The World Architecture Festival (WAF) announced the finalists for its 2016 awards program. This year's event runs from Nov. 16 to 18 at the Arena Berlin in Germany's capital.
Over 100 judges were chosen for the festival, comprised of professionals in the industry, media personnel, and previous WAF award winners. The list features: Simon Allford, Assoc. AIA, co-founder and director of London-based architecture practice Alford Hall Monaghan Morris; Alan Balfour, former dean of the Georgia Tech College of Architecture; Louisa Hutton, Hon. FAIA, founder of Berlin-based architecture practice Sauerbruch Hutton; Christoph Ingenhoven, Assoc. AIA, founder of Germany-based architectural firm Ingenhoven Architects; Meinhard von Gerkan, founder of Germany-based architectural practice gmp - Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner; Ole Scheeran, principal at Berlin-based architecture firm Buro Ole Scheeran; Matthias Sauerbruch founder of Berlin-based architecture practice Sauerbruch Hutton; Silja Tillner, principal at Austria-based architectural firm Architekten Tillner & Willinger.
Of the 343 projects from 58 countries across the program’s 32 categories, 12 were built or will be built in the U.S. This figure is up from the seven projects appearing on last year’s shortlist, two of which received awards: the renovated Fulton Center in Lower Manhattan won in the ‘Completed Buildings - Transport’ category and the Sea Song residence earned Form4 Architecture an honorable mention.
Below are the 12 American projects competing for a prize at WAF:
Completed Buildings - Higher Education & Research: Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, in Kalamazoo, Mich., Studio Gang Architects
The human rights and social justice center boasts a triaxial design to fit in with the surrounding woodland area, residential neighborhood, and college campus.
Completed Buildings - Housing: Via 57 West, in New York, Bjarke Ingels Group
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Housing named Via 57 West the winner of the Best Tall Building Americas award in 2016.
Completed Buildings - Transport: CTA Cermak-McCormick Place Station, in Chicago, Ross Barney Architects
The tube enclosure of the station is made of aluminum shingles and a polycarbonate skylight, and won an AIA Chicago Distinguished Buildings award.
Future Projects - Experimental: Water-Based Digital Fabrication Platform, in Cambridge, Mass., Meditated Matter Group
The designers utilized Crustacean-derived materials along with robotic fabrication and synthetic biology to create the platform.
Future Projects - Office: 390 Madison Avenue, in New York, Kohn Perdesen Fox Associates
The renovation included an addition of eight floors and an exterior wraparound terrace garden.
Future Projects - Civic: Hudson Yards, in New York Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
In collaboration with eight other firms—which include Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, Gensler, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro—New York–based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates drafted the master plan for Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate development project in U.S. history. The 17,560,000-square -foot transformation of Manhattan’s West Side rail yard into what will become a new neighborhood along the Hudson River is expected to be completed by 2024.
Completed Buildings - Religion: Immanuel Chapel, in Alexandria, Va., Robert A.M. Stern Architects
A proponent of design in the classical style, Robert A.M. Stern, FAIA’s New York–based eponymous firm built the Golden Immanuel Chapel to replace the original 1881 building, which burned down in 2010. The chapel is situated on the Virginia Theological Seminary’s 280-acre campus in Alexandria, Va. alongside a new welcome center and motor court.
Future Projects - Commercial Mixed-Use: Urban Frames, in Palo Alto, Calif., Form 4 Architecture
Form4 Architecture's John Marx, AIA, and Robert J. Giannini's proposal stacks together a cluster of cubic "frames" to create a mixed-use space which caters to the Silicon Valley lifestyle of its inhabitants by putting office and home in the same place. Electric Vehicle charging stations, bike racks, and landscaped parks are planned homogeneously throughout.
Completed Buildings - Sport: AELP Fitness Center, in Oklahoma City, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
American Energy Partners commissioned London-based Allford Hall Monaghan Morris to convert a spare concrete basement into a recreation center. Some of the facilities at the AELP Fitness Center in Oklahoma City include basketball, racquetball, and volleyball courts, several exercise studios, a climbing wall, and an outdoor track.
Completed Buildings - Hotel & Leisure: Nobu Ryokan, in Malibu, Calif., Studio PCH and Montalba Architects
Malibu, Calif.-based Studio PCH and Santa Monica, Calif.–based Montalba Architects lead the renovation of a beach motel for Nobu Matsuhisa, the namesake and chef behind the upscale sushi restaurant, Nobu. Matsuhisa and actor Robert DeNiro developed the Nobu Las Vegas Hotel within Caesar’s Palace, in Las Vegas, in 2010.
Future Projects - Leisure Led Development: Motus Performance Center, in Philadelphia, Holmes Miller Architects
Future Projects - Residential: River Beech Tower, in Chicago, Perkins + Will, Thornton Tomasetti, University of Cambridge
