The American Architecture Awards is a national and international awards program for new architecture, landscape architecture, interiors, and urban planning in the United States. The program was launched by the Chicago AthenaeumMuseum of Architecture and Design in 1994 to honor and celebrate the most outstanding architecture designed and built or unbuilt throughout the nation or abroad in foreign countries. The Awards Program is open to all American architecture offices and international firms with projects inside the United States from the past two years. The American Architecture Awards are organized annually with The EuropeanCenter for ArchitectureArt Design and Urban Studies. The Awards are the Nation's highest public recognition for architectural design excellence given by a non-commercial, non-trade affiliated public arts, culture and educational institution in the United States. "The Chicago Athenaeum believes that The American Architecture Awards serve the direct and distinct purpose of promoting Good Design and as a vehicle to further enlighten the general public's understanding and knowledge about architecture and the design arts," states Christian Narkiewicz-Laine. The awards deadline is February 1 and the awards are given annually at the end of September by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, and Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd. Starting in 2009 the awards were presented in partnership with The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. The winning projects are selects by a jury from several hundred submissions from architectural practices in the U.S. and around the world. All submitted projects are to be designed by architects in the 50 states or abroad two years prior to the award year. Recent juries for awards have been conducted in Dublin, Ireland Athens, Greece ; Stuttgart, Germany ; Istanbul, Turkey ; Vancouver, Canada ; Seoul, South Korea ; Athens, Greece ; Phoenix Arizona ; and Denver, Colorado in coordination with The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, The Turkish Camber of Architects in Istanbul, The Frank Lloyd WrightSchool of Architecture, The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in Vancouver, The Federation of Institutes of Korean Architects, The Hellenic Institute of Architecture, International Biennial of Architecture Buenos Aires, The Istanbul Design Biennial, and The University of Florence. The Awards are published each year in Global Design + Urbanism by Metropolitan Arts Press. The awarded projects form an exhibition, "The City and the World", that has toured inside the United States and Europe.
Awarded projects
The number of awarded projects:
1994 – 30 projects
1995 – 29 projects
1996 – 40 projects
1997 – 27 projects
1998 – 29 projects
1999 – 32 projects
2000 – 43 projects
2001 – 31 projects
2002 – 35 projects
2003 – 42 projects
2004 – 37 projects
2005 – 29 projects
2006 – 33 projects
2007 – 32 projects
2008 – 65 projects
2009 – 64 projects
2010 – 47 projects
2011 – 45 projects
2012 – 62 projects
2013 – 65 projects
2014 – 65 projects
2015 – 60 projects
2016 – 74 projects
The American Architecture Awards™ is a trademark of The Chicago Athenaeum.