2019 AIA Awards - Architecture
Interior of National Museum of African American History and Culture
The 2019 Architecture program celebrates the best contemporary architecture regardless of budget, size, style, or type. These stunning projects show the world the range of outstanding work architects create and highlight the many ways buildings and spaces can improve our lives.
Arlington Elementary School
An exploration of the spatial possibilities that emerge when schools are envisioned as living, breathing organisms, this Tacoma, Washington, elementary school eschews basic assumptions and promotes a new model of civic practice in education.
Casey House
A much-needed extension and addition for a specialized healthcare facility serving those living with HIV/AIDS, Toronto’s Casey House represents a new prototype for hospitals.
Confluence Park
Along the bank of the San Antonio River, Confluence Park is a living laboratory designed to broaden its visitors’ understanding of south Texas ecotypes and the impact of urban development on local watersheds.
Crosstown Concourse
Reviving a retail distribution center that had stood abandoned since the early 1980s, this 1.3 million-square-foot vertical urban village in Memphis has transformed urban blight into a vibrant community.
Restoration of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia
This restoration of the symbolic center of the University of Virginia—widely considered Thomas Jefferson’s single most important architectural achievement—relies on the highest level of historic preservation and building conservation care.
Smart Factory
Standing out among the bland office parks and faceless warehouses along I-90 just northwest of Chicago, the Smart Factory houses a prototypical showroom of advanced machine tools used to fold and shape sheet metal.
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
The culmination of a decades-long journey toward commemorating black history and culture, the new museum establishes strong connections to its site on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and the nation’s long-overlooked African American heritage.
Starter Home* No. 4-15, Saint Thomas/Ninth
he continuation of the architect’s Starter Home* initiative, which delivers entry-level homes to historic urban neighborhoods that are quickly gentrifying, Saint Thomas/Ninth renegotiates existing site conditions in New Orleans to maximize residential density.
TIRPITZ Museum
A sanctuary situated on a dramatic war-history site on Denmark’s west coast, this museum has transformed a never-completed German bunker into a groundbreaking cultural complex.
Image credits
Alan Karchmer