Snow Kreilich Architects has been recognized with the American Institute of Architect’s most prestigious honor given to a firm. Announced today, the 2018 the Architecture Firm Award is the 55th iteration of the annual prize. Based in Minneapolis, the studio is headed by Julie Snow, FAIA, and Matthew Kreilich, AIA. Originally founded as Julie Snow Architects in 1995, the firm rebranded in 2014 when Kreilich was named a partner in the firm.
“Their body of work is distinguished by a restrained formal elegance and a refined minimal tectonic sensibility while avoiding the nostalgic and technological excesses of our discipline,” wrote Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, in a nomination letter.
The firm’s portfolio includes CHS Field in St. Paul, Minn. the Straight River Rest Area in Owatonna, Minn., and the U.S. Land Ports of Entry in Van Buren, Maine, and another in Warroad, Minn. (View more work in ARCHITECT’s Project Gallery.)
"They send a message about the importance of staying with it—of emulating the best firms and trying to do the best work you can in a place that doesn’t always get the kind of attention that New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles get," says AIA president Thomas Vonier, FAIA. "And the wonderful investment they have made in people just stood out."
The firm's work has been recognized in the Progressive Architecture Awards, the Annual Design Review, and the AIA COTE Top Ten Green Projects, among others.
“I wish you could see everyone in the room because they are all smiling," Snow said on learning of the win.
Last year’s Architecture Firm Award went to San Francisco firm Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects. The 2018 firm award jury was comprised of chair Jonathan Penndorf, FAIA, Washington, D.C., office of Perkins+Will; David Greenbaum, FAIA, Washington, D.C., office of SmithGroupJJR; Alan Greenberger, FAIA, Drexel University in Philadelphia; Wendy Hillis, AIA, Tulane University in New Orleans; Thierry Paret, FAIA, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; Karina Ruiz, DOWA-IBI Group in Portland, Ore.; Moshe Safdie, FAIA, Somerville, Mass.-based Safdie Architects; and Takashi Yanai, FAIA, Culver City, Calif.-based Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
