What Is the Twenty-Five Year Award?

Nearly 26,000 architects attended the 2018 AIA Conference on Architecture -- the largest gathering of architects in the United States ever, according to AIA CEO Robert Ivy -- but only about twenty were in attendance for the seminar "What Is the Twenty-Five Year Award?" This architect/writer attended to learn more about the award and decipher why a building was not selected for the Twenty-Five Year Award this year.

​A quick recap: The Twenty-five Year Award was created in 1969 to recognize "a building that has stood the test of time for 25-35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance." Outside of 1970, before the award was made annual, the prestigious award has been given every year -- until January of this year, when it was announced that "the jury did not find a submission that it felt achieved twenty-five years of exceptional aesthetic and cultural relevance while also representing the timelessness and positive impact the profession aspires to achieve."

Our news story on the non-award included a few buildings from the 1983 to 1993 time period that we felt were deserving of the Twenty-five Year Award. Were these buildings considered? What buildings were finalists but not good enough for the award? What was the jury really saying by not giving the award? How does the process work, and how can it change so a non-award doesn't happen again? These were some of the questions on my mind before attending the seminar.

The seminar was led by ​Heather Young and Daniel Garber, both co-chairs of the AIA Twenty-five Year Award Committee. They presented the award's inner workings then John Morris Dixon discussed five award recipients, all in New York City, to give context on worthy projects. Also in attendance were Daniel Lobo, the AIA's Director of Honors & Awards, a 2018 juror, and a committee member. Young acknowledged the controversy that followed the announcement of the non-award, but pointed to a lack of understanding of the award process rather than a backlash against Postmodern architecture, which she denied as a motive of the jury in reaction to speculations at the time of the news.

Beyond the subjective criteria spelled out above, the Twenty-five Year Award has three objective qualifications for nominations:

1. must have been completed 25-35 years ago
2. must have been designed by a US-licensed architect at the time of the project’s completion
3. must be in a substantially completed form, in good condition, and not fundamentally altered from its original intent​

Although the seminar was enlightening in terms of the Twenty-five Year Award process, it was frustrating when it came to the myriad layers of confidentiality. What were the 230 projects? Confidential. What about the non-winning submissions? Confidential. What about committee discussions? Confidential. Without the ability to talk about any particulars of the Twenty-five Year "non-Award" it was impossible to learn anything beyond the process and how it impacts the winner each year.

Daniel Logo, who wasn't working for the AIA when the news of this year's non-award was announced in January, had a couple good points though:

1. The non-award drew extra attention to the Twenty-five Year Award, bringing it more press than the news of a winner would have garnered.
2. The non-award expressed a sense of dignity in the award, such that it wouldn't be given to a building because it was one of eight or nine submitted that year.