(September 19, 2024. Sacramento, CA) Architecture that addresses a diverse group of uses are recognized for their approach to design excellence in 2024. From—affordable and supportive housing that elevates individual lives and dense cities; to a new college nestled amidst a stunning set of trees on an existing campus; to a research and innovation center for a dynamic university in the center of the state of California; and the renovation and renewal of an old industrial building in San Francisco—each of these have been named 2024 AIA Design Awards Honors recipients, the awards program’s highest honor.
The five projects—Blue Oak Landing and Rose Apartments; Kresge College Expansion at the University of California, Santa Cruz; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, William and Linda Frost Center for Research and Innovation; and Building 12—each integrated rigorous sustainability requirements within their design.
This work is joined by twenty-six stellar Merit and Citation recipients that include a Girl Scout camp, an international arrivals facility at an airport, a modular home, work places, a library, a center for academic medicine, a music conservatory, single-family residences and more.
“This outstanding year of awarded projects delivers the positive impact and influence that architects have on daily lives, whether a building’s users are at work or play, rest or learning,” said 2024 AIA California President Winston Thorne, AIA. “For those who practice the demanding and gratifying field of architecture, 2024 inspires us. It delivers well-conceived, thoughtful placemaking throughout project type.”
The 2024 AIA California Design Winners were awarded across three different levels: From highest they are Honor Awards (5); Merit Awards (12); and Citation Awards (14) Each documented how design choices enabled building performance benchmarks.
The 2024 AIA California Design Award recipients will be honored on November 15 during a daylong program at Woodbury University. The celebration will connect students of Woodbury University’s respected School of Architecture with award recipients throughout the state through lectures, receptions, and a job fair.
“AIA California and the California Architectural Foundation is committed to supporting next generation of design professionals,” said AIA California Executive Vice President Nicki Dennis Stephens, Hon. AIA. “Making leaders in the profession more accessible to students is critical to this goal.”
See a full list of recipients below. For images of each project and building performance highlights, click here.
HONOR
Blue Oak Landing (Vallejo, California)
David Baker Architects
Offering 75-units of supportive housing, this is an exemplary project that satisfied every requirement the jury can think of for a project of this type and quality of design. The creative use of prefabrication units is amazing. It considers the needs of previously homeless families as well as the environmental challenges of the site. Coherent and powerful design.
Building 12 (San Francisco, California)
Perkins&Will
Exceptional adaptive reuse of a building: the use of the structure, the beautiful execution, the interior spaces. The jury admires the elevation of an old industrial building with new uses that are really very beautiful. The tactic for this architect, which is an appropriate one, was to do no harm to what you find.
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, William and Linda Frost Center for Research and Innovation (San Luis Obispo, California)
ZGF
The very large, complicated program feels humane–an incredible solution. The simplicity of the exterior is a balancing point for the geometry of the massing, and it provides for a richness of interior space.
Kresge College Expansion at the University of California, Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA)
Studio Gang (Design Architect and Architect of Record) with TEF Design (Associate Architect)
This is a spectacular project. The buildings were surgically inserted to let nature prevail. A sensitive architectural response to the site, with buildings carefully nestled into the redwood forest, and bridging between the buildings, that elevates students above the forest floor.
Rose Apartments (Venice, CA)
Brooks + Scarpa
An innovative evolution of a courtyard typology, this project creates exceptional spaces that support informal interaction for residents. The jury admires the scale, and the desire to be innovative and still meet incredible performance standards. The scale shift at the front facade is contextual and breaks the massing to accommodate density that otherwise wouldn’t have been had on this site.
MERIT
Aro Homes (Mountain View, CA)
Olson Kundig
A solution for a modular house that doesn’t look modular. It integrates a quite contemporary interior with an exterior in a form that’s more familiar to most people, and probably fits into most neighborhoods in a in a more sympathetic way than what we typically see with a lot of modern modular housing.
