Pugh + Scarpa Celebrate After Receiving Highest Accolade from AIA

The AIA (American Institute of Architects) has voted Pugh + Scarpa Architects the winners of the 2010 Architecture Firm Award. The award, given annually, is the highest honour the AIA bestows on an architecture firm and recognizes a practice that has consistently produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years.

“We’re thrilled,” said Lawrence Scarpa, after being notified. “It was a surprise just to be nominated. It’s just stunning to win.”

Established in 1991, the firm now employs 20 professionals and has studios in Santa Monica, California and Charlotte, North Carolina. Founding partners Gwynne Pugh and Lawrence Scarpa, and Angela Brooks, who became a partner in 2001, have since become known for their varied experience in everything from master planning and urban design to designs for furniture, proving that they have resisted becoming too specialized in any particular building type.

Over the past year, Pugh + Scarpa have been working on projects such as the Santa Monica Parking Garages, a renovation of 8 parking structures, which includes the installation of public art and over 1000 solar panels, a project which is expected to receive LEED ‘Gold’ certification; the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh for the NC State University, a mixed use development including retail and housing; and a prototype affordable family home commissioned by the Make-it-Right Foundation as part of the rebuilding of the lower 9th Ward community in New Orleans.

Thom Mayne, FAIA, in support of the nomination, writes: “Pugh + Scarpa’s practice is known for both design and its commitment to running a socially and environmentally responsive practice. Comfortable with aesthetic, practical, political, and functional issues, they have mapped an architectural path that is as didactic as it is successful.”

The award-winning firm has previously received 13 national AIA awards and more than 40 state and local AIA awards. The award will be presented on June 12 at the 2010 AIA National Convention in Miami.

Pugh + Scarpa
www.pugh-scarpa.com