The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced the recipients of its 2016 architecture awards. The Academy’s annual architecture awards program began in 1955 with the inauguration of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize and has since expanded to include four Arts and Letters Awards. This year’s winners were chosen from a group of 35 individuals and practices nominated by the members of the Academy. Phyllis Lambert, architect, author, scholar, activist and Founding Director Emeritus of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal, received the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize with $20,000 as she has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art.

The jurors were Elizabeth Diller (chairman), Henry Cobb, Peter Eisenman, Kenneth Frampton, Hugh Hardy, Steven Holl, Cesar Pelli, James Polshek, Robert A. M. Stern, and Tod Williams.

Phyllis Lambert is in thirties–eight stories tall and is among the finest examples of the functionalist aesthetic and corporate modernism. image courtesy of Joe Nolan's Blog. 

The awards will be presented in New York City in May at the Academy’s annual Ceremonial. Work by the winners will be featured in an upcoming exhibition on view in the Academy’s galleries on Audubon Terrace from May 19 to June 12.  

The other recipients are: Andrew Berman (Arts and Letters Award in Architecture)- $10,000 to an American architect whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction. Andrew Freear (Arts and Letters Award in Architecture)- $10,000 to an American architect whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction. Mimi Hoang & Eric Bunge (Arts and Letters Award in Architecture)-$10,000 to an American architect whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction. Theodore Prudon (Arts and Letters Award in Architecture)- $10,000 to an American who explores ideas in architecture through any medium of expression.

Phyllis Lambert is one of WA Honorary Members voting for WA Awards.

Top Image: courtesy of Handout/Canadian Centre for Architecture

> via The American Academy of Arts and Letters