Did anyone have a better time at our Gala than Mass Design Group‘s Michael Murphy and Alan Ricks? “This is blowing my mind,” said Murphy, surveying the crowd before going on stage to accept Architizer’s Do Good Award with his partner, Ricks. What was he planning on doing to celebrate after the ceremony? “Eating some more appetizers!”

All joking aside, Murphy and Ricks do serious work. Really serious work. They’ve built recycling centers in storm-ravaged Haiti, a primary school in Rwanda, and a hospital in the Rwandan town of Burera–a region that had previously lacked access to a single doctor (the hospital won an A+ Award). As Neil Blumenthal, co-principal of do-good glasses company Warby Parker, said as he handed Murphy and Ricks their statuette, “Mass Design Group isn’t winning this award just because they design beautiful buildings, it is how they do it.”

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According to Kate Flaherty, vice president of building products and special projects at MMPI, the opportunity to build LuxeHome’s newest addition, the GE Monogram Design Center, seemed like an architect’s dream. “There are only two  GE Monogram Design Centers in the world including the LuxeHome location,” Flaherty said. Speaking enthusiastically about the 30 premier kitchen, bath and building products boutiques at LuxeHome’s almost 5-acre space on the first floor of the historic Merchandise Mart in Chicago, she adds, “Every architect loves to design a showroom at LuxeHome, especially of this caliber.”

Her supposition is well grounded: With some of the most sought-after kitchen appliances to showcase and a collection of high-quality flooring, cabinetry, and other products provided more or less at the architects’ disposal, designing LuxeHome’s GE Monogram Design Center  seemed more of an indulgent architectural exercise than a challenging one. From the beginning, however, architect Chip von Weise wanted to do things differently.

“Most showrooms have a bunch of very small vignettes showing lots of different products, but you never feel like you’re in a place — you feel like you’re in a commercial showroom,” von Weise, founder of von Weise Associates, explained. “GE was very articulate about wanting to make people understand the quality of their products and how they will interface with their lifestyle. We thought a typical showroom design wasn’t the best way to meet that objective.”

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The Herzog & de Meuron-designed Olympic Stadium in Beijing. Photo: Iwan Baan

Dutch photographer Iwan Baan has been at the forefront of architectural photography since 2005, when he documented both OMA’s CCTV tower and Herzog and de Meuron’s Olympic Stadium in Beijing. He soon rose to the top of the profession, being called on to photograph many of the most innovative contemporary buildings. His influence expanded beyond the architectural profession when he captured the iconic New York Magazine cover image of Lower Manhattan without power after Hurricane Sandy. This district soon came to be called SoPo—South of Power—and Baan’s photo was instrumental in bringing the storm’s effects into public view.

Honored with the Architizer A+ Relevance Award, presented by New Museum director Lisa Phillips, Iwan Baan is among the most talented architectural photographers working today. His art lies not only in capturing the building as an object, or in mastering composition, but also in capturing the urban context and human life both within and beyond his subjects’ walls. He shows architecture as most people see it, transcendent but also in touch with day-to-day life.

Presented here is a roundup of some of his most celebrated images, including studies of life in the Torre de David, an abandoned bank tower turned informal housing complex in Caracas, Venezuela. Check out all of the images below, as well as on Baan’s web site.

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The IE School of Architecture is upending traditional models of architectural education, betting instead on radical new curricula to reinvigorate the discipline. For design professionals interested in business, the new international Master in Architectural Management and Design program offers pioneering training in business management for the AEC sector.

The program teaches designers the skills they need to become successful, understanding the design implications of business decisions and vice-versa. With a diverse group of instructing practitioners and advisers from unique academic backgrounds, the IE Master in Architectural Management and Design program allows students to access a wide network with deep industry expertise. “Most architects are entrepreneurs and vocational designers who need a specific management toolkit to build the career they want,” the program directors explain.

The innovative and pioneering content of this master program lies in the combination of IE’s well known entrepreneurial spirit and business expertise in conjunction with the design approach of IE School of Architecture & Design. Students gain the professional edge of attending a globally recognized business school that has been training field leaders for over 30 years. The program teaches critical skills such as business acumen and management know-how— skills that can play a key role in the success of an architectural practice. More after the jump!

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Image of A+ Award by Snarkitecture

Last night on the West Side of New York City we celebrated the first annual Architizer A+ Awards. Altogether 55 winners flew in from all over the world to be with us to celebrate architecture.

But this wasn’t your typical architecture award event. We skipped the typical conversations of architects speaking to architects and, instead, had a diverse crew of honorees and presenters get up on stage to fete the world’s finest buildings. We had developers giving awards to architects, we had architects giving awards to presidents… it was an architecture love-fest!

