At the annual Innovational Conference in New York City last month, architect and lecturer Tom Phifer was celebrated as the inaugural Architect of RECORD for a lifetime of achievement in the profession and exceptional work published in Architectural RECORD magazine. At the same event, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office and WEISS/MANFREDI were recognized by the editors of the magazine for some of the best recent projects—built and unbuilt—across 14 categories.
Neri&Hu, the firm co-founded by Miller Professor and Chair of Architecture Rossana Hu was honored in the “Unbuilt (Firm)” category for Shanfeng Les Roches School, a multi-purpose cultural quarter anchored by a vocational institution founded in collaboration with the Swiss hospitality academic of the same name. Located on the eastern tip of Chongming Island, which is across the Yangtze River from Shanghai, the project includes 205,000 square feet for a diverse program that features a black box theater, art center, bookstore, retail and restaurant spaces, and guest faculty dormitory and hotel. The School is currently under construction.
“Neri&Hu’s submission pushes ideas to an extreme to provoke and advance our collective dialogue about contemporary architecture,” said DS+R Partner Benjamin Gilmartin of the jury’s praise for the project.
WEISS/MANFREDI, the firm led by Graham Professor of Practice Marion Weiss and partner Michael Manfredi, earned an Honorable Mention for the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus in Toronto. Located at a critical juncture between the University of Toronto’s campus, the historic legislature grounds, and the city’s growing Discovery District, this 13-story building establishes a new gateway to Queen's Park along University Avenue and frames the heart of the university’s campus.
“I’m up here today standing on the shoulders of others,” said Phifer when accepting theArchitect of RECORD award at the October event. “I absolutely love being an architect. I love working with clients and consultants. And I love nothing more than working with my remarkable team—these are the folks that make it happen.”
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