SO–IL's Amant Art Campus wins Best New Building in the 2021 MASterworks Awards

SO–IL’s Amant Art Campus in Brooklyn has been awarded Best New Building in the 2021 MASterworks Awards. 

The Municipal Art Society of New York’s MASterworks Awards honors projects that make a significant contribution to New York City’s built environment. The art campus is the home of Brooklyn-based non-profit arts organization Amant. A collection of four buildings comprise the site, separated by a series of courtyards and arteries that connect to the surrounding area. It houses exhibition galleries, a performance space, a bookstore and café as well as an independent studio residency.

“Urbanistically, the project successfully infilled several plots to create linkages in the neighborhood’s fabric that broke down the scale of the street,” said MASterworks Jury Member Calvin Tsao. “There are also inspired and poetic uses of standard materials like concrete and brick that blended within the context, yet at the same time stand out in an alluring way. Overall, it is by far the most sophisticated and elegant project formally and architecturally in this category, and therefore wins hands down.”

The Amant Art Campus is joined by OLIN’s Pier 26 at Hudson River Park for Best Urban Landscape, the Prospect Park Alliance’s Endale Arch for Best Restoration, Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library for Best Adaptive Reuse, HOK and WSP’s LaGuardia Terminal B Arrivals and Departures Hall for Best New Infrastructure, and the New York City Department of Design and Construction’s, in collaboration with landscape architects Quennell Rothschild & Partners, Newtown Creek Nature Walk for Best Urban Amenity.

Special recognition was given to NYC Open Streets, organized by the New York City Department of Transportation, and Neighborhoods Now: Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation with Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. 

On Monday, November 15, from 3:00 to 5:00 P.M., MAS is hosting an in-person visit to the Amant Art Campus, where visitors will be able to hear from Amant Foundation Founder and CEO Lonti Ebers and SO–IL Principal Florian Idenburg, RA, AIA-IA. A detailed list of upcoming MASterworks programs can be viewed here.