Architectural League Prize: The Latest Architecture and News

The Architectural League of New York has announced the winners of its 42^nd cycle of the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers. The theme for this edition of the competition was “Uncomfortable,” asking young designers to contemplate their position while wrestling with many uncomfortable responsibilities, like challenging traditional paradigms, dismantling architectural legacies, grappling with the costs of comfort, or responding to rising ecological concerns.

Established in 1981, the competition is open to young architects and designers in an effort to recognize the visionary work of young practitioners. This year’s theme was developed by the 2023 Young Architects + Designers Committee, which included recent League Prize winners Jose Amozurrutia, Germane Barnes, and Jennifer Bonner. The jury included the committee in addition to Barbara Bestor, Wonne Ickx, Kyle Miller, and Tya Winn.

+ 3

The Architectural League of New York has announced the winners of the 2020 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers. Focusing on fresh talent, North America’s most prestigious award encourages the development of distinctive individuals and underlines their work.

Jennifer Bonner of MALL has been named one of the 2019 recipients of The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers. Each year, The Architectural League announces six firms as winners of the award, which spotlights young, innovative North American architects and designers. Bonner is known for work that reinvents materials, hacks typologies, and playfully reimagines everyday architectural elements from gable roofs to brick facades.

+ 1

The Architectural League of New York has announced the recipient of its 2017 President’s Medal: His Highness the Aga Khan, the 49th hereditary Imam (Spiritual Leader) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Aga Khan Award in Architecture – an annual award established to celebrate building concepts that have successfully addressed the needs of Muslim communities from around the world.

The Architectural League’s highest honor, the President’s Medal is awarded annually to recognize individuals for an extraordinary body of work in architecture, urbanism, art, or design. The medal will be presented by League President Billie Tsien at a May 18 dinner in New York.

The Architectural League of New York has announced the winners of the 2017 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers. Established in 1981, the prize has grown to become one of North America’s most prestigious awards recognizing young architects (ten or fewer years removed from a bachelor’s or master’s degree program) for their talent and forward-thinking ideas.

+ 11

The Architectural League of New York has announced the winners of its 2015 Prize for Young Architects + Designers. Launched in 1981 and organized by a committee comprising League Programs Director Anne Rieselbach and a selection of winners from last year, the Architectural League Prize is one of the United States' most prestigious awards for young architects, recognizing provocative work and offering a platform for the winners to disseminate their ideas. This year's theme, "Authenticity," asked designers how technological changes in computation, visualization, material intelligence, and fabrication technologies are altering our perception of design and the role of the architect.

The jury for the prize consisted of Keller Easterling, Sanford Kwinter, Michael Meredith, Lyn Rice, and Billie Tsien, as well as previous winners Carrie Norman, John Rhett Russo, and Jenny Sabin. As part of their prize, in June the six winning practices will present a series of lectures, and their work will be on display in an exhibition during the summer.

Read on for the complete list of winners.

+ 8

The Architectural League of New York has awarded its President's Medal to Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects. The League's highest honor, the medal was awarded to Cobb “for the truly consequential work he has created as designer, educator, thinker, writer, and leader,” says the jury citation.

"We are inspired by his decades-long passion for the art of architecture; by his analytic rigor, manifest in subtle and articulate buildings and penetrating readings of history and place; by the broad and profoundly informed humanist culture that suffuses his writings and approach to education; and by the unbounded curiosity and delight he takes in new ideas, new work, and new talent. Henry N. Cobb embodies that combination of capability and conviction—artistic, intellectual, practical, and civic—that defines the ideal architect.”

The Architectural League Prize, one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young architects and designers, has been awarded to six emerging practitioners. Each recipient, whose work was deemed to be “exemplary and provocative” by the jury, presented their portfolios under the theme of “Overlay,” as the term “directs - rather than merely reconstructs - process.” This theme will now set the stage for a public forum in which each winner will use to exchange ideas.

The 2014 Architectural League Prize winners are: