Peter Bohlin honored with AIA Gold Medal

The American Institute of Architecture's highest honor was bestowed on the founder of the Pensylvania-based Bohlin Cywinski Jackson practice. While Peter Bohlin might not be a familiar name to those outside the industry, it is exactly the "humility" of his designs that gained him the prize.

"Again and again, his work demonstrates that great cities, towns, and buildings are created by designers looking to further the story of their place in a collaborative and contextual way, not by singular architecture that calls for heedless and self-serving attention," the AIA judges justified their choice.

Bohlin's works, which previously earned him 14 AIA awards, include the Apple Store on New York City's Fifth Avenue, a steel-less glass cube that takes visitors underground away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and Seattle City Hall, whose facades play with its surroundings, reflecting the sun light.

Another reason for Bohlin winning the Gold Medal, was his diverse use of materials, a supporter said. "He moves from the log cabin to the glass box with the same unassailable ethic that has for hundreds of years defined and shaped an architectural tradition," Mack Scogin, of Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, wrote in a recommendation letter.

Talking to AIA president Marvin Malecha, who notified Bohlin by phone directly after the jury's decision was announced December 3, the architect said: "I'm so pleased and I'm surprised. We all believe in architecture. It is our life to a great extent. Like athletes, we all know that it's hard work to make it look easy, and we're all constantly striving to do that."

The AIA Gold Medal, together with the much more publicized Pritzker Prize, is considered the country's highest honor of individual achievement in architecture. The institute's two other awards, the Architecture Firm Award and Topaz Medallion (honoring a distinguished educator), went to California-based practice Pugh + Scarpa and postmodernist Michael Graves respectively.

Bohlin will be honored at the 2010 AIA National Convention in Miami.