Projects by Kengo Kuma and Associates and Landry Smith Architect earned top “honor” awards from American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter Friday night, during the 2017 Portland Architecture Awards event at Revolution Hall.

“This is an annual award program that AIA Portland has hosted for 25 to 30 years,” said Robert Hoffman, executive vice president of the Portland chapter. “It’s sort of a tradition.”

Each year, the AIA chapter recognizes its members’ top projects in four categories: built projects, unbuilt projects, small projects (under $500,000) and interiors. Honor, merit and citation awards are given to projects in each category.

“It’s like a gold, silver and bronze at the Olympics,” Hoffman said.

Also, a committee joined BetterBricks to select an Architecture 2030 award winner. The project had to meet or exceed the Architecture 2030 Challenge advocating for all new buildings, developments and major renovations to be carbon-neutral by 2030. The Yellowstone National Park Youth Campus, by Hennebery Eddy Architects, was chosen.

Kengo Kuma and Associates’ Portland Japanese Garden Cultural Crossing took the honor award in the Built Project category. Hacker was the architect of record on the project. The Cultural Crossing was honored for creating a “serene, pilgrimage-like journey from the city to the forest, drawing each visitor into a fully immersive experience of the traditional arts and culture of Japan,” according to an AIA statement.

Landry Smith Architect won an honor award in the Small Project category for its display framework for the Josef Albers exhibition in Eugene. The AIA chapter recognized the lightweight, flexible framework’s ability to display a wide range of works in galleries at the University of Oregon and other institutions.

This year’s installment of the AIA awards event drew 62 entries from chapter members. That number is down from past years, Hoffman said, in part because many architects have heavy workloads and little time to vet projects for awards.

“We have had as many as 80 to 90 projects in a year,” he said. “There is some great work out there.”

This year projects were judged by a jury of architects from the San Francisco Bay Area. They included: Allison Williams, principal with AGWms studio; William Leddy, principal with Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects; and Zoë Prillinger, principal with Ogrydziak Prillinger Architects.

“A lot of our jurors have roles in academia,” Hoffman said. “That is helpful when they talk about the projects.”

Each winning project was critiqued by the jurors during Friday’s ceremony.

Over the years the chapter has tried to broaden the appeal of the event, Hoffman said, by inviting speakers. This year, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer addressed the attendees.

“We want the public there as well,” Hoffman said. “We have added live music. We want everybody and anybody to attend. We want people to feel like this was something to celebrate.”

Other award winners not mentioned above were:

Built Projects

Merit – The Pavilion, Bend, by Opsis Architecture

Merit – L’Angolo Estate Winery, Newberg, by LEVER Architecture

Citation – Doppelganger, Portland, by Works Progress Architecture

Citation – Olympia Place, Amherst, Mass., by Holst Architecture

Citation – U.S. Embassy Compound, Paramaribo, Suriname, by ZGF Architects

Citation – Jane Sanders Stadium, Eugene, by SRG Partnership

Citation – Pearl West, Portland, by Hacker/GBD Architects

Unbuilt Projects

Citation – Sunnyside Veterinary Hospital, Happy Valley, by Guggenheim Architecture and Design Studio

Small Projects

Merit – Laura’s Place, Portland, by Architecture Building Culture

Citation – Treeline Stage, Happy Valley, by PSU School of Architecture, Diversion Design-Build Studio

Interiors

Citation – Roosevelt Middle School, Eugene, by Mahlum Architects

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