Design Awards Jury Note

Left to right: Jurors Gary Hilderbrand, Lisa Iwamoto, Dina Griffin, Bryan C. Lee Jr., Kunlé Adeyemi, Mary Ann Lazarus.

The 2020 Design Awards Jury convened for two days in mid-January to discuss almost 300 awards submissions across five categories: Architecture, Interiors, Projects, Urban Design, and Sustainability. In the pages that follow, you’ll see the 34 projects that, in the jury’s opinion, stood out from the pack. Top projects received Honor Awards, with Merit Awards going to other highly competitive projects in the same category, and two projects were recognized with Citation Awards for outstanding work on specific design elements. From the select group of 34, the jury chose one Best in Competition winner, and that project graces our Spring cover: Glenstone Museum, designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners.

The jurors, practitioners who come from outside New York, all remarked on the outstanding quality of the submissions as a whole, which made for an ultracompetitive awards process. They were impressed that even developer-driven projects revealed a great deal of design ingenuity, testifying to the fact that project architects had a notable degree of freedom to execute their design visions. Yet the jurors would like to see even more experimental design work from New York architects, as well as design that integrates performance in more progressive ways. So, AIANY members, prepare to rise to this challenge for the 2021 Awards, which will open for submissions in late fall.

Until then, congratulations to all the 2020 winners!