AIA Accolades

Ted Lownie, with NYS Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro

The American Institute of Architects New York State (AIANYS) will present a 2010 Design Award to Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects (HHL) of Buffalo for the firm’s restoration of the Martin House Complex.  This “Award of Excellence” in the Historic Preservation category will be conferred on HHL during the AIANYS’  President’s Dinner and Design Awards Presentation tonight (10/15) in Buffalo in recognition of their outstanding  work in the reconstruction of the pergola, conservatory and carriage house and the exterior restoration of the Darwin Martin House.

  

This award is among  selected projects representing exceptional work by AIANYS members in eleven categories:  Adaptive Reuse, Commercial / Industrial (Large and Small Projects), Historic Preservation, Institutional, Interiors, International, Residential (Large and Small Projects), Unbuilt and Urban Planning / Design.  The criteria used by the juries included design quality, program resolution, innovation, thoughtfulness and technique.  HHL shares accolades in the Historic Preservation category with restorations of New York’s Beacon Theatre and Empire State Building (both by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Partners LLP).

  

HHL has been involved in the renewal of the Martin House Complex for more than a decade.  The work is now in its final phase, focusing on the interior of the Martin House, and is the most ambitious restoration and reconstruction of a Wright-designed structure ever undertaken.  The project has been recognized by the national and international media as an outstanding effort to preserve one of Wright’s masterworks of the Prairie era.

“The Martin House restoration and reconstruction, which we began in 1992, has been and continues to be, a project which continually provides unparalleled opportunities for professional growth architecturally.  Working on the Martin House is a genuine privilege,” reflected HHL Founding Architect Theodore L. Lownie.  Managing Partner Matthew W. Meier observed: “As architects, it’s truly been a privilege to devote nearly two decades of our professional service to research, stabilize, repair, reconstruct and restore Frank Lloyd Wright’s self-proclaimed ‘opus' – located right here in our own back yard!”

Toshiko Mori, speaking at the opening of the Greatbatch Pavilion

The Martin House Restoration Corporation is also extremely gratified that the AIANYS will present another award for its campus’s Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion (2009) to Toshiko Mori Architect (TMA) of New York City.  Mori will receive an “Award of Excellence” in the Institutional category. TMA previously received an “Honor” Design Award from the Buffalo/WNY Chapter of the AIA in 2009, and another from the AIA New York (New York City) Chapter in 2010 for the design of the Greatbatch Pavilion.