2016 AIA Gold Medal awarded to Denise Scott Brown & Robert Venturi

{"version":"0.3.0","atoms":[],"cards":[],"markups":[["a",["href","http:\/\/www.aia.org\/practicing\/AIAB099360","target","_new"]],["b"],["i"],["sup"],["a",["href","www.aia.org"]]],"sections":[[1,"h3",[[0,[],0,"For immdiate release"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Washington, D.C. - December 3, 2015 - The Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects\n(AIA) voted to award the 2016 AIA Gold Medal to Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA, and Robert Venturi,\nFAIA, whose scholarly writings and built work have inspired a generation of\narchitects. These architects are the first duo to receive the Gold Medal, in\naccordance with an "],[0,[0],1,"AIA Bylaws rule change"],[0,[],0," approved at the 2013 AIA convention. With\nthe award, Denise Scott Brown is automatically elevated to become an honorary\nmember of the AIA College of Fellows.\n"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\nThe Gold Medal is the highest honor the AIA can confer on an architect or\narchitects. It acknowledges a significant body of work that has had a lasting\ninfluence on the theory and practice of architecture. Scott Brown and Venturi\nwill receive the award at the AIA\u2019s annual convention in Philadelphia in May.\n"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\nDenise Scott Brown was born in present-day Zambia, and attended the\nArchitectural Association in London before move to the United States. At the\nUniversity of Pennsylvania, she earned master\u2019s degrees in architecture and\nurban planning, eventually becoming a teacher there. Robert Venturi was born into a Quaker family\nin Philadelphia, and received undergraduate and master\u2019s degrees in\narchitecture from Princeton. He worked with AIA Gold Medalists Eero Saarinen\nand Louis Kahn before winning the 1954 Rome Prize. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\n\nIn the mid-1960s the Scott Brown and Venturi, a husband and wife, began\ncollaborating on built projects as well as literature that set the stage for\nPostmodernism and nearly every other formal evolution in architecture. Scott\nBrown and Venturi\u2019s approach to design involves swapping one set of inherited\nvernacular traditions for another. Their Franklin Court Independence Historic\nNational Park in Philadelphia is one of the firm\u2019s most successful and\nmulti-layered examples of iconic shape acting as a billboard for architecture.\nThis park and museum dedicated to the city\u2019s most famous adopted son, Benjamin\nFranklin, sneaks the museum exhibits underground, and preserves the site for a\nsteel sculpture that outlines the Franklin\u2019s original house and print shop.\n"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\n\u201cThis recognition will resonate with generations of architects,\u201d said 2015\nAIA President Elizabeth Chu Richter, FAIA. \u201cWhat Denise and Bob have done for\nthe profession far exceeds the completion of a great building or two. Through a lifetime of inseparable\ncollaboration, they changed the way we look at buildings and cities. Anything\nthat is great in architecture today has been influenced in one way or another\nby their work.\u0022\n"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\nEarly on, Scott Brown and Venturi took their firm to a place many architects\ndon\u2019t tread, namely the suburbs. The duos portfolio offers sensitive and\nliteral historic preservation projects, as well as urban master plans. A few of\ntheir most notable works include: "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\n\n"],[0,[1],1,"The Best Products Showroom"],[0,[],0," in\nLanghorne, Pa., a basic, windowless product showroom Venturi and Scott Brown\ndecorated with glazed porcelain on steel plates, arranged to form a\nwarehouse-sized mural of red and white flowers."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\n\n\n"],[0,[1],1,"The Sainsbury Wing of the National\nGallery"],[0,[],0," in London, which matches the original 1838 wing\u2019s Neoclassical\nmaterials, size, and proportions. The presence of mildly abstracted pilasters,\ninstead of columns, and decorative truss work wink at the older building\u2019s\nstately presence. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\n\n"],[0,[1],1,"The Provincial Capital Building"],[0,[],0,"\nin Toulouse, France, which uses abstract representations of columns as and\ngraphic elements on the fa\u00e7ade that all recall traditional civic architecture\nin an axial, asymmetrical plan. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"\n\n"],[0,[],0,"Denise Scott\nBrown and Robert Venturi have received 17 state and local AIA awards and nine\nAIA National Awards. Their Vanna Venturi House received the 1989 AIA\nTwenty-five Year Award, and their firm was honored with the 1985 AIA Firm\nAward. Scott Brown received the AIA\/ACSA\u2019s Topaz Medallion in 1985, and Venturi\nwon the Pritzker Prize in 1991. "],[0,[2],1,"\n\n"],[0,[],0,"Scott Brown and Venturi are the\nrecipients of the 72"],[0,[3],1,"nd"],[0,[],0," AIA Gold Medal. They join the ranks of such\nvisionaries as Thomas Jefferson (1993), Frank Lloyd Wright (1949), Louis\nSullivan (1944), Le Corbusier (1961), Louis I. Kahn (1971), I.M. Pei (1979),\nThom Mayne (2013), Julia Morgan (2014), and Moshe Safdie (2015). In recognition\nof their legacy to architecture, their\nnames will be chiseled into the granite Wall of Honor in the lobby of the AIA\nheadquarters in Washington, D.C."]]],[1,"h3",[[0,[1],1,"About The\nAmerican Institute of Architects"],[0,[],0,"\n"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Founded in 1857, the American Institute of Architects consistently works to\ncreate more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings,\nneighborhoods, and communities. Through nearly 300 state and local chapters,\nthe AIA advocates for public policies that promote economic vitality and public\nwell-being. Members adhere to a code of ethics and conduct to ensure the highest\nprofessional standards. The AIA provides members with tools and resources to\nassist them in their careers and business as well as engaging civic and\ngovernment leaders and the public to find solutions to pressing issues facing\nour communities, institutions, nation and world. Visit "],[0,[4],1,"www.aia.org"],[0,[],0,"."]]]]}