No AIA 25-Year Award for 2018: What would you nominate from 1983-1993?

[pdxstreetcar]

Since the jury that represents all 90,000 AIA members couldn't come up with one building built between 1983 and 1993 that is good and has stood the test of time, what would you nominate from this often maligned era of architecture?

Why the AIA is NOT Awarding Anyone the Twenty-Five Year Award in 2018
https://www.archdaily.com/886909/why...-award-in-2018

The AIA award recognizes buildings that have “stood the test of time for 25-35 years and continues to set the standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance.”

"The jury felt that there were submissions that appeal to architects and there were those that appeal to the public. The consensus was that the Twenty-five Year Award should appeal to both. Unfortunately, this year the jury did not find a submission that it felt achieved twenty-five years of exceptional aesthetic and cultural relevance while also representing the timelessness and positive impact the profession aspires to achieve."

Prior Winners:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-five_Year_Award

[Steely Dan]

keeping things exclusively in the tower realm for the moment, helmut jahn's one liberty place (1987) in philly is about as good as skyscraper po-mo gets, IMHO.

it also nicely straddles the line between respect within the profession and fairly widespread public acclaim, and it has held up very well over the decades.


source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Place

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Agreed on that one being in the running.

I don't know why it is such a maligned period. There are a lot of very interesting and great buildings that continue to influence architecture now.

I'd give some consideration for:

HSBC Buildilng in Hong Kong
Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong
Tokyo Metropolitan Building in Toyko
Fountain Place in Dallas

My winner would probably be HSBC, although I have soft spot for Fountain Place's form and the beauty of Bank of China.

[Steely Dan]

^ the AIA 25 year award is only available to buildings designed by american architecture firms (but the building itself does not have to be located in the US).

HSBC hong kong (Foster) and tokyo metropolitan building (Tange) would not qualify.

but BOC hong kong and fountain place dallas are both great qualifying contenders from that time period as well.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I didn't know that fact, although it makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

[pdxstreetcar]

I did notice Renzo Piano Menil Collection in Houston was a prior winner, curious how that made it due to the firm location requirement. But you are certainly right about that being a requirement. Agreed about Liberty Place. I would call it maligned since it was a low point for Modernism and the exact era of Postmodernism, all architects love Modernism.

I could see some of these:
-O'Hare United Terminal - Chicago - Jahn - seems to me an obvious shortlisted choice
-World Financial Center - NYC - Pelli (or some other Pelli project of the era like Canary Wharf Tower or Liberty Place)
-Pioneer Courthouse Square - Portland (they gave a recent one to the DC Metro so this should qualify) - successful iconic public space with buildings, still the modern day model for building new urban public squares, just restored to original (minus the fountain which is still 1990s beige and not the original 1984 purple)
-333 Wacker Drive - Chicago - KPF - this seems to me like the obvious choice since has stood the test of time and is from 1983, the last year to be eligible but theres some other KPF projects of the era that would be good alternates like Proctor & Gamble Cincinnati, 900 Michigan Chicago, 1201 Third Seattle, Mellon Bank Center Philly, etc
-Mississauga City Hall - maybe ineligible if no American connection - probably the most successful PoMo
-Swan & Dolphin Hotel (or Humana Building) - full-on Graves
-Camden Yards - it did create a generation of urban brick ballparks which continues to this day
-Holocaust Memorial Museum - DC - Pei Cobb Freed
-Rowes Wharf - Boston - SOM

Anyhow unless they refuse to give this award over the next decade, some of these may be considered in the future. Most likely some of these firms chose not to submit projects since they have turned their back on this era and only do sleek minimal glass towers now.

[surplusQ]

I'd think Bank of America tower in Charlotte (1992) and One Detroit Center (1993) would be in the running.


Source: Michael D. Davis http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3386/...e49d5f31_o.jpg




Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ally_Detroit_Center

[LouisVanDerWright]

Yeah, how silly, there's tons of good architecture from this period. I was thinking of 333 W Wacker as soon as I saw this. But the towers in Philly, Charlotte, and Detroit all make the cut to me as well. Perhaps it's the popularity with the public thing they are looking for and these aren't standout landmarks as much as they would like?

Regardless, it's absurd to suggest there is not one design that makes the cut this year. I could probably come up with 25 buildings in Chicago alone that are worthy. Here's another great one: NBC Tower in Chicago, clad in all real stone, looks exactly like something out of the 1920's except you just can't put your finger on what is off. What is off is that it was built in 1989 and has just a hair of that lovely tongue-in-cheek Pomo attitude. It's clearly deco, but a little too deco which is the only way you can tell it's not actually from that era.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by pdxstreetcar

-333 Wacker Drive - Chicago - KPF - this seems to me like the obvious choice since has stood the test of time and is from 1983, the last year to be eligible but theres some other KPF projects of the era that would be good alternates like........... 900 Michigan Chicago......

333 W wacker?

hell yes!


source: http://interactive.wttw.com/remember...t-wacker-drive








900 N michigan?

hell no!


source: http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/buil...gan-avenue/708

[Jasoncw]

I can see why they'd have trouble.

On the architect's side there's the postmodernism that is an intellectual movement that is complicated and very difficult for the general public to understand.

On the public's side you have a bunch of corporate office towers and other buildings which use historical and decorative elements because the public likes them better and thus they are more profitable. The pomo office tower is just a more luxurious and business oriented version of the pomo strip mall, the pomo walgreens, and the pomo mcmansion. Spiritually they are the same. And while the public finds those buildings more agreeable they haven't seemed to latch onto them as being iconic or important.

Looking through the list of previous winners, I can't think of anything off the top of my head that deserves to be on that list. Rockefeller Center is an American icon, which also strong in terms of architectural theory (it's much more modernist than people think). Crow Island School is a lovely building in itself, but was also very influential in the way that it encouraged new teaching methods and a new conception of what a school was. Practically every midcentury elementary school in the country (and there are a lot of them!) is a copy of Crow Island. Although to be completely honest the winners seem to get worse and worse as it gets closer to the present.

[munchymunch]

Wells Fargo Tower Minneapolis



insta:andrewparfenov

[pdxstreetcar]

Several speculating on the why no award was awarded...

No Twenty-five Year Award this year: Is this a slap at postmodernism?
Blair Kamin
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...126-story.html

Blair thinks they should have gone with 333 Wacker.

Is Architecture Ashamed Of Postmodernism?
Fast Company Design
https://www.fastcodesign.com/9015760...-postmodernism