Brunson Terrace (Santa Monica, CA)
Brooks + Scarpa
LEED platinum and Net Zero affordable housing is exactly what we need out in the world. The breaking down of the facade gives layering to what was a large street-facing facade. The straightforwardness—the materials that were used, designed for durability at quality and low maintenance—are great qualities to have in a housing project.
Girl Scout Camp Lakota (Frazier Park, California)
Perkins&Will
The insertion of a clearly modern typology, or building aesthetic, into nature—done in a way that still brought back the kind of qualities and characteristics of a summer camp in the mountains—was really wonderful. Opulence of experience, but not an opulence of material use. The modular construction was wonderful, and so appropriate for a rural site like this.
International Arrivals Facility at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Seattle, Washington)
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)
This is a really interesting addition to an already incredibly dense infrastructure. The form of the building in the roof is very appropriate for an airport and was a great fit into the existing context. The bridge—to have a structure that airplanes can scoot around and under—was a very a bold move. The jury appreciates how the section responds in scale to the programmatic pieces underneath as opposed to being a continuous unaltered sort of sectional building which would be the expectation here.
Intuit Bayshore Building (MTV-22)( Mountain View, California)
Designed by WRNS Studio (Site Planning + Architecture), and Clive Wilkinson Architects (Interior Design)
This could be a model for an up-to-date workplace: a rich, interior community oriented space that has a simple and honest enclosure. There’s a good integration of landscape and interiors; it’s a complete project.
La Fénix at 1950 (San Francisco, California)
David Baker Architects
This is a really interesting project that solves a challenging community need: to provide transitional affordable housing in a very dense neighborhood. It has a very creative solution in terms of the façade.
Pleasant Hill Library (Pleasant Hill, California)
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
This project got a lot for a little. A beautiful children’s library. The way the building brings daylight in and modulates with these special rooms makes it an exceptional space. There is also a strong sustainability program and landscape design—really strong.
Rice University Ralph S O’Connor Building for Science and Engineering (Houston, Texas)
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)
Programmatically interesting and successful. A well-done building that shows thinking about environmental influences. The jury admires the attention to access to daylight and fresh air, and selection of healthy and resilient materials aimed at reducing carbon emissions and minimizing chemicals of concern within the indoor air environment.
San Francisco Conservatory of Music – Ute & William Bowes Jr. Center for Performing Arts (San Francisco, CA)
Mark Cavagnero Associates Architects
This building works on many levels. The mixed program of student housing, affordable housing, recital hall, classrooms, etc. is a great urban mix. It delivers on its clear intention to connect the surrounding community with the musical events of the conservatory visually.
Steeplechase House (Hillsborough, NC)
Brooks + Scarpa
This project takes a prototypical and iconic house form and is innovative with it with a modern approach that extrudes that form and then abstracts it. The reflections are beautiful and then the section shifts and serpentines through the site to create a wonderful courtyard space on the inside.
Student Success District, University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona)
The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP in collaboration with Poster Mirto McDonald
This is an extraordinarily complex program and site, and the way the architects responded to the creation of new places for students is admirable. This is a great place-making project, a really innovative uplift and reimagining of place. The old and new, inside and outside work well together.
West Edge (Los Angeles, CA)
Gensler
A strong mixed-use project that integrates with the surrounding community. The layered liveliness at the ground level spaces that will engage people and the city in a meaningful way. Lovely coupling of facade and form, that is innovative and allows for ample natural light and access to views.
CITATION
AIA San Francisco and Center for Architecture + Design Headquarters (San Francisco)
Aidlin Darling Design
This is an amazing contribution to the architectural community, and an effort that should be applauded for introducing general public to it. The architects very deftly inserted this sort of jewel box within the existing structure and contrasted the exposed structure with new, refined materials. Quite wonderful.
Big Sur Cabin (Big Sur)
Studio Schicketanz, Inc.
A very modest and appropriate solution to housing for a couple who wanted to stay living in the forest. This project featured a great site plan that adapted to the needs of the occupants in a way that solved a very, very tight space.
