by Rebecca Walker — May 16, 2011—AIA 2011 President Clark Manus, FAIA, presented the 2011 Architecture Firm Award to the Kansas City, Mo.-based firm BNIM, citing its leadership in advancing the design of sustainable architecture, its mentoring, continuing staff education, and the firm’s painstaking research of building performance.
The AIA Architecture Firm Award, given annually, is the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture firm and recognizes a practice that consistently has produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years.
As captured on a video about the firm, BINM has heavily imprinted its design identity on its native Kansas City, with numerous civic, public, and education projects. In accepting the award on behalf of his firm, principal Steve McDowell, FAIA, said, “BNIM’s work, and that of our industry, is increasingly informed by the relationships between the natural, social, and built environments. Over time, our understanding of these relationships has evolved from a focus on conservationtaking less from these environmentstoward one of generosity, where our buildings actually contribute, and give back to the ecosystems and environments that sustain them.
“What is most exciting about this evolution, though, is the fact that it accompanies a rising focus on practical function and performance. We are beginning to think of our buildings as living machines, instruments to affect and harmonize the human and natural activity that fills and surrounds them.”
“Together, these trends are converging to bring architecture to a place where what a building does is now as important as what it looks like. This approach, where we think of our buildings as living and adaptive, can yield extraordinary outcomes. By designing this way, we are no longer creating just the surroundings of these placeswe’re designing a whole new atmosphere for how people live and work together. And we’re creating the foundation for a whole new future.”
For more on BNIM, see the Web site.
