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The Hajj Terminal at King Abdul Aziz International Airport at dusk. Photo: Business Week.
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ENDURING EXCELLENCE
The Hajj Terminal at King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia was honored with the 2010 Twenty-Five Year Award by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This award is conferred on a project that has stood the test of time for 25 to 35 years as an embodiment of architectural excellence. Projects must demonstrate excellence in function, in the distinguished execution of its original program and in the creative aspects of its statement by today’s standards.
The terminal structure was designed by SOM who crafted the 210 fabric tensions ‘tents’ based on the needs of the vast amount of people who travel through here. Because the millions of Hajj pilgrims on their way to Mecca travel through this open-air terminal each year, it was designed and serves as a gathering place of religious fellowship, an improvised campsite for pilgrims waiting to begin their journey, and a point of departure and gateway to Islam’s most revered places.
One member of the AIA jury stated, “This is a modernist structure that captures the spirit of Middle Eastern nomadic architecture…”
Other jury members also stated, “The architects created a highly sustainable project well ahead of the green movement; they learned from the way people have inhabited the desert since early civilization—screening the sun, allowing natural light and ventilation. They did so much with so little – few materials, a regular rhythm of structural bays, a simple fabric structure that works as shelter, as environmental control and as a tie to tradition.”
A rendering of the 2 modules with landscaped area between; the vehicular access; pilgrims under the tensile structure ‘tents’.
Sources: Aga Khan Development Network and SOM.com
And the Hajj Terminal is just one of many spectacular structures awarded for enduring excellence throughout the years. The 2009 winner was Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Cambridge, Massachussetts, designed by Benjamin Thompson & Associates. Also, our home state of Connecticut boasts 2 winners in the past 10 years: in 2005 the Yale Center for British Art, in New Haven, designed by Louis I. Kahn; and in 2000, The Smith House in Darien, designed by Richard Meier & Partners. These are just three of the many designs of enduring significance to be recognized for their contributions to the architecture fabric of today.
View a comprehensive list of the past winners below or click here for more information.
1969 Rockefeller Center, New York City, Reinhard & Hofmeister; Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray
1971 The Crow Island School, Winnetka, Ill., Perkins, Wheeler & Will; Eliel & Eero Saarinen
1972 Baldwin Hills Village, Los Angeles, Reginald D. Johnson; Wilson, Merrill & Alexander; Clarence S. Stein
1973 Taliesin West, Paradise Valley, Ariz., Frank Lloyd Wright
1974 Johnson and Son Administration Building, Racine, Wis., Frank Lloyd Wright
1975 Philip Johnson’s Residence, (“The Glass House”), New Caanan, Conn., Philip Johnson
1976 860-880 North Lakeshore Drive Apartments, Chicago, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
1977 Christ Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Saarinen, Saarinen & Associates; Hills, Gilbertson & Hays
1978 The Eames House, Pacific Palisades, Calif., Charles and Ray Eames
1979 Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., Louis I. Kahn, FAIA
1980 Lever House, New York City, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
1981 Farnsworth House, Plano, Ill., Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
1982 Equitable Savings and Loan Building, Portland, Oreg., Pietro Belluschi, FAIA
1983 Price Tower, Bartlesville, Okla., Frank Lloyd Wright
1984 Seagram Building, New York City, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
1985 General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Mich., Eero Saarinen and Associates with Smith, Hinchman & Grylls
1986 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, Frank Lloyd Wright
1987 Bavinger House, Norman, Okla., Bruce Goff
1988 Dulles International Airport Terminal Building, Chantilly, Va., Eero Saarinen and Associates
1989 Vanna Venturi House, Chestnut Hill, Pa., Robert Venturi, FAIA
1990 The Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Eero Saarinen and Associates
1991 Sea Ranch Condominium I, The Sea Ranch, Calif., Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker
1992 The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif., Louis I. Kahn, FAIA
1993 Deere & Company Administrative Center, Moline, Ill., Eero Saarinen and Associates
1994 The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine, Edward Larrabee Barnes
1995 The Ford Foundation Headquarters, New York City, Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates
1996 The Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, Colorado Springs, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
1997 Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Exeter, N. H., Louis I. Kahn, FAIA
1998 Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Louis I. Kahn, FAIA
1999 The John Hancock Center, Chicago, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
2000 The Smith House, Darien, Conn.; Richard Meier & Partners
2001 Weyerhaeuser Headquarters, Federal Way, Wash.; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
2002 Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain; Sert Jackson and Associates
2003 Design Research Headquarters Building, Cambridge, Mass; BTA Architects (formerly known as Benjamin Thompson & Associates, Inc.)
2004 East Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; I.M. Pei & Partners, Architects
2005 Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn., Louis I. Kahn, FAIA
2006 Thorncrown Chapel, Eureka Springs, Ark., E. Fay Jones, FAIA
2007 Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC; Maya Lin, Designer; Cooper-Lecky Architects, Architect of Record
2008 The Antheneum, New Harmony, Ind.; Richard Meier & Partners
2009 Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Cambridge, Mass.; Benjamin Thompson & Associates
EVENTS
This event ends on Friday so don’t forget to visit this exhibit this week:
What We Learned: The Yale Las Vegas Studio and the Work of Venturi Scott Brown & Associates
Now to February 05, 2010 at the Yale School of Architecture, 180 York Street, New Haven , CT
Two concurrent exhibitions showcasing the groundbreaking Las Vegas Studio of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown as well as the work of their firm will be presented by the Yale School of Architecture at the gallery of Paul Rudolph Hall. The exhibitions offer complementary perspectives on the legendary studio taught at Yale in 1969 and its subsequent impact on the teaching, research, and design work of Venturi and Scott Brown, two of America’s most prominent architects.
The Glass House 2010 Tour Series
The Philip Johnson Glass House, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has announced the release of 2010 tour tickets. There are a number of tours, including Twilight Tours, an experience of the 47-acre Glass House site as the sun begins to set.
For more information, click here.
Yale Center for British Art
Take the introductory tour of the Center’s permanent collection residing in this marvelous structure.
For more information and a full list of events held at the center daily, click here.
“Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul” – Ernest Dimnet
A bientot,
Karin
