Andrew King Receives Two P/A Awards

Gerald Sheff Visiting Professor Andrew King will receive two of the 59th Annual Progressive Architecture Awards (2012) which recognize ten projects that offer thoughtful interventions into the landscape, urban or otherwise. (The ten awards are comprised of a single First Award, three Awards, and six Citations.) King’s two Awards are for the Laurier Brantford YMCA Athletic Complex in Brantford, Ontario, and the Hawk House on Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. King was the design principal for Cannon Design on the Brantford project, with recent graduate Jeffrey Ma (M.Arch. 2010) on the design team. For the Hawk House project, King was the architect, with recent graduate Nicolay Boyadjiev (M.Arch. 2011) as project partner.

One of the six Citations was awarded to Rack House D (Saucier + Perrotte Architectes) in Toronto, with Vedanta Balbahadur (M.Arch. 2006) and Lia Ruccolo (M.Arch. 2008) on the project team.

From Architect (the magazine of the American Institute of Architects): “The most important, and telling, stipulation in the entry form for the Progressive Architecture Awards is that ‘all projects must be real.’ In other words, every submission must have a client who has land, a budget, and intent to build. These days, bona fide clients may seem hard to come by, but we haven’t softened the rules about rewarding real projects, and the quality of submissions hasn’t suffered one bit. One thing about the P/A Awards that always changes is the working definition of ‘progressive.’ It is up to the jury—which this year comprised Ann Beha, FAIA, Brad Lynch, Mary-Ann Ray, Joseph Rosa, and Cathy Simon, FAIA—to determine what the term means for architecture at a given moment in time. Lynch noted his interest in projects ‘that are creating progress in areas that we haven’t seen before.’ Rosa was attracted to ‘acts of invention, not perfection.’ And for Simon, the P/A Awards have a ‘voice about what design means right now.’ In the end, the jury awarded 10 projects that resolve incredibly diverse programs through incredibly inventive solutions. Be it a house on piers in the middle of a bird sanctuary, or a six-level YMCA that masquerades as a two-story building, this year’s winners tread lightly on the landscape and exemplify what architects do best: They find innovative, and even progressive, approaches to solving real-world problems. And for that, they are to be celebrated.”

For full information on the P/A Awards, please visit the Architect webpage.

For an editorial on the Hawk House, please visit the World Architecture News webpage.