The Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) voted last week for Leddy Matum Stacy Architects (LMSA) to receive the 2017 AIA Architecture Firm Award. The AIA Architecture Firm Award, given annually, is the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture firm and recognizes a practice that consistently has produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years. Over the course of three decades, San Francisco-based LMSA developed an impressive portfolio of highly influential work that advances issues of social consciousness and environmental responsibility and will be honored at the 2017 AIA National Convention in Orlando.
LMSA Staff Photo
Firm principals William Leddy, FAIA, Marsha Maytum, FAIA, and Richard Stacy, FAIA, began collaborating in 1989 with the belief that architecture is the synthesis of poetics, economics, technologies, and has always been embedded in the firm’s culture. Dedicated to addressing issues of resource depletion, climate change, historic preservation, and social equity, LMSA and its leadership clearly demonstrate that architects can help their communities adapt to a complex and rapidly changing world. To that end, the firm’s proficiency in diverse building types – from affordable housing to the adaptive reuse of historic structures – has been recognized with more than 140 design awards and are only one of three firms to have ever received eight AIA COTE Top Ten awards.
A small, nimble firm comprising 20 dedicated designers who believe deeply in the transformative power of architecture, the firm’s work demonstrates design with purpose as it develops model solutions to meet crucial challenges. LMSA’s Plaza Apartments became San Francisco’s first permanent housing for the formerly homeless. The firm’s vigor coupled with the city’s innovative public housing project led to dignified housing with on-site health and social services for 106 chronically homeless people. Clad in wood-resin panels, the building boasts a pinwheel plan on the upper floors that floods corridors with daylight while Integrated Universal Design strategies far exceed Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
The result of an innovative public housing program initiated by the City of San Francisco, the Plaza Apartments provides permanent, dignified housing with on-site health and social services for 106 chronically homeless people. Plaza Apartments. San Francisco, Ca. Photo ©Tim Griffith
At the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, LMSA transformed a U.S. Army Base in 2008 into Cavallo Point Lodge—into a luxurious hotel, and conference and retreat center—the Institute at the Golden Gate, a program of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. An alliance of public and private entities, the project seamlessly integrated rehabilitated base structures and new buildings into 27 acres of national park land.
“Their passion for addressing some of the profession’s thorniest issues including regenerative design, universal access, social equity and housing for the most disadvantaged has been consistent and impressive,” wrote Bob Berkebile, FAIA Emeritus, in his letter supporting LMSA’s nomination.
LMSA is the 54th AIA Architecture Firm Award recipient. Previous recipients of the AIA Firm Award include, LMN Architects (2016), Ehrlich Architects (2015), Eskew + Dumez + Ripple (2014), Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (2013), VJAA (2012), Lake| Flato (2004), Gensler (2000), Perkins & Will (1999), Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (1994), and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (1962).
As the first new development in San Francisco’s Transbay Redevelopment Area, Rene Cazenave Apartments (RCA) provides 120 mini studio apartments with comprehensive supportive services as permanent homes for formerly chronically homeless individuals. A gateway building to the future new neighborhood, RCA demonstrates the city’s commitment to creating a community based on social, financial and environmental sustainability and integration. Rene Cazenave Apartments (RCA), San Francisco, CA. Photo ©Tim Griffith
About The American Institute of Architects
Founded in 1857, the American Institute of Architects consistently works to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings, neighborhoods, and communities. Through nearly 300 state and local chapters, the AIA advocates for public policies that promote economic vitality and public wellbeing. Members adhere to a code of ethics and conduct to ensure the highest professional standards. The AIA provides members with tools and resources to assist them in their careers and business as well as engaging civic and government leaders and the public to find solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation and world. Visit www.aia.org