Fire Country Lookout (Healdsburg, CA)
Studio VARA
A beautiful house that satisfies not only the basic program of country living, but is highly sustainable, energy and resource sensitive, and fulfills the emerging need to have a higher level of fire resistance that has been required in the past. A very well-sited project.
Boulder Creek Library (Boulder Creek, California)
Jayson Architecture
This is a beautiful transformation of an existing library building into a space with strong community input. Simple and uncluttered. The architects appeared to have done a number of projects of this scale: all sensitive, beautiful projects with creative reuse of exposing buildings. Commendable.
Casa Azul (Santa Cruz, CA)
Workbench
A beautiful renovation and restoration of an important structure to add permanent housing for the previously homeless. The house was lifted to expand the square footage and increase the number of units. Extremely careful restoration of existing detailing, this seemed like a labor of love.
Charles Gaines “Moving Chains” in collaboration with TOLO Architecture (Governors Island, New York)
TOLO Architecture
An important project that calls attention to the history of slavery in the United States. The structure memorializes the people who were part of United States’s toxic slave trade and invites visitors to participate in the experience through an evocation of the slave ship experience and the destructive legacy of slavery. The siting on New York City Harbor and the view to the Statue of Liberty are moving elements of the installation. It is beautifully designed and built—a very very powerful work.
DRIFT Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, California)
Anacapa Architecture & Interior Design
A beautiful adaptive reuse of an existing building that combines a very simple restoration of the exterior with a very careful insertion of well-designed interiors. This is a well-executed, beautiful project that captures the spirit of Santa Barbara.
Larrabee (West Hollywood, CA)
Patrick Tighe Architecture
The jury appreciated the very tectonic approach to the exterior: the skin of the building, the kind of layered effect of the balconies and the screen which helped break down the scale of the building to better fit within its context.
Mingei International Museum Transformation (San Diego, CA)
LUCE et studio architects inc
This is a beautifully designed museum with every detail carefully considered—the incorporation of artisans to craft key elements makes it even better. Excellent execution.
Red Rock (Summerlin, Nevada)
Faulkner Architects
A great example of architects creating a complex and rich layered experience from an incredibly edited palette of materials and form making. This project demonstrates mastery of materiality, shade, shadow, and scale of space.
Stanford University School of Medicine Center for Academic Medicine (Palo Alto, CA)
HOK
It took into account passive elements of design in the formation of the building, which doesn’t always happen. Well integrated passive design, mature response to both design details and environmental performance. The jury appreciates the indoor/outdoor integration, landscape, and facade response.
The Caffè by Mr. Espresso (Oakland, CA)
jones | haydu
This is minimal but rich project elegantly conceived with a conscience. It is a complete, unexpected everyday space which there should be more of. Material use, culture, impact on a transitional neighborhood are thoughtfully addressed.
Watts Works (Los Angeles, California)
Studio One Eleven
An innovative, socially responsible project, that takes a challenging project type and pushes it forward. That it didn’t look like container housing was a plus and the interiors were well designed. It treats residents with dignity and provides a desirable place to live. Very nice spaces.
Youth Sports Field House at Centennial Park (Pompano Beach, FL)
Brooks + Scarpa
The jury admired the iconic place making that this building does. A formally creative project with a simple program, as much a sculpture as a building. The jury loved the hanging fans. Elements in the design show a design team adept at sustainable strategies s
A jury of five—reviewed more 183 design awards submissions, and through discussion finalized the list of thirty-one recipients. The jury was:
About the American Institute of Architects California (AIA CA)
AIA California is dedicated to serving its members, and uniting all architecture professionals in the design of a more just, equitable, and resilient future through advocacy, education, and political action. The organization represents the interests of more than 11,000 architects and allied professionals in California. Founded in 1944, the AIA CA is the largest component of the national AIA organization. For more information, visit www.aiacalifornia.org
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