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Leers Weinzapfel Receives 2007 AIA Architecture Firm Award
Projects noted for commitment to ingenuity, resourcefulness, and design excellence
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For Immediate Release |
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Washington, D.C., December 7,
2006 — The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Board of Directors
voted today for Leers Weinzapfel Associates to receive the 2007 AIA
Architecture Firm Award based on its proven consistent ability to
accept complex challenges and envision design of elegant
distinction.
The AIA Architecture Firm Award, given annually, is the highest
honor the AIA bestows on an architecture firm and recognizes a
practice that consistently has produced distinguished architecture
for at least 10 years.
Partners Andrea P. Leers, FAIA; Jane Weinzapfel, FAIA; Joe Pryse,
AIA; and Josiah Stevenson, AIA, meld a bold and refined
architecture for the public realm, including transportation and
urban infrastructure, the joining of new elements to existing
buildings, and athletic and campus-life facilities.
Modernist precision appropriate to place
“Their commitment to the public realm and to the craft of
building in dramatically complex projects represents a remarkable
commitment to ingenuity, resourcefulness, and design excellence in
the most extreme circumstance,” writes David B. Greenbaum,
FAIA, chair of the AIA Committee on Design Firm Award Jury Task
Force in his nomination letter.
Greenbaum also offers this insight from architecture critic Robert
Campbell, FAIA: “Leers and Weinzapfel are architects who take
as much delight in a crisply machined joint as an old-time
craftsperson would take in an ornamental carving. For them,
Modernism is an aesthetic idea. Their building expresses that
conviction and triumphs in it.”
With a passion for material and detail exploration and desire to
create meaningful social interaction, the firm develops a refined
and tailor-made response to each set of project conditions. As
architecture critic Robert A. Kliment, FAIA, noted, “The work
appears to be driven by fundamental values, searching for
expression appropriate to the program and the place, and even to
the budget and the capacity of the builder.”
“Besides the exceptional quality of their portfolio, the firm
of Leers Weinzapfel is remarkably generous in their support of the
American architectural profession and the future of the
profession,” added Edward A. Feiner, FAIA, in his letter of
support.
James Steward Polshek, FAIA, focused his supportive comments on the
founding partners. “It would be nice to be gender blind,”
he writes, “but our social construct is not yet reconfigured
to allow that luxury. The fact is that for a woman-owned firm to
succeed as spectacularly as Leers Weinzapfel has required
persistence, diligence, and inventiveness.”
The firm has garnered more than 40 national and regional design
awards, including:
• Blue Hill Avenue Youth Development Center, Boston
• Cambridge School of Weston Mugar Center for the Performing
Arts, Weston, Mass.
• Harvard University Science Center Expansion, Cambridge,
Mass.
• MIT School of Architecture and Planning, Cambridge,
Mass.
• Operations Control Center, Boston
• U.S. District Courthouse, Worcester, Mass.
• University of Pennsylvania Gateway Building,
Philadelphia
Leers Weinzapfel and Associates also received letters of support
from Mack Scogin, AIA, and Adèle Naudé Santos, FAIA.
The award will be presented at the American Architectural
Foundation Accent on Architecture Gala February 9, 2007, at the
National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Previous recipients
include Moore Ruble Yudell (2006), Muphy/Jahn (2005), and
Lake/Flato Architects (2004).
About The American Institute of
Architects
For almost 150 years, members of The American Institute of
Architects have worked with each other and their communities to
create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings
and cityscapes. AIA members have access to the right people,
knowledge, and tools to create better design, and through such
resources and access, they help clients and communities make their
visions real. www.aia.org
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