Austin City Hall Architect Awarded AIA Gold Medal

Last week, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) awarded architect Antoine Predock, designer of Austin's geometrically-gifted City Hall, their highly-coveted AIA Gold Medal. The annual honor is meant to celebrate those "whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture." Among the past winners are Thomas Jefferson (1993), Frank Lloyd Wright (1949), Louis Sullivan (1944), LeCorbusier (1961), Louis Kahn (1971), and I.M. Pei (1979) - in other words, a fairly impressive bunch.

AIA committee chairman Thomas S. Howorth had this to say of Predock:

“Arguably, more than any American architect of any time, Antoine Predock has asserted a personal and place-inspired vision of architecture with such passion and conviction that his buildings have been universally embraced.” Howorth continued, “Antoine Predock designs buildings that grow out of their unique landscapes, creating, at the same time, symbols that are fearlessly expressive and sincere, simultaneously complex and guileless.”

The awards ceremony will be held early next year at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. We congratulate Mr. Predock on his extraordinary accomplishments! And perhaps, in ten or fifteen years, we'll be able to commission him to design our spiffy new Austinist Headquarters - because, as our staff will readily attest, operating out of a brothel gets old fairly quickly.

*Image from www.predock.com - thanks to Serge for the tip!