THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE of Architecture has chosen its top buildings of the year to honor.
A total of 23 buildings and plans will receive the 2015 Institute Honor Awards, which recognizes extraordinary work in architecture, interior architecture, and urban design.
Featured here are 19 of the 23 buildings and designs from the architecture and interior architecture categories, chosen by a jury of the nation’s top architects.
The original Cambridge Public Library is a Romanesque masterpiece designed in 1889, but its size wasn’t adequate for its 2,000 daily visitors. The solution was a beautiful new 76,000-square-foot glass building seamless attached to the original structure, creating a huge, open, and inviting space open to all. (William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc.)
The Beats By Dre headquarters in Culver City, California was designed especially to be warm and inviting, as well as facilitate contact between the 650 employee’s different departments. Skylights, bright and airy spaces, warm woods, and walls panted blue and red help accomplish this goal. (Bestor Architecture)
The Danish National Maritime Museum was housed in the the Kronberg Castle in Elsinore (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), but was evicted so the interior could be renovated. It moved into a dry dock next door, forming a multi-tiered design with gentle sloping paths. (BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group)
Originally built between 1868 and 1888 by French architect Alfred Piquenard, the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois is a sight to behold. Its west wing has been completely restored to its former glory, and brought up to modern safety and energy standards. (Vinci Hamp Architects)
In a region lacking utilities and infrastructure, The Sant Lespwa, Center of Hope was designed to be self-sufficient with water collection, solar energy collection, and sewage treatment given priority. The construction used both local methods and materials and the center is the first phase of a new plan to provide community resources in Haiti. (Rothschild Doyno Collaborative)
A cutting edge research center deserves a cutting edge building. The Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology is a three story glass and steel structure on the University of Pennsylvania campus with a large amount of public space built specifically to encourage interaction among disciplines. (WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism)
The new Louisiana State Sports Hall of Fame and Regional History Museum uses abstract architecture to tell the story of two very important cultural items to the state: its history and its sports. (Trahan Architects)
The new Brockman Hall for Physics was created specifically to blend in with Rice University’s carefully planned “park-like environment.” (KieranTimberlake)
Built in 1923, the California Memorial Stadium on the campus of University of California, Berkeley was looking a little worse for wear after decades of deferred maintenance and poor planning. This project restored it to its former glory and added a new athletics facility, the Simpson Center, underneath a new pedestrian plaza in front of the stadium. This freed up space for more fan amenities inside the stadium itself, making the new design a true win for all. (HNTB Architecture)
A 1,100 feet long table big enough for 175 employees snakes around this 20,000-square-feet office of The Barbarian Group, taking the open floor plan to the next level. (Clive Wilkinson Architects; Design Republic Partners Architects LLP)
The new John Jay College of Criminal Justice development recreates everything a college campus has, in one city block. It uses a four-story, 500-foot-long podium to connect the existing academic building with a new 14-story tower, creating a unified campus. (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP)
The ceiling of the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s museum store was inspired by a local Arkansas basket maker, who used sculptural ribbed young oak trees in his designs. (Marlon Blackwell Architects)
During segregation, the 28th Street YMCA served as accommodations for black people who were turned away form hotels due to Jim Crow laws. Architects restored the historic building, built in 1926 in L.A., and added a new five-story structure, creating 49 affordable housing units and support and community space for youths aging out of foster care, the mentally ill, and the chronically homeless. (Koning Eizenberg Architecture Inc.)
A new center of town was created in the Newport Beach Civic Center. It features a sail-inspired roof covering a new 100,000-square-foot city hall, a 17,000-square foot library addition, a 450-space parking garage. A new 14-acre community park was included in the project, as well. (Bohlin Cywinski Jackson)
Four core design principles were used in the creation of the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s interior space: memory, authenticity, scale, and emotion. Built in the foundations of the original twin towers, just the museum’s interior itself creates a sense of scale of the devastating attack. (Davis Brody Bond)
The United States Courthouse Salt Lake City’s cube-like structure was created so symbolize justice: strong, iconic, transparent, and egalitarian. (Thomas Phifer and Partners)
Law firm Arent Fox’s swanky new Washington D.C. headquarters was built from scratch, and has innovative glass features and LED lights throughout. (STUDIOS Architecture)
The new LeFrak Center in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park not only revitalized 26 acres of parkland — it also added a new 75,000-square foot, year-round dual rink skating and recreational facility near the lake. (Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects)
The Wild Turkey Bourbon Visitor Center was created with a barn silhouette in mind, but its structural intricacies only reveal themselves as you get close to it. The 9,140-square-foot building offers guests interactive exhibits, a gift shop, event venues, and a tasting room. (De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop)
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