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Announcing the winners of the 2018 AN Best of Design Awards

Meet the Queens

Announcing the winners of the 2018 AN Best of Design Awards

Infrastructure: Confluence Park, Lake|Flato Architects and Matsys (Casey Dunn)

The 2018 AN Best of Design Awards was our most exceptional yet. After expanding the contest to a whopping 45 categories and opening the competition to all of North America (including Canada and Mexico), we received more than 800 submissions, which made the judging more difficult than ever. An impressive range of projects came from firms big and small all over the continent.

While we were surprised by the quantity of submissions, we were not surprised by the quality of the work put forth by architects and designers both familiar and new. There were some telling trends in this year’s submissions. First, our drawing categories received more and better entries than ever before. This resurgence in drawing, both analog and digital, seems to mirror what we see in the field: moving away from hi-fi digital photorealism toward more personal drawings utilizing a variety of techniques. See pages 70 and 71 for this year’s winners. It was also a good year for exhibition design, which you can see on page 22.

For our Building of the Year award, our esteemed jury was fiercely divided between two exemplary but very different projects. The final debate came down to SCHAUM/SHIEH’s Transart Foundation—a private gallery across from the Menil campus in Houston—and NADAAA’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. SCHAUM/SHIEH’s relatively small but mighty building employs punched-through balconies and a blurred program to utilize the space to maximum effect.

Meanwhile, NADAAA’s extension and renovation of a 19th-century neo-Gothic building includes dramatic, complex lunettes that let in Aalto-esque light. In the end, the jury chose the scrappy Houston project, but the decision really could have gone either way. The panel members were also enamored with the quotidian allure of the Saxum Vineyards Equipment Barn in Paso Robles, California, by Clayton + Little Architects. See this year’s winner and finalists starting on page 14.

Our jury this year was incredible as always, with a very talented group (see opposite page) who engaged in spirited discussion and refined the way we look at architecture. It is always good to get more people involved in the conversation, and we are always shifting our views on what is relevant and interesting. We hope you enjoy learning more about this year’s winners and honorable mentions, and we look forward to hearing from you next year as we keep searching for the best architecture and design in North America!
—William Menking and Matt Shaw

We will be updating this list over the next few days with winner and honorable mention profiles. To see the complete feature, don’t miss our 2018 Best of Design Awards Annual issue, out now!

2018 AN Best of Design Awards

Building of the Year
Winner
Transart Foundation
SCHAUM/SHIEH
Houston

Finalists
Daniels Building
NADAAA
Toronto

Saxum Vineyard Equipment Bard
Clayton + Little
Paso Robles, California

Public
Winner
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Marble Fairbanks
New York

Honorable Mentions
Banc of California Stadium
Gensler
Los Angeles

River’s Edge Pavilion
Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture
Council Bluffs, Iowa

Urban Design
Winner
Triboro Corridor
Only If and One Architecture & Urbanism
New York: Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx

Honorable Mentions
Los Angeles River Gateway
AECOM
Los Angeles

North Branch Framework Plan for the Chicago River
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Chicago

Cultural
Winner
Transart Foundation
SCHAUM/SHIEH
Houston

Honorable Mentions
Magazzino Italian Art
MQ Architecture
Cold Spring, New York

The ICA Watershed
Anmahian Winton Architects
Boston

Exhibition Design
Winner
Arakawa and Madeline Gins: Eternal Gradient
Norman Kelley
New York

Honorable Mentions
Living in America: Frank Lloyd Wright, Harlem, and Modern Housing
Leong Leong and Project Projects
New York

Visionaire: AMAZE
Rafael de Cárdenas / Architecture at Large and Sahra Motalebi
New York

Facades
Winner
Amazon Spheres
NBBJ
Vitro Architectural Glass
Seattle

Honorable Mentions
The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Center at Cornell Tech
Morphosis
PPG
New York

Museum Garage
WORKac, J. Mayer H., Nicolas Buffe, Clavel Arquitectos, and K/R
Miami

Small Spaces
Winner
Sol Coffee Mobile Espresso Bar
Hyperlocal Workshop
Longmont, Colorado

Honorable Mentions
Cabin on a Rock
I-Kanda Architects
White Mountains region, New Hampshire

Birdhut
Studio North
Windermere, British Columbia

Infrastructure
Winner
Confluence Park
Lake|Flato Architects and Matsys
San Antonio

Honorable Mentions
Rainbow Bridge
SPF:architects
Long Beach, California

Los Angeles Union Station Metro Bike Hub
Architectural Resources Group
Los Angeles

