Announcing the winners of the 2020 AN Best of Design Awards – The Architect’s Newspaper

In their editorial accompanying last years Best of Design magazine, AN editor in chief Bill Menking and then-executive editor Matt Shaw observed a tendency toward muted color and understated form among the winners. They asked if this was evidence of a broader trend or if 2019 was just a quiet year.

As we close out 2020, we might flip the interrogative emphasis around. Do this years Best of Design honorees reflect the tumultuous events of the previous 12 months? The short answer is yes: Both the Project of the Year and the first runner-upthe Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia and the 1199SEIU member spaces in New York, respectivelyaddress Americas fraught history of race, albeit in different ways. The former circumscribes a space for mournful contemplation by making an earthly incision, while the latter emanates the moral optimism of another age.

And yet the answer could just as easily be no. The majority of the winning projects were completed in mid-to-late 2019 or early this year, just skirting the construction lockdowns of April and May and the street protests of June and July. These forcesexogenous, perhaps, to the AEC sectors but not to society at largewere most likely to affect the operations of the buildings and interiors compiled in the following pages, rather than their final form.

So, if we are unable to draw any determinative aesthetic trends, what can we say about these projects? What attributes connect these 47 discrete works, representing a total of 50 categories and culled from more than 800 submissions? To begin with, the quality of the submissions has rarely been stronger or, as mentioned above, more timely. A few were especially creative in the face of current constraints, particularly Outpost Offices Drawing Fields, the winner in the Temporary Installation category; the project employs roving robots to reimagine a performance venue for the COVID-19 era.

Meanwhile, Koning Eizenbergs MuseumLab in Pittsburgh and Adjaye Associates Webster retail store in Los Angeles underscores the importance of mood to interior spaces. Marlon Blackwell Architects Thaden School Bike Barn, which took the top prize in the InstitutionalKindergartens, Primary & High Schools category, is the cheeriestand, thanks to its wood slat enclosure, breeziestproject. And is there a more ideal locale for self-isolating than PRODUCTORAs Bautista House, whose residents are shielded by a Yucatan nature reserve?

In closing, wed like to thank our talented cast of jurors, who gave our submissions the discerning scrutiny they all deserve. Wed also like to point the reader to the 2020 Best of Product winners. While many are particularly well suited to the new normal, they certainly arent constrained by it. We hope that all the work contained in this issue inspires and provokes in equal measure.

We will be updating this list over the next few days with winner and honorable mention profiles (part 1 here). To see the complete feature, dont miss our 2020 Best of Design Awards Annual issue, out now!

Winner

Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia

Howeler + Yoon Architecture in collaboration with Mabel O. Wilson, Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect, Frank Dukes, and Eto Otitigbe

Charlottesville, Virginia

Finalists

1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers EastAdjaye AssociatesNew York City

Winter Visual Arts BuildingSteven Holl ArchitectsLancaster, Pennsylvania

Winner

Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia

Howeler + Yoon Architecture in collaboration with Mabel O. Wilson, Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect, Frank Dukes, and Eto Otitigbe

Charlottesville, Virginia

Honorable Mention

Conference House Park PavilionSage and Coombe Architects

FDNY Rescue Company 2Studio Gang

Javits Center Medical Station & Temporary HospitalDi Domenico + Partners

MLK1101 Supportive HousingLorcan OHerlihy Architects

Editors Picks

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Concourse D AnnexHOK

High Line Section 3, Phase 2Sciame ConstructionDiller Scofidio + RenfroJames Corner Field Operations

DineOut NYCRockwell Group

GirlsInc. Of Memphis, Urban Centers-South Park & LFTarchimania

Winner

The Peninsula

WXY ArchitectureBody Lawson AssociatesElizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect

The Bronx

Honorable Mentions

Eastern market Neighborhood Framework and Stormwater Management Network PlanUtile

Moscone Center ExpansionLandscape architect: CMG Landscape ArchitectureArchitects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and Mark Cavagnero Associates

Editors Picks

Essex market and The Market LineSHoP ArchitectsHugh A. Boyd ArchitectsFormactiv

Mulberry CommonsSage and Coombe Architects

Winner

Mill 19 at Hazelwood Green

Ten x TenMSR DesignR3A

Pittsburgh

Honorable Mention

Chicago Botanic Garden: Regenstein Learning CampusMikyoung Kim DesignJacobs/Ryan AssociatesBooth Hansen

Water Conservation Garden at Red Butte GardenStudio Outside

Editors Picks

Houston Botanic GardenWest 8 Urban Design & Landscape ArchitectureClark Condon AssociatesOverland PartnersDykema Architects

The Aga Khan Garden, AlbertaNelson Byrd Woltz Landscape ArchitectsDIALOG

Winner

The New St. Pete Pier

Rogers PartnersASD/SKYKen Smith WorkshopBooth Design Group

St. Petersburg, Florida

Honorable Mention

BrightlineSkidmore, Owings & Merrill with Zyscovich Architects

PG&E Larkin Street Substation ExpansionTEF Design

Editors Picks

Grand Avenue Park BridgeLMN Architects

Winner

MuseumLab

Koning Eizenberg ArchitectsPerfido Weiskopf Wagstaff + Goettel Architects

Pittsburgh

Honorable Mention

Preserve at 620Nelsen Partners

Rejuvenation of a Historic Powerhouse, San FranciscoMarcy Wong Donn Logan Architects

Editors Picks

122 Community Arts CenterDeborah Berke Partners

The MomentaryWheeler Kearns Architects

Winner

Victorian Music Box

CCY Architects

Aspen, Colorado

Honorable Mention

215-225 West 28th StreetDXA studio

Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School ExpansionWheeler Kearns Architects

Editors Picks

Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall, University of OregonOFFICE 52 ArchitectureRowell Brokaw Architects

Enlace New OfficesCanopy/Architecture + Design

Winner

Atelier Cho Thompson

San Francisco and New Haven, Connecticut

Winner

West-Seattle Net Zero

SHED Architecture + Design

Seattle

Honorable Mention

DC Water HeadquartersSmithGroup

King Open/Cambridge Street Upper School and Community ComplexWilliam Rawn Associates with Arrowstreet Architecture & DesignLighting designer: HLB Lighting Design

Editors Picks

University of Victoria District Energy PlantDIALOG

Wheaton College Pine HallSGA

Winner

DPR Sacramento Headquarters

SmithGroup

Sacramento, Californi

Honorable Mention

The International WELL Building InstituteCOOKFOX Architects

University of Delaware The Tower at STAR CampusBernardonEcoWallsParker Interior Plantscape

Winner

The Reach at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Steven Holl ArchitectsBNIMHollander Design Landscape Architects

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Announcing the winners of the 2020 AN Best of Design Awards - The Architect's Newspaper