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Taubman Museum Wins Architecture Prize

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Taubman Museum of Art announced that the institution’s building, designed by Los Angeles architect Randall Stout, has received a 2009 International Architect Award, co-presented by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd. and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. The new facility, in Roanoke, VA, will celebrate its one-year anniversary in November.

The International Architecture Awards program recognizes noteworthy architecture from around the world, and is considered an important barometer for the future direction of architectural design and thinking. The awards celebrate, recognize, and highlight the world’s foremost architectural solutions for the designs of new skyscrapers, corporate buildings, institutions, arts facilities, airports, private homes, industrial structures, and urban-planning projects. 

The American Architecture Awards recognize outstanding new accomplishments for architecture designed and built in the U.S. by leading American firms and international architecture firms practicing in the U.S.

As designed by Stout, the Taubman is a dramatic composition of flowing, layered forms in steel, patinated zinc, and high-performance glass paying sculptural tribute to the famous Blue Ridge Mountains that provide Roanoke’s backdrop. The 81,000 square foot structure houses four special exhibition and five permanent collection galleries, a dramatic atrium, education spaces including a studio classroom and a library, a flexible theatre/programming space, a multi-purpose auditorium, and an interactive gallery and art center for children.

“We are thrilled that the museum has once again been recognized as an example of cutting-edge design and has been awarded this incredibly prestigious international award,” said Paul T. Frantz, president of the Taubman museum’s Board of Trustees.  “During our first year of operations we have experienced firsthand the expertise and innovation that Randall incorporated into the design to make our building as functional as it is architecturally and aesthetically intriguing.”

The museum and Randall Stout Architects were among 13 new distinguished projects and urban schemes in the U.S., and 97 projects worldwide that were selected in this year’s International Architecture Awards program. Other notable firms whose projects were recognized with awards include Alsop Architects, Kieran Timberlake, LOT-EK, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Zaha Hadid Architects.

The Taubman houses American art, modern and contemporary art, design and decorative arts, folk and visionary art, and works on paper, and features a changing array of national and international exhibitions.