New York, April 15, 2021 – The American Academy of Arts and Letters announces the recipients of its 2021 architecture awards. The Academy’s annual architecture awards program began in 1955 with the inauguration of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize and has since expanded to include four Arts and Letters Awards. This year’s winners were chosen from a group of 32 individuals and practices nominated by the members of the Academy. The jurors were Annabelle Selldorf (chair), Kenneth Frampton, Steven Holl, Thom Mayne, Richard Meier, Toshiko Mori, Robert A. M. Stern, Billie Tsien, and Tod Williams.
Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize
$20,000 to an architect of any nationality who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art. Marina Tabassum is founder and principal of Marina Tabassum Architects in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Arts and Letters Award in Architecture
$10,000 to American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction. Julie Eizenberg and Hank Koning are founding principals of KoningEizenberg, an architecture firm based in Santa Monica, CA.
Arts and Letters Award in Architecture
$10,000 to American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction. Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu are the founders of Oyler Wu Collaborative, an architecture and design firm in Los Angeles, CA.
Arts and Letters Award in Architecture
$10,000 to an American who explores ideas in architecture through any medium of expression. Justin Garrett Moore is a transdisciplinary designer and urbanist and is the program officer for the Humanities in Place program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Moore is also the CEO and Director of UrbanPatch.
Arts and Letters Award in Architecture
$10,000 to an American who explores ideas in architecture through any medium of expression. Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller are the founders of AGENCY, a collaborative interdisciplinary practice based in El Paso, TX.
Photo Captions: 1: Courtesy Marina Tabassum Architects 2: Photo by Eric Staudenmaier 3: Photo by Po Yao Shih 4: Photo by Dario Calmese 5: Courtesy AGENCY Architecture LLC
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS
The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1898 as an honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers, and writers. Early members include William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Julia Ward Howe, Henry James, Edward MacDowell, Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton. The Academy’s 300 members are elected for life and pay no dues. In addition to electing new members as vacancies occur, the Academy seeks to foster and sustain an interest in Literature, Music, and the Fine Arts by administering over 70 awards and prizes, exhibiting art and manuscripts, funding performances of new works of musical theater, and purchasing artwork for donation to museums across the country.