Triple A

In its news on The Chicago Athaneum's 2005 American Architecture Awards, Artdaily.com is both overly generous - "The American Architecture Awards has quickly become the nation's most prestigious awards program for new commercial, institutional and residential design" - and slightly mistaken - "[the awards] draw significant international attention to new buildings and planning projects being built and designed in the U.S." Though not as prestigious as the AIA Awards (that's my opinion, but how does one rate which or what is the most prestigious award?) - the "Triple A" is nevertheless an important award that draws attention to buildings and projects with a now rather tenuous relationship to American architecture overall.

33 projects received awards, exhibiting the following traits (with some overlap):

::7 are located overseas
::4 are by foreign architects
::5 are on the West coast
::9 are on the East coast
::11 are in-between

So even though the Athaneum says the Awards are "dedicated to the recognition of excellence in architecture in the United States," I hope the inclusion of foreign projects and architects isn't due to a shortage of quality in the submitted American projects. Outside of this little gripe, though, it's refreshing to see a majority of the awarded projects in the U.S. fall between the two coasts.

A handful of highlights:


The Porter House by SHoP, also featured on my weekly page


Holy Rosary Complex by Trahan Architects, also featured on my weekly page


222 Residence by Elliott + Associates


Belvedere Gardens by SMBW Architects, featured at Architecture Magazine


Children's Museum of Pittsburgh by Koning Eizenberg, featured at Metropolis (PDF link in new window)

(via Archinect and AIArchitect)