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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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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Robert Hammond and Joshua David, co-founders of Friends of the High Line, accept their Architizer award.

Architizer Honorees Robert Hammond and Joshua David aren’t architects. They don’t have design degrees or urban planning experience. But that didn’t stop them from banding together to save an old elevated railway track in Manhattan’s West Side from oblivion. Little did they know that their passion project would end up not only creating one of New York City’s most beloved public parks, but revitalizing an entire neighborhood.

That project: the High Line, of course, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Robert and Joshua founded Friends of the High Line after a community meeting about the abandoned structure in 1999. Which made them a natural pick for our first Architizer Advocacy Award. Not only does their story illustrate the transformative power of architecture and design, but it also proves that anyone—not just architects, planners, and the like—can participate in it.

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Photo: Bruce Damonte

Having garnered the most Popular Choice votes among all of the Architizer A+ awards entries, SHoP Architects was presented the Building of the Year award by Barclays Center and Brooklyn Nets CEO Bret Yormak at Thursday evening’s Architizer A+ Awards Gala.

Principals Chris Sharples and Jonathan Mallie of SHoP Architects

“It’s impossible to describe the thrill of seeing a building you drew sitting in the heart of Brooklyn and filled with 18,000 screaming fans,” said SHoP Architects’ Chris Sharples & Jonathan L. Mallie. “Brett and Forest City Ratner are special. Clients with vision and a belief in the power of architecture. No good building gets built without that kind of support.” More after the jump!

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It is New York City’s first ever design week, NYCxDesign. Fifty years ago, when Richard Meier established his architecture firm in New York it was a different world. Since opening his doors in 1963 Meier has become one of the most prolific and well-known architects practicing today.

He is simultaneously an architect’s architect—he is one of the celebrated New York Five—and known around the world for building iconic and accessible buildings.

Architizer is proud to announce Richard Meier is its 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Watch his inspirational acceptance video above!

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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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A note from Marc Kushner, CoFounder of Architizer and a practicing architect.

Last night we threw a party for architecture. Architecture needed a good party.

At a venue on the West Side of New York City we had entrepreneurs, developers, fashion designers, the CEO of a major sports team and the President of a nation. All of them at an architecture event.

Bjarke Ingels at the Architizer A+ Awards Gala

We had our partners from the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Coolhunting there, along with our sponsors, Emirates Airline, Audemars Piguet, Audi and Perrier Jouet. All there to celebrate architecture.

Of course we also had architects: 55 of the 87 Architizer A+ Award winners flew in from all corners of the world to be with us at the the first ever Architizer A+ Awards gala. This party was for them, to celebrate the inaugural year of the Architizer A+ Awards.

12 months ago we launched the Architizer A+ Awards to change the game, to break architecture out of its echo chamber and to change how architects are rewarded for their hard work. 1,500 entries from 100 countries, 200 jurors, and 50 categories later we succeeded.

Last night two people said things to me that made me realize we are on the right path:

First it was Thom Browne, the fashion designer, who said to me that he was so happy to attend an architecture event because all of his fashion is inspired by architecture. He never goes to architecture events because he had never been invited before!

Shame on us architects! We have fans out there that want to love us. Last night we broke architecture out of its shell and invited everyone to come and celebrate architecture with us.

Fashion designer Thom Browne at the Architizer A+ Awards Gala

The second person was President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia who said to the 400 guests that taking risks is the only way to build good architecture. He told the room proudly that he had been criticized for commissioning progressive architecture. He advised every architect that if you aren’t being criticized then you aren’t real.

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili with Architizer Co-founder Marc Kushner

Last night we took a risk. We put architecture on a stage that it was unaccustomed to. We put it in a global spotlight.

Last night we broke out of the echo chamber where architects speak exclusively to architects, and we reminded the public how important our profession is.

Last night we held our heads up proudly and said to the world: We are architects! We design every space you live in, work in and play in. We are the people that design the backdrop to everyday life.

Last night we told the world that architecture is ready to be recognized for its contribution.

Congratulations to all of our winners. Congratulations to every architect in the world. This is just the beginning.

Stay tuned for more coverage and make sure to sign up to be a beta tester for the New Architizer, launching this summer

Photo credits: Matteo Prandoni/BFAnyc.com 

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Hitting the A+ Awards Red Carpet tonight are (clockwise from top left): MoMA’s Paola Antonelli, David van der Leer, Elizabeth Diller, and Yves Behar

Our first gala for the Architizer A+ Awards starts in … a matter of hours! And we’re putting the finishing touches to make sure we look all pretty and polished for our guests, who are, needless to say, pretty distinguished. So, who’s gonna be on the red carpet tonight (you know, besides the President of Georgia)? From architect giant Juergen Mayer H. to intrepid photographer Iwan Baan, here’s just a sampling of the many glamorous names attending our fete!

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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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Architects know how to party. Seriously! In preparation for our A+ Gala on Thursday, we’ve looked at some notorious architecture bashes throughout history, and—let’s just say we have a lot to live up to! From a country happening with a special performance by the Velvet Underground to a Bauhaus party featuring a tinfoil slide, here are some historic architecture fetes we wish we could have attended! 

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