Commercial — Office
Winner
NVIDIA Headquarters
Gensler
Santa Clara, California

Honorable Mention
C3
Gensler
Arktura
Culver City, California

Commercial — Retail
Winner
FLEX
LEVER Architecture
Portland, Oregon

Honorable Mention
COS Chicago Oak Street
COS in-house architectural team
Chicago

Commercial — Hospitality
Winner
Saxum Vineyard Equipment Barn
Clayton & Little
Paso Robles, California

Honorable Mention
Brightline
Rockwell Group
Florida: Miami, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando

Green Building
Winner
Orchid Educational Pavilion
FGP Atelier
Oaxaca, Mexico

Honorable Mention
R.W. Kern Center
Bruner/Cott Architects
Amherst, Massachusetts

Interior — Workplace
Winner
Expensify Headquarters
ZGF Architects
Pure+FreeForm
Portland, Oregon

Honorable Mentions
CANOPY Jackson Square
M-PROJECTS
San Francisco

Dollar Shave Club Headquarters
Rapt Studio
Marina del Rey, California

Interior — Institutional
Winner
Brooklyn Aozora Gakuen
Inaba Williams
Brooklyn, New York

Honorable Mention
Jackie and Harold Spielman Children’s Library, Port Washington Public Library
Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership
Port Washington, New York

Interior — Retail
Winner
Jack Erwin Flagship Store
MILLIØNS
New York

Honorable Mention
Valextra Bal Harbour Shops
Aranda\Lasch
Miami

Interior — Hospitality
Winner
Hunan Slurp
New Practice Studio
New York

Honorable Mentions
City of Saints, Bryant Park
Only If
New York

Sant Ambroeus Coffee Bar at Hanley
Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture
New York

Interior — Healthcare
Winner
NYDG Integral Health & Wellness
Brandon Haw Architecture
New York

Honorable Mention
Studio Dental II
Montalba Architects
San Francisco

Healthcare
Winner
Phoenix Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building, University of Arizona
CO Architects
Phoenix

Honorable Mention
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center
Fong & Chan Architects
San Francisco

Interior — Residential
Winner
15th St
Mork Ulnes Architects
San Francisco

Honorable Mentions
Fort Greene Place
Matter of Architecture
Brooklyn, New York

Little House. Big City
Office of Architecture
Brooklyn, New York

Residential — Single Unit
Winner
Terreno House
Fernanda Canales
Mexico Federal State, Mexico

Honorable Mentions
Sky House
Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster
Stoney Lake, Ontario

V-Plan
Studio B Architects
Aspen, Colorado

Residential — Multi Unit
Winner
St. Thomas / Ninth
OJT
New Orleans

Honorable Mentions
Tolsá 61
CPDA Arquitectos
Mexico City

Elysian Fields
Warren Techentin Architecture
Los Angeles

Landscape — Residential
Winner
Folding Planes Garden
Colwell Shelor Landscape Architecture
Paradise Valley, Arizona

Honorable Mentions
Greenwich Village Townhouse Garden
XS Space
New York

Landscape — Public
Winner
Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park
SWA/BALSLEY and WEISS/MANFREDI with Arup
Queens, New York

Honorable Mentions
Naval Cemetery Memorial Landscape
Marvel Architects and NBWLA
Brooklyn, New York

Ghost Cabin
SHED Architecture & Design
Seattle

Education
Winner
Daniels Building
NADAAA
Toronto

Honorable Mentions
UCSB San Joaquin Student Housing
Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects
Santa Barbara, California

Sherman and Joyce Bowie Scott Hall at Carnegie Mellon University
OFFICE 52 Architecture
Pittsburgh

Lighting — Outdoor
Winner
Spectra, Coachella
NEWSUBSTANCE
Indio, California

Honorable Mention
National Holocaust Monument
Focus Lighting
Studio Libeskind
Ottawa

Lighting — Indoor
Winner
The Lobster Club at the Seagram Building
L’Observatoire International
New York

Honorable Mention
Midtown Professional Education Center, Weill Cornell Medicine
Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design
New York

Restoration & Preservation
Winner
100 Barclay
DXA Studio
New York

Honorable Mentions
Hotel Henry at the Richardson Olmsted Campus
Deborah Berke Partners
Buffalo, New York

Using Digital Innovation to Preserve Taliesin West
Leica Geosystems, Multivista, and Matterport
Scottsdale, Arizona

Building Renovation
Winner
1217 Main Street
5G Studio Collaborative
Dallas

Honorable Mention
1824 Sophie Wright Place
studioWTA
New Orleans

Adaptive Reuse
Winner
San Francisco Art Institute at Fort Mason
Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects
San Francisco

