing, The Chicago Athenaeum, and Kieran Conlon, Director/COO, The European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies, Dublin.

PERFORMING ARTS CENTER CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco, California, Architects: LMN Architects

MONTECITO RESIDENCE
Santa Barbara, California, Architects: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MUSEUM OF ART
Ann Arbor, Michigan, Architects: Allied Works Architecture, Associate Architects: I.D.S.

Sixty-six (66) buildings in Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Washington, DC., Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Additionally, the jury selected skyscrapers and large-planning projects in Austria, Egypt, France, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, The People’s Republic of China, and the United Arab Emirates.

Projects selected include new corporate headquarters, schools and universities, government buildings, memorials, libraries, art museums, foundation headquarters, transit projects, retail facilities, hospitals, residences, and single-family homes.

TRANSBAY TRANSIT CENTER: TERMINAL AND TOWER
San Francisco, California, Architects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.

SANTA MONICA CIVIC CENTER PARKING STRUCTURE
Santa Monica, California, Architects: Moore Ruble Yudell Architects and Planners Associate Architects: International Parking Design

UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS CASE MEDICAL CENTER CANCER HOSPITAL
Cleveland, Ohio, Architects: Cannon Design

Skyscrapers and office buildings were selected this year by the Greek jury, signaling an ever-growing European concern for smaller more intimate building types, an awareness of energy conservation and sustainability, and profound respect for the built and human environments as well as abstract shapes that twist, bend, spin, and defy gravity.

All awarded projects can be found on-line at The Chicago Athenaeum’s website at www.chi-athenaeum.org.

“Now in its second decade as perhaps the most significant awards from for new distinguished buildings in the United States, The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd., together with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, have organized this annual Museum program, “The American Architecture Awards,” as a way in which to draw significant world attention to new buildings and urban planning projects being built and designed globally by the best and most prestigious American architecture offices and design firms,” states Christian K. Narkiewicz-Laine.

“The wide geographic distribution of these awards attests to the importance of the program,” Mr. Narkiewicz-Laine adds. “There is no one, single program that brings together the latest cutting-edge international architecture today as one cohesive universal representation or platform for American design. Our Museum is honored to provide a focus that allows an exploration and analysis for current stylistic directions and philosophical thinking that is apparent in contemporary design today.”

BEIJING FINANCE STREET
Beijing, PRC, Architects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.

TREE HOUSE
Wilmington, Delaware, Architects: Sander Architects, LLC.

NASHVILLE PUBLIC SQUARE
Nashville, Tennessee, Architects: Tuck-Hinton Architects, Associate Architects: WRT, LLC., Landscape Architects: Hawkins Partners, Inc.

“The program has a unique educational mission and public profile with the intent of promoting and celebrating the latest, most cutting-edge international design to a national and international audience,” Mr. Narkiewicz-Laine continues.

The awarded projects for 2008 and other selected works will form an exhibition, “New American Architecture” to open at SESV Santa Verdiana (piazza Lorenzo Ghiberti 27) in Florence, Italy in November, 2008. The exhibition and awards presentation is organized by the Municipality of Florence and the Faculty of Architecture in Florence. After, the exhibition travels to The European Centre’s new Contemporary Art + Architecture Centre in Athens.

In 2009, the exhibition will start a national tour in the United States.

The 2009 deadline for submissions for “The American Architecture Awards” is FEBRUARY 1, 2009. Get more information on this competition here.