The Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) voted for Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects (LMSA) to receive the 2017 AIA Architecture Firm Award. The AIA Architecture Firm Award, given annually, is the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture firm and recognizes a practice that consistently has produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years. Over the course of three decades, San Francisco-based LMSA developed an impressive portfolio of highly influential work that advances issues of social consciousness and environmental responsibility and will be honored at the 2017 AIA National Convention in Orlando.
Firm principals William Leddy, FAIA, Marsha Maytum, FAIA, and Richard Stacy, FAIA, began collaborating in 1983 with the belief that architecture is the synthesis of poetics, economics, technologies, and has always been embedded in the firm’s culture. Dedicated to addressing issues of resource depletion, climate change, historic preservation, and social equity, LMSA and its leadership clearly demonstrate that architects can help their communities adapt to a complex and rapidly changing world. To that end, the firm’s proficiency in diverse building types – from affordable housing to the adaptive reuse of historic structures – has been recognized with more than 140 design awards and are only one of three firms to have ever received eight AIA COTE Top Ten awards. A small, nimble firm comprising 21 dedicated designers who believe deeply in the transformative power of architecture, the firm’s work demonstrates design with purpose as it develops model solutions to meet crucial challenges.
LMSA’s Plaza Apartments became San Francisco’s first permanent housing for the formerly homeless. The firm’s vigor coupled with the city’s innovative public housing project led to dignified housing with on-site health and social services for 106 chronically homeless people. Designed in association with Paulett Taggart Architects and clad in wood-resin panels, the building boasts a pinwheel plan on the upper floors that floods corridors with daylight while Integrated Universal Design strategies far exceed Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. Across the San Francisco Bay in Berkeley, the Ed Roberts Campus is one of the first buildings of its kind in the nation – a community center serving and celebrating the Independent Living / Disabled Rights Movement. This two story building located at a regional transit hub features an iconic red helical ramp that welcomes people of all abilities to the second floor while it expresses the values of universal design to the general public.
Previous recipients of the AIA Firm Award include, LMN Architects (2016), Ehrlich Architects (2015), Eskew + Dumez + Ripple (2014), Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (2013), VJAA (2012), Lake| Flato (2004), Gensler (2000), Perkins & Will (1999), Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (1994), and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (1962).
Related Stories
Architects | Jul 9, 2015
NCARB: Record number of aspiring architects on path toward licensure
More than 37,170 design professionals either reported hours through the Intern Development Program or tested for the Architect Registration Examination last year, according to a new NCARB report.
Architects | Jul 7, 2015
Why AEC firms should be cultivating 'visible experts'
A new study pinpoints the true dollar value of having knowledge leaders and market shapers on your team.
Green | Jul 7, 2015
Philips sheds new light on growing fresh food indoors
A research center in The Netherlands is testing the latest techniques in urban farming.
BIM and Information Technology | Jul 6, 2015
BIM/VDC training is more than learning the features
Training can be a taxing experience for both the class and the instructor. CASE's Nathan Miller offers four ways to make training more relevant to practitioners.
Healthcare Facilities | Jul 6, 2015
The main noisemakers in healthcare facilities: behavior and technology
Over the past few decades, numerous research studies have concluded that noise in hospitals can have a deleterious effect on patient care and recovery.
BIM and Information Technology | Jul 6, 2015
New documentary shows Legos as touchstones of creativity
The film's narrator, actor Jason Bateman, says it’s a story “about a simple toy and how its unique properties ushered in a new era of creativity for a whole generation.”
Contractors | Jul 1, 2015
ABC: Nonresidential construction spending continues growth with stellar May
Through the first five months of 2015, nonresidential construction spending is having its second best year since the Census Bureau began tracking the metric in 2002, according to ABC.
Architects | Jun 29, 2015
Getty Foundation announces second series of ‘Keeping It Modern’ grants to conserve 20th century architecture
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple and Erich Mendelsohn’s Einstein Tower are among the 14 projects added to the Keeping It Modern grant program.
Architects | Jun 29, 2015
9 top picks for continuing education from BD+C University
A roundup of top AIA/CES Discovery courses from BD+C University.
Industrial Facilities | Jun 24, 2015
5 trends that will shape the future of scientific labs
Scientific research is increasingly focusing on data collection and analytical analysis of that data, meaning the "lab of the future" will more closely resemble contemporary tech spaces, writes Gensler’s Erik Lustgarten.