Honorable Mentions
Empire Stores
S9 Architecture, STUDIO V, and Perkins Eastman
Brooklyn, New York

Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep
JGMA
Waukegan, Illinois

Temporary Installation
Winner
Trickster
studio:indigenous
Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Honorable Mentions
Blue Marble Circus
DESIGN EARTH
Boston

85 Broad Street Ground Mural
FXCollaborative
New York

New Materials
Winner
Cyclopean Cannibalism
Matter Design
Seoul, South Korea

Honorable Mentions
One Thousand Museum
Zaha Hadid Architects and ODP Architects
Miami

Clastic Order
T+E+A+M
San Francisco

Digital Fabrication
Winner
260 Kent
COOKFOX Architects
Brooklyn, New York

Honorable Mentions
A.V. Bath House
Facilities Design Group
Custer, Michigan

MARS Pavilion
Form Found Design
Los Angeles

Representation — Digital
Winner
Fake Earths: A Planetary Theater Play
NEMESTUDIO

Honorable Mention
Cosmorama
DESIGN EARTH

Representation — Analog
Winner
Public Sediment for Alameda Creek
SCAPE
California: Fremont, Newark, and Union City

Honorable Mentions
Adidas P.O.D. Plexus
Standard

Set the Objective
SAW // Spiegel Aihara Workshop

Young Architects Award
Winner
Runaway
SPORTS
Santa Barbara, California

Honorable Mentions
Noodle Soup
office ca
Lake Forest, Illinois

Malleable Monuments
The Open Workshop
San Francisco

Student Work
Winner
mise-en-sand
Jonah Merris, University of California, Berkeley

Honorable Mentions
Cloud Fabuland
Eleonora Orlandi, SCI-Arc

Real Fake
James Skarzenski, University of California, Berkeley

Research
Winner
Stalled!
JSA

Honorable Mentions
Marine Education Center
Lake|Flato Architects
Ocean Springs,Mississippi

After Bottles; Second Lives
ANAcycle design + writing studio/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Brooklyn, New York and Troy, New York

Unbuilt — Residential
Winner
Brooklyn Senior Affordable Housing
Only If
Brooklyn, New York

Honorable Mentions
150 Central Park South penthouse
SPAN Architecture
New York

Courtyard House
Inaba Williams
Santa Monica, California

Unbuilt — Urban
Winner
Whitmore Community Food Hub Complex
University of Arkansas Community Design Center
Wahiawa, Hawaii

Honorable Mentions
The Hydroelectric Canal
Paul Lukez Architecture
Boston

Brooklyn Navy Yard Master Plan
WXY
Brooklyn, New York

Unbuilt — Interior
Winner
Children’s Institute
DSH // architecture
Long Beach, California

Honorable Mention
Holdroom of the Future
Corgan

Unbuilt — Commercial
Winner
Uber Sky Tower
Pickard Chilton
Los Angeles

Honorable Mention
Nansha Scholar’s Tower
Synthesis Design + Architecture and SCUT Architectural Design & Research Institute
Nansha, China

Unbuilt — Cultural
Winner
Beggar’s Wharf Arts Complex
Ten to One
Rockland, Maine

Honorable Mention
NXTHVN
Deborah Berke Partners
New Haven, Connecticut

Unbuilt — Education
Winner
Arizona State University Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 7
Studio Ma
Tempe, Arizona

Honorable Mentions
Bedford Stuyvesant Community Innovation Campus
Ten to One
Brooklyn, New York

80 Flatbush Public Schools
Architecture Research Office
Brooklyn, New York

Unbuilt — Green
Winner
6 Industrial Way Office Park
Touloukian Touloukian
Salem, New Hampshire

Honorable Mention
Cooling Tower for Chicago Spire site
Greyscale Architecture
Chicago

Unbuilt — Public
Winner
The American Construct
Christopher Myefski
American West

Honorable Mentions
Urban Canopy
Buro Koray Duman
New York

Anacostia Water Tower
Höweler + Yoon Architecture
Washington, D.C.

Unbuilt — Landscape
Winner
Greers Ferry Water Garden
University of Arkansas Community Design Center
Heber Springs, Arkansas

Honorable Mention
Murchison Rogers Park
Surroundings
El Paso, Texas

A special thanks to our 2018 AN Best of Design Awards Jury!

Tei Carpenter Founder, Agency—Agency

Andrés Jaque Founder, Office for Political Innovation

William Menking Editor-in-Chief, The Architect’s Newspaper

Pratik Raval Associate Director, Transsolar

Jesse Reiser Principal, Reiser + Umemoto

Matt Shaw Executive Editor, The Architect’s Newspaper

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