American Institute of Architects names winners of 2019 awards

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced the winners for its 2019 Institute Honour Awards for Architecture.

AIA says the awards celebrate "the best contemporary architecture regardless of budget, size, style, or type".

The winners are:

• Arlington Elementary School, in Tacoma, Washington, designed by Mahlum Architects. The AIA describes this as a school with "no classrooms, only spaces for learners and learning activities". 
• Casey House, Toronto, in Ontario Canada by Hariri Pontarini Architects. This is a specialised healthcare facility for those living with HIV/AIDS.
• Confluence Park, in San Antonio, Texas, by Flato Architects + Matsys: an outdoor education centre located on the San Antonio River.

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

• Crosstown Concourse, in Memphis, Tennessee by Looney Ricks Kiss: an abandoned retail centre that has been transformed into a vertical village with a school, theatre and art gallery.
• Restoration of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville by John G Waite Associates. Inspired by Rome’s Pantheon, the Rotunda was designed by Thomas Jefferson, and was originally completed in 1826. It is a Unesco World Heritage site.
• Smart Factory, in Illinois by Barkow Leibinger. This is a sheet metal warehouse near O’Hare International Airport, which the AIA says stands out from "bland office parks and faceless warehouses".

Starter Home* No. 4-15, Saint Thomas/Ninth, in New Orleans by OJT

• Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC, by Perkins + Will, Adjaye Associates, Davis Brody Bond and SmithGroup. The AIA says this is the "culmination of a decades-long journey toward commemorating black history and culture". Read more about the project here.
• Starter Home* No. 4-15, Saint Thomas/Ninth, in New Orleans by OJT, which is part of the architect’s Starter Home* initiative to "deliver entry-level homes to historic urban neighbourhoods that are quickly gentrifying".
• Tirpitz Museum in BlÃ¥vand, Denmark by Bjarke Ingels Group: this is an "invisible museum" containing a Second World War German bunker and four spaces for permanent and temporary exhibitions.

BIG’s Tirpitz Museum in BlÃ¥vand

Read more about the awards here.

Top image: The Restoration of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia (All images courtesy of the American Institute of Architects)