Today, Landmark Columbus, an advocate group for design heritage in Columbus, Ind., announced five winners of the inaugural J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize. Chosen by a panel of architectural leaders, the winners of the competition will build temporary installations for Exhibit Columbus, a new annual exploration of architecture and design, on either a National Historic Landmark or a Columbus icon.
Contestants in the competition were judged on spatial relationships, activation of the site, use of innovative materials, and the creation of dialogue based on the context of the site. These five winning architecture and design firms, chosen from 10 finalists, include Boston-based IKD, Los Angeles–based Oyler Wu Collaborative, Milwaukee-based Studio:Indigenous, New Haven, Conn.–based Plan B Architecture & Urbanism, and New York City–based Aranda\Lasch.
IKD's Conversation Plinth will be composed of a series of cross-laminated timber discs that will put an emphasis on the surrounding landmark, I.M. Pei and Partners' Cleo Rogers Memorial Library.
Oyler Wu designed a new untitled work with three canopies at the Irwin Conference Center. After researching the Eero Saarinen and Associates project that would serve as their canvas, the firm decided to focus on three key concepts: Euclidean geometries, solid/void relationships, and tectonics.
Studio:Indigenous' winning Wiikiaami design was inspired by the Miyaamia people, a group indigenous to Indiana, and will appear at Saarinen's First Christian Church.
Plan B's Anything Can Happen in the Woods will include mirrored columns on the Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo Associates' Cummins Corporate Office Building so that the surroundings will be reflected and appreciated.
Aranda\Lasch's design will be located at Mill Race Park, which was originally designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and Stanley Saitowitz. Another Circle will use 2,800 pieces of Indiana limestone and encourage park visitors to use the stones for various activities.
Exhibit Columbus kicked off in fall 2016 with a symposium that included Robert A.M. Stern as a keynote speaker. This year, the five Miller Prize winning designs will be the focal point when the first exhibit opens in August 2017.
The competition jury was composed of Sean Anderson, associate curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art; Lise Anne Couture, co-founder and principal, Asymptote Architecture; Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Dung Ngo, publisher, August Editions.
