8 projects receive the AIA’s 2020 Architecture Awards

Calgary Central Library, designed by Snøhetta and DIALOG, Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, designed by SOM Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Kaplan Institute at IIT in Chicago, by John Ronan Architects, the Floral Court in London, by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, Glenstone Museum in Potomac, designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners, Jishou Art Museum by Atelier FCJZ, the Minnesota State Capitol Restoration in St. Paul by HGA, and Tivoli Hjørnet in Copenhagen by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners are the eight contemporary architectural projects that will be presented with 2020 Architecture Awards by the American Institute of Architects, AIA.
Every year, the AIA jury chooses the buildings that will receive the award independently of size, style and type; extraordinary projects that make it clear even to non-specialists what architects do and reveal the many ways that the buildings and spaces they design can improve our lives.
The 2020 jury included nine prominent architects, clients and designers chaired by architect Samuel M. Miller, FAIA (Fellow of the American Institute of Architects) of LMN Architects. The eight winning projects were selected on the basis of a number of criteria, and were those which the jury considered to best interpret the sense of place, the purpose for which they were built, history and environmental sustainability.

The winning projects in 2020 included a large number of cultural buildings, as four out of the eight winning projects might be described as combining architecture and culture : a public library, two museums and an educational institute. Calgary Central Library, in Canada, was designed by Snøhetta and DIALOG, converting an unused area for construction of a building that now plays a vital role in the city with a characteristic glass façade that has become an important urban landmark, which the jury called “a true reflection of Calgary”. The expansion of the Glenstone Museum in Potomac by Thomas Phifer and Partners is set in a landscape that has been thoroughly revitalised, planting 6000 new trees of 55 local species, and the jury called it “a poetic integration of art, architecture and landscape". Jishou Art Museum by Atelier FCJZ is an important urban landmark in the city, a museum that brings art closer to the community and a building offering a contemporary interpretation of the tradition of covered bridges in this mountainous part of China.
The jury described Ed Kaplan Family Institute by John Ronan Architect as ”an academic building that combines functionality and sustainability into an elegant design solution...”. The institute is located in the heart of the historic IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) campus designed by Mies van Der Rohe, and promotes innovation and collaboration among faculty, students and alumni.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of AIA American Institute of Architects , photo by Michael Grimm (02-06), Iwan Baan (07-08), Tian Fangfang (09 -10), Steve Hall (11-12), Paul Crosby Architectural Photography (13), SOM / Lucas Blair Simpson (14), Tim Soar (15), Hufton + Crow (16)

2020 Architecture Awards by AIA American Institute of Architects https://www.aia.org/
Jury: Samuel M. Miller, FAIA (chair), LMN; Merrill Elam, AIA, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects; Rebecca Sharkey, AIA, EHDD; Dale Frens, AIA, patterhn ives, llc; Michael Johns, FAIA, NOMA, Mdesigns + MWJ Consulting LLC; Michelle Acosta, AIA, SmithGroupJJR; Trinity Simons, Mayor's Institute on City Design; Kevin Alter, Assoc. AIA, Alterstudio Architecture and Caleb Bertels., University of Arkansas.

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