American Architecture Housing Awards: 10 Best American Homes of 2009
By Joe Wertz
The American Institute of Architecture has named 10 homes selected for its annual Housing Award, a prestigious honor given this year to residential projects built with eco-friendly design elements, unique material usage and cutting edge construction methods. An April 17 story and slideshow in the Wall Street Journal detailed some of the winning homes, including the Zack de Vito-designed Laidley Street Residence in San Francisco, a 3,000 square-foot townhouse built with an acrylic staircase that funnels illumination from a skylight to the basement. The WSJ article also explored Frank Harmon’s Low Country Residence in Mount Pleasant, S.C. — a home designed for a Hurricane Hugo survivor that was built with heavy shutters that can be easily closed to block the sun and heavy storm winds.
Hit the jump to see all 10 of the AIA’s Housing Award-winning home designs. [read more at archdaily and The Wall Street Journal]
- Laidley Street Residence
- San Francisco, California
- Zack / de Vito Architecture
- 700 Palms Residence
- Venice, Calif.
- Ehrlich Architects
- House at Sagaponac
- Wainscott, N.Y.
- Tsao & McKown Architecs
- Glade House
- Lake Forest, Ill.
- Frederick Phillips and Associates
- Outpost
- Bellevue, Idaho
- Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects
- Montecito Residence
- Montecito, Calif.
- Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects
- Cinco Camp
- Brewster County, Texas
- Rhotenberry Wellen Architects
- House on Hoopers Island
- Church Creek, Md.
- David Jameson Architect
- Chuckanut Drive Residence
- Bellingham, Wash.
- The Miller | Hull Partnership
- Low Country Residence
- Mount Pleasant, S.C.
- Frank Harmon Architect
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 8:57PM
I can't help but notice they all have a very similar look and feel to them…
Monday, April 27, 2009 12:03PM
I would agree that they all have a feel of modern architecture. Being in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, I am glad to see that the Mount Pleasant house made the list. More importantly, they made the necessary preparations for hurricanes.
Andy Richardson
http://www.hurricaneresourcecenter.com
Friday, May 22, 2009 4:00PM
One word………UGLY !
Friday, May 22, 2009 4:16PM
i think they're beautiful.
Saturday, May 23, 2009 1:28PM
Sad state of affairs. Boxes are not architecture.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:03AM
I'm sorry but I think most of these are really tacky. Unique doesn't always mean good
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 1:00AM
People live in there? And feel good while they are in there?
Saturday, June 20, 2009 6:01PM
LOL ugly indeed!
Thursday, July 2, 2009 6:51AM
I'm a residential Architect and am not surprised at the comments above! The vast majority of homes built today are of a "traditional" lineage and unfortunately, that's a genre that Architects often disdain. There is certainly room (and need) to create interesting and unique residential Architecture out of more familiar elements.
Having said that, it is also true that modern architectural elements offer Architects a much greater degree of flexibilty in the composition of a work of Architecture. And it is generally far simpler to make a modern home "green" than it is for traditional styles.
But are they attractive? At first glance, the answer is often "no". But study homes like these in more detail (go to the original article, or better yet visit one or two) and many people find that there's a beauty to them that they didn't see right away.
Some folks thought Wright's work was ugly at first, too!
Sunday, July 5, 2009 4:06AM
there was a time where doing architecture like this was considered blasphemous, its funny to see how far weve come, the interesting moral to the story is that things that might seem blasphemous to us now like bloby organic buildings that push the structural limits of even our imaginations will soon become the standard.
Saturday, August 8, 2009 6:45PM
Chuckanut= my favorite. Stunning. Would live there in a heartbeat.
Saturday, August 15, 2009 12:34PM
I've won international design award and AIA award before (but now I'm an investment banker), and I think Wrights work is still ugly!
Some are quite good above. Some are just tacky and lazy. Design in this country is generally lacking…
Monday, October 3, 2011 6:26PM
i liked all the above desgnes ..who could believe that the projects that we do on papers could seek into the real world in that beauty …we r living in a modern world so why we dont have a modern thinking and modern homes…yeah its boxes …but the combination of those boxes is the creativity the let it shine …eventhought i dont mind if the imagination became the standerds