MCHAP 2022 Nominations and Jury Announced

John Hill

11. March 2022

Image courtesy of MCHAP

The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) has revealed the more than 250 built works in the running for the MCHAP 2022 and MCHAP.emerge 2022 awards, plus the makeup of the jury that will decide the winners.

The fourth cycle for the prize that was created in 2012 to "recognize the most distinguished architectural works built in North and South America" was delayed two years due to the coronavirus pandemic but is now on track to have the MCHAP.emerge symposium and award ceremony in the fall and the MCHAP symposium and award ceremony in spring 2023.

The winners will be culled from the more than 200 built works nominated for MCHAP 2022 and the more than 50 projects nominated for MCHAP.emerge 2022. The main prize consists of built works completed between January 2018 and June 2021, while the emerging prize acknowledges the best built work in a practice in its first ten years of operations. Nominations came from "an anonymous network of international experts and professionals," per a press release from MCHAP, which is based at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Previous MCHAP winners:
2018 (Third Cycle): Edificio E at the University of Piura in Piura, Peru, by Barclay & Crousse Architecture
2016 (Second Cycle): Grace Farms River Building in New Canaan, Connecticut, USA, by SANAA
2014 (First Cycle, for 2009–2013): 1111 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, Florida, USA by Herzog & de Meuron
2014 (First Cycle, for 2000–2008): Iberê Camargo Foundation in Porto Alegre, Brazil, by Álvaro Siza

Previous MCHAP.emerge winners:
2018 (Third Cycle): Rozana Montiel Estudio de Arquitectura for Common Unity in Mexico City, Mexico
2016 (Second Cycle): Productora for the Pavilion on the Zocalo in Mexico City
2014 (First Cycle): Pezo von Ellrichshausen for Poli House in Tome, Chile

According to a statement from MCHAP about the nominated works and jury members (listed below), the two-year suspension of the otherwise biennial prize "created an opportunity to assess its impact and reaffirm its agenda: to learn from architectural excellence that enriches lives." The jury criteria have been refined to take into consideration how projects:

integrate natural, built, and human ecologies;
create safe and new public spaces;
engage communities as agents of change;
use local workforces and materials;
improve life in challenged communities.

Sandra Barclay, jury chair, said in a statement: "MCHAP recognizes the architectural quality and the complicity between architects and communities, institutions, or individuals at the origin of each project. Its importance echoes beyond the Americas, showcasing our continent's best Architecture, and is essential within it, as it encourages these virtuous collaborations to multiply."

The MCHAP 2022 jury:

Sandra Barclay (Jury Chair; Lima, Peru), Founding Partner of Barclay & Crousse Architecture and Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Mónica Bertolino (Córdoba, Argentina), Owner of Estudio Bertolino-Barrado and Professor at the School of Architecture, Urbanism, and Design at Córdoba National University
Alejandro Echeverri (Medellin, Colombia), Director of URBAM Centro de Estudios Urbanos y Ambientales, Owner of Alejandro Echeverri + Valencia Architects, and Distinguished Professor at TEC de Monterrey
Julie Eizenberg (Santa Monica, CA, USA), Founding Principal of Koning Eizenberg Architects
Philip Kafka (Detroit, MI, USA), President of Prince Concepts
Dirk Denison (Chicago, IL, USA), MCHAP Director and Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, ex officio