Gruzen Samton Architects won two awards for its design of Eleven80, a luxury housing project in downtown Newark — Urban Land Institute’s 2008 Award of Excellence: The Americas Competition, and a Smart Growth Award from New Jersey Future… Other ULI winners include the Overture Center for the Arts by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, and finalist Avalon Chrystie Place/Bowery Place by Arquitectonica and SLCE Architects…

Hospitality Design magazine’s fourth annual Hospitality Design Awards include these NY-based firms: The Royalton, Luxury Hotel finalist by R Wade Johnson Design Architecture (architecture) with Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors (public spaces) and Charlotte Macaux Perelman of Studio CMP (guestrooms); Hyatt New Brunswick, Mid-range or Economy Hotel finalist by Stonehill & Taylor Architects and Planners; Jumeirah Essex House South Gate, Casual or Quick-service Restaurant finalist by tonychi and associates (interiors) and Stonehill & Taylor Architects and Planners (architecture); Townline BBQ, Casual or Quick-service Restaurant winner by CCS Architecture; FR.OG, Bathroom winner by Coffinier Ku Design; The Lucida Sales and Design Center, Green Design finalist by S. Russell Groves; and Fine Dining Restaurant finalists include Bourbon Steak by AvroKO, STK Los Angeles by iCRAVE, Belvedere Club and Matsuhisa by The Rockwell Group, which also won in the category for Nobu InterContinental Hong Kong…

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has awarded 136 Fellowships to 144
New York artists; in the category of Architecture/Environmental Structures:
Stella Betts and David Leven, AIA; Eric Bunge, AIA, and Mimi Hoang (Lily Auchincloss Fellow); Lishan Chang; Ian Gordon, and Eva Perez de Vega; Joanne Howard; Omar Khan; Michael Morris and Yoshiko Sato; Robert Pyzocha; Ann Reichlin; Jean Shin; and Brett Snyder…The ACE (architects, constructors, engineers) Mentor Program of Greater New York announced 58 four-year scholarship awards totaling $179,000 to graduates of the 2008 program; for a complete list of recipients please click here (excel file)…

The participating organizations for the U.S. Pavilion for the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale include NY-based groups: Center for Urban Pedagogy, Gans Studio, Jonathan Kirschenfeld Associates, and Spatial Information Design Lab…

The Queens Botanical Garden Visitor & Administration Center, designed by BKSK Architects, has officially received LEED Platinum certification…

David Owen Tryba, FAIA, is the winner of the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation’s Richard Blinder Award (underwritten by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, Mrs. Richard Blinder, and donations made to the Fitch Foundation in memory of Richard Blinder)… The book Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-1959, by Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel received the 2008 Independent Publishers Book Awards’ Gold Medal in the Architecture category…

Vin Cipolla, the current President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Park Foundation, has been named President of the Municipal Art Society… The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has appointed Shohei Shigematsu, currently the director of OMA*AMO in NY, as partner of the OMA Holding company… Meredith Berman Lovejoy, Assoc. AIA, has joined Perkins Eastman as marketing manager…

Material ConneXion is opening its fifth international location, this one in Korea…