The winners of the fifth annual BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Awards contest are standouts: architects and their clients who collaborated to create buildings with purpose and value. The range of winning entries is astounding--from the glitzy U.S. headquarters of a leading fashion house to a retaining wall that doubles as a mortuary at a Buddhist temple in Japan.
All, however, share a common understanding that a grand architectural gesture can say as much about a group's values or brand as any written mission statement, advertising campaign, or lobbying effort. A top-notch advertising agency, for example, designed its marketing office so that it inspired--and even honored--the firm's creative employees, while an environmental group packed so much state-of-the-green technology into its new headquarters that it amounted to nothing less than a statement of ethical purpose.
These awards, sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and two publications owned by The McGraw-Hill Companies, are special because the jury includes both businesspeople and architects. To win, an applicant must show how architectural solutions to thorny business problems can achieve measurable results--in other words, how good design really does prove to be good business. Whatever their values, this year's winning entries, which are described on the following pages, display a respect for creativity, beauty, simplicity, harmony--or whatever driving force is at their core.
BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Awards 2001 jury: CHARLES B. ROSE, Principal, Charles Rose Architects, Cambridge, Mass. (jury chairman) SUSAN CANTRELL, Research Fellow, Accenture, Cambridge, Mass.; DAVID M. CHILDS, Principal, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, New York NEIL FRANKEL, Principal, Frankel + Coleman, Chicago THOMAS DAVENPORT, Director, Institute for Strategic Change, Accenture GARY HANEY, Design Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill CHEE PEARLMAN, Co-Chair, Chrysler Corp. Chrysler Design Award TERENCE RILEY, Chief Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York WILLIAM R. SIMS, Professor, Department of Design and Environmental Analysis, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. MARK WALSH, Chairman/Chief Strategy Officer, VerticalNet, Horsham, Pa. ROBERT T. WALSTON, CEO, Liberty Livewire, Santa Monica, Calif.
By Gerry Khermouch, with David Rocks
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