2009 AIA Honor Awards

When looking at the 2009 AIA Honor Awards as a whole, it is easy to comprehend why this year’s winners were chosen. From iconic new buildings in the Architecture category, including cathedrals and community centers, to projects in the Interiors category, such as a ballet school and offices, to a group of Urban Design winners, each of which creates a unique site for people to gather and ties place and person with environment, these projects strip away opulence and get us back to basics. There’s light, there’s sustainability, there’s a sense that we belong to this region, this world. The projects and people honored this year bring with them a new restraint. There’s no eccentricity here; instead, there are designs that favor clear circulation, orientation, technology, materials, and above all, connection.

The 2009 Honor Awards for Architecture winners represent a range of buildings with widely varying budgets, scales, and contexts.

The 10 honorees selected for the 2009 Honor Awards for Interior Architecture represent a mix of commercial, residential, and cultural projects that, according to the AIA, "skillfully used natural light and provided unique architectural approaches to common design problems."

Many of the six winners of the 2009 Honor Awards in the category of Regional and Urban Design were proposals to renew neglected or overlooked areas, including two—the Orange County Great Park by TEN Arquitectos and The Treasure Island master plan by SOM— that revitalize former military sites.

25 Year Award

25 Year Award: Faneuil Hall Marketplace
After more than 10 years of struggle to secure permits and financial backing, from 1976 to 1978 the office of Benjamin Thompson & Associates, with developer James Rouse, transformed Boston’s original public market: a derelict trio of block-long brick-and-granite buildings built between 1824 and 1826.

Firm of the Year Award

Firm Award: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

Firm of the Year: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects
Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects maintain a fluid structure in designing its buildings. Assignments are based on project schedules and needs and staff skills and interests, with the intention of “cross-pollinating” capabilities and personalities.

Gold Medal

Gold Medal: Glenn Murcutt
Glenn Murcutt has designed no tall buildings, no sleek museums, no flamboyant performance venues. His one-person practice has specialized almost exclusively in modest, single-story houses, all in Australia. Why, then, did the AIA honor him with its 65th Gold Medal? View our slideshow to find out.