Last night we introduced six special achievement awards designed to remind a world that loves buildings that architecture belongs to everyone. Great architecture takes advocacy to be relevant, and it takes patrons with visions to create spectacular projects. That is why we are proud to announce the 2013 Architizer A+ Awards Relevance Award, Advocacy Award and Patron of the Year Award. We also announced the Do Good Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, and Building of the Year.

And our Special Award Winners are …

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Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry

As we mentioned before, architects, urbanists, and design influencers are flocking to New York City from all over the world to attend Architizer’s A+ Awards gala. But one special guest may come as a particular surprise to readers. That’s Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia. What’s the president of Georgia doing at an architecture gala, you ask? Well, turns out he’s is a huge architecture fan. Saakashvili has remade the former Soviet state into something of a bourgeoning design capital. In fact, he’s the one who commissioned Jürgen Mayer H.‘s zig-zagging rest stops that dot one of Georgia’s new highways—and which won the A+ popular vote award in the bus and train stations category.

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Van Alen Institute’s ground floor space at 30 West 22nd Street

Van Alen Institute has just announced Ground/Work, an international architecture competition seeking innovative designs for a new street-level venue that will house the Institute’s work space and public programs.

Since 1982 the New York City nonprofit, which is dedicated to promoting innovative thinking about the role of architecture and design in civic life, has made its sixth-floor location at 30 West 22nd Street home to a diverse program of competitions, curatorial projects, and public events, becoming a venerable hub for design innovation.

Now, building on the success of its ground-floor bookstore, Van Alen Books, the Institute is moving its entire operation to the street level. In the process, Van Alen is putting its public-oriented mission at the core of its own office and event space, transforming the ground floor and lower level of its building into a home that is more visible, accessible, and participatory in public life, with a clear connection to the street and the city at large.

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Yesterday, we announced that we’re teaming up with 2×4 to bring the global firm’s ingenious multifestos into the A+ Awards Ceremony. Multifesto: a communal design manifesto asks designers to share their three-word philosophies using a verb-preposition-noun, suggesting design as an active engagement with the world around us. Fragments of the ever-growing Multifesto will be broadcast all over the NYC with online contributions happening via NYCxDESIGN.com/Multifesto.

And the multifestos have been rolling in! Here’s a sneak peek at some of the ones we’ll feature at the awards ceremony on Thursday!

Build Beyond Budgets
- 5468796 Architecture
Guertin Boatport, jury winner, port facilities and boat piers

Handle With Care
- J. Mayer H. Architects
Rest Stops in Gori, Georgia, popular vote winner, bus and train stations

Form Your World
- Architecture for Humanity Chicago
Fresh Moves Mobile Produce Market, jury winner, farming

Running with X-acto
- Specht Harpman
Manhattan Micro Loft, popular choice winner, living small

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The Kona Residence, by Belzberg Architects, uses Italian ceramic tiles.

Calling all architects and designers: Show off the beauty of Italian tiles while celebrating NYCxDesign and you could win a trip to Italy! Ceramics of Italy is bringing its gorgeous tiles to ICFF (the International Contemporary Furniture Fair) May 18 through 21, and launching a fun Instagram competition while there!

All you need to do is visit the Italian Pavilion (Booth #1432) at ICFF or any Italian ceramic and porcelain tile dealer exhibit or showroom located in the Tri-State area from May 13 to 21, snap a photo of your favorite Italian ceramic tile, and post it on Instagram for a chance to win a trip to Italy for Cersaie 2013. Make sure to tag your image with #architilesitaly and include the name of the manufacturer! (For all terms and conditions, please see the contest rules.)

So what are you waiting for? Follow @ceramicsofitaly on Instagram and start snapping! And make sure to visit the Italian Pavilion during ICFF, featuring eight of Ceramics of Italy’s popular tile brands, along with a special exhibition celebrating 20 years of exemplary projects by North American architects and designers using Italian ceramics.

Visit italytile.com for more details.

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Our A+ trophy, designed by Snarkitecture!

NYCxDESIGN, New York City’s first design festival, is in high gear—establishing the Big Apple’s reputation as the Design Capital of the World. And Architizer is a part of it.

Bookended by the Frieze Art Fair at the beginning and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) near the end, NYCxDESIGN, which runs through May 21, brings together culture, education, commerce, and entertainment with hundreds of events ranging from exhibitions and installations to trade shows, talks, and open studios. But more than that, the festival aims to merge culture with commerce, and to bring design to all audiences.

That’s where Architizer comes in. As the world’s largest architecture website, Architizer is similarly committed to connecting design with the people by bringing architecture out of the echo chamber. Which is why we launched the Architizer A+ Awards, the biggest architectural awards program in the world, with 50+ categories and more than 200 jurors. Instead of celebrating one architect and making architecture into something rarefied and arcane, the A+ Awards celebrate the diversity of architecture around the globe, with entrants coming from more than 100 different countries. More after the jump!

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