New York, March 1, 2023 – The American Academy of Arts and Letters announces the recipients of its 2023 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 36 individuals and practices nominated by the members of the Academy. The jurors were Toshiko Mori (chair), Deborah Berke, Marlon Blackwell, Steven Holl, Annabelle Selldorf, Nader Tehrani, Billie Tsien, Tod Williams, and Meejin Yoon.
Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize
$20,000 to an architect of any nationality who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art. W. G. Clark is the Edmund Schureman Campbell Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.
Arts and Letters Award in Architecture
$10,000 to an American architect whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction. Sean Canty is the founder of Studio Sean Canty, a cofounder of the architectural collective Office III, and Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Arts and Letters Award in Architecture
$10,000 to American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction. Roberto de Leon and Ross Primmer are the founding principals of de Leon and Primmer Architecture Workshop, an architecture practice based in Louisville, KY.
Arts and Letters Award in Architecture
$10,000 to American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction. Amale Andraos and Dan Wood are the cofounders of WORKac, an architecture and design firm based in New York City.
Arts and Letters Award in Architecture
$10,000 to an American who explores ideas in architecture through any medium of expression. Fred Bernstein is a prolific architecture critic and journalist.
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, 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, purchasing artwork for donation to museums across the country, and presenting talks and concerts.
Photos: 1) Campbell Hall East Addition, University of Virginia, 2008. Photo by Scott Smith. 2) Block, House, Commons, 2021. Photo Courtesy Studio Sean Canty. 3) Wild Turkey Bourbon Visitor Center, 2013. Photo Courtesy de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop. 4) Marea Residential Complex, 2021. Photo by Bruce Damante. 5) Photo Courtesy Fred Bernstein.