AMERICAN
ARCHITECTURE 2003  An Exhibition and Distinguished Buildings Awards Program |
Introduction
The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design has organized the sixth annual "American Architecture Awards ®" as a way in which to honor new architecture designed in the United States.
Hundreds of submissions for this Awards program were
received from architecture firms across the United States. Twenty-four
significant new projects have been selected and are honored with the 2003
"American Architecture Award."
Those award projects are featured in an exhibition, "New American Architecture," which opened April 3, 2004 at The Chicago Athenaeum at Schaumburg (190 South Roselle Road, Schaumburg, Illinois) continues through summer 2004. The exhibition gives the publican opportunity to discover and appreciate the best new American Architecture of our time.
In July, 2003, a jury of distinguished Mexican architects and educators chose 24 unique designs for new corporate headquarters, skyscrapers, institutions, sports and transportation facilities, interiors, urban planning projects, commemorative monuments, and residences for awards.
The jury for the American Architecture Awards was organized by Felipe Leal, Dean, Department of Architecture, National University of Mexico, Mexico City, D.F. The jury members were prominent members of Mexico’s architecture community:
In this year’s edition, the Mexican educator architects favored stronger theoretical works created by smaller established and upcoming design firms in the United States. The emphasis of the jury leaned more toward the direction experimental ideas rather than standard safer and traditional forms of building and spaces. Such projects as elaborate monuments as Thompson, Ventulett Stainback & Associates’ 21st Century Monument in Dalian, China were indicative of the bold direction of the jury. Additionally, smaller scale residential architecture, which combined materials in a neat and orderly way and the superb aesthetic, if not sensational, Billboard House/Office by Office of Metropolitan Design, Inc., were the primary winners in this jury’s opinion.
This year’s awards program honors new (2001-2003) corporate, institutional, commercial, and residential architecture, built in the U.S. or abroad by a U.S. architectural firm, both built and unbuilt projects alike. International firms headquartered outside the United States were eligible to submit projects built only in the United States. Two of the selected works in this year’s program were built and designed in foreign countries—21sts Century in Dalian, China Monument by Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates and the Culture and Administrative Complex in Montreal, Canada by Cannon Design. Other winning projects across the United States—from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s PSAC/Public Service Answering Cener in New York to Eric Owen Moss Architects’ Conjunctive Points Gateway—reflect the diverse architectural thinking found in contemporary American design today.
