AIA 2018 Awards

by John Morris Dixon | January 15th, 2018

In choosing James Stewart Polshek for its annual Gold Medal, the Board of the American Institute of Architects has chosen a no-bunk designer of buildings. The 87-year-old New York architect hasn’t propounded overriding theories or endlessly replicated signature forms. While he earned his M.Arch. degree at Yale and is based in the Big Apple, Polshek hails from Akron, Ohio, and has retained a characteristic Midwestern pragmatism – simply designing the best buildings for their purposes and sites. Polshek and the partners he assembled reach beyond narrow functionalism, however, to ensure that their buildings complement the structures and spaces around them. And, in a practice dominated by institutional buildings, they ensure that each structure presents a memorable and appropriate image — supporting what could (perhaps too crassly) be called the institution’s “brand.” The Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, for instance, has a distinctive form that is highly assertive yet integral …