Today the American Institute of Architects (AIA), announced that the Affordable Housing Design Institute and Klyde Warren Park in Dallas are the recipients of the 2018 Collaborative Achievement Award. According to the Institute, this award "recognizes and encourages distinguished achievements of allied professionals, clients, organizations, architect teams, knowledge communities, and others who have had a beneficial influence on or advanced the architectural profession."
The Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute (AHDLI), funded by Boston-based Enterprise Community Partners, is a forum that connects developers and architects to work together to improve the design, sustainability, and resiliency of affordable housing to create healthy and dynamic living environments. Modeled after the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, the AHDLI runs in-person, two-and-a-half day charrettes and workshops where leaders in the field can come together to share ideas, analyze specific problems, and learn from each other about how to provide the best solutions for their communities. The program has influenced the design of developments across the country, including the Marion West apartments in Seattle, which was designed by Runberg Architecture Group and developed by the Low Income Housing Institute. Since it's founding nearly 10 years ago by Katie Swenson of Enterprise Community Partners, Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, of Brooks + Scarpa, and Maurice Cox, FAIA, director of the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department, the AHDLI has formed partnerships with more than 70 local nonprofit and community groups across the country.
In the city of Dallas, public and private entities joined forces to create Klyde Warren Park, a $97 million, five-acre green space designed by OJB Landscape Architecture that turned a freeway dividing downtown into a public amenity that allows the community to come together. The team reclaimed the space above Spur 366, using more than 300 concrete beams and slabs to cover the sunken freeway. Now, the LEED-Gold park on top is home to planting boxes integrated into the structure that host more than 300 trees and 37 native species. The park absorbs storm water runoff, sequesters carbon dioxide, and, surveys show, have had a positive impact on the quality of life for more than 90 percent of Dallas residents. It has also helped spur nearly $1 billion in development in the surrounding neighborhood. The street activity created by the park is credited with helping to triple the economic impact of the city's arts district, according to a press release from the AIA, including Edward Larrabee Barnes' Dallas Museum of Art and Renzo Piano Building Workshop's Nasher Sculpture Center, which are located nearby.
The winners will be recognized at the 2018 AIA Conference on Architecture this June in New York.
The jury comprised Rik Master, FAIA (Chair) of USG; Patrick Burke, FAIA, of Columbia University Medical Center; Lindsey Graff, Assoc. AIA, of Ayers Saint Gross Architects; Libby Haslam, AIA, of GSBS Architects; and R. Steven Lewis, FAIA, of the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department.
