2020 URBAN GUILD AWARD WINNERS

Category: Design Excellence

This award celebrates built design work that masterfully applies timeless design principles in a manner that refines them and best integrates them into their urban context. Submitted projects may be any type, scale, or program so long as they are successful in directly furthering the mission of the Guild. Submitted design work for this category must have been built within the past five years.

Submitted by:
LAS CATALINAS
Las Catalinas, Costa Rica

Beach Town is a 22-acre car-free village composed of houses, shops, restaurants, small hotels, pedestrian streets, plazas, parks, and recreational facilities. All elements are arranged to create a series of wonderful, walkable public spaces interwoven with nature. The architecture is adapted for outdoor living, a constant ebb and flow of residents and visitors enrich the scene, and every street leads to scenic overlooks.

CENTRAL PLAZA BUILDING
Las Catalinas, Costa Rica

This mixed-use building anchors the central plaza of a pedestrian-only beach town along the Pacific coast in northwest Costa Rica. Couched in a unique organic master plan, the building extrudes upward from its irregular property boundaries and skillfully accommodates steeply inclined topography and incorporates localized symmetry to address multiple distinct urban frontages.

COBBLE HILL RESIDENCES
New York, NY

This project includes two commissions on one zoning parcel encompassing the end of a block between Strong Place and Henry Street in the Cobble Hill Historic District, the most intact 19th century neighborhood in NYC. The exteriors complement the historic language of the surrounding architecture, and incorporate contemporary compositions, materials, and methods.

ESCUELITA BUGANVILIA
Escuintla, Guatemala

Situated on the remote and beautiful southwestern coast of Guatemala, this building establishes and anchors a new rural village center. It provides a walkable school where, until recently, children had limited access to formal education. With little budget and no access to advanced technological solutions, this rural prototype relies on fundamental principles of siting, climate response and sustainability.

PARK VAN NESS
Arlington, VA

This mixed-use infill project skillfully evolves the rich tradition of Connecticut Avenue apartment houses, and visually connects the urban corridor frontage with the public park located behind the site. This connection is accomplished via a grand, two-story archway through the building, bringing view of the park’s majestic tree canopies directly to the street. Architectural detailing was coordinated throughout the building exterior, lobby, public spaces, and residential units to maintain a strong Art Deco language throughout.

Category: Design Exploration

This award celebrates built or unbuilt design work that demonstrates visionary innovation within an urban context. In the context of this award, ‘exploration’ is understood as a conscious attempt to identify new and innovative design strategies for improving the urban built environment. Submitted projects may be any type, scale, or program so long as they are successful in directly furthering the mission of the Guild. Submitted design work for this category must have been designed within the past five years.

MID CENTURY MODERN
Prototype for Manufactured Housing

This prototype, which won a Design Exploration award in 2019 as a preliminary unbuilt concept, wins again in 2020 as a fully-realized, built prototype. It provides a solution for truly affordable (unsubsidized) housing, in a form that embraces the industrial manufacturing process. Its ability to transcend the stigmas of conventional manufactured housing opens the door to the its incorporation into affordable walkable neighborhoods.

Category: Student Awards

This award celebrates built or unbuilt design work which exemplifies criteria in either Design Excellence or Design Exploration, but is performed by a student. Submitted projects must have been completed within the past five years, and will be accepted even if the person submitting the project is no longer a student.

INTSABA CHILDREN’S VILLAGE
Hlatikulu, eSwatini

INTSABA is a self-supporting planned mountain village for orphans and vulnerable children. The design is intentionally rooted in the best practices of historic Swazi community and building patterns – the homestead and its round “beehive” huts organized around the open “kraal”. These traditional patterns inform the entire design, which include social-enterprise workshops, a church, a school, a small clinic and counseling center, family-like compounds for the children and their caretakers, staff housing, and a working farm.

Category: Christian Caucus

This award celebrates built or unbuilt design work which exemplifies criteria in either Design Excellence or Design Exploration, but is set within a Christian context as defined by the Congress for New Urbanism’s Christian Caucus. Submitted projects must have been completed within the past five years.

INTSABA CHILDREN’S VILLAGE
Hlatikulu, eSwatini

In addition to its excellent design as summarized in the Student Work awards section, this project is exemplary as a service-oriented mission project. The design team visited the site to personally engage with the local community--most significantly the orphan children the project would be designed to protect. The design team brought a variety of aid supplies on that visit, and listened carefully as the locals shared their design needs. The Christian Caucus commends this project for the incredible service it provided for the community.

Submitted By:
Collaboration
Glavé & Holms Architecture
Michael Watkins Architect

For this project, a local church turned its need to expand its campus into something more: an opportunity to put forth a vision for improving the entire neighborhood over time. In doing so, it consciously exemplified the admonition of Jeremiah 29:7, to “…seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you…because if it prospers, you too will prosper”. The church’s design team led a community charrette to envision ways to meet the changing needs of both the congregation and neighbors by exploring options for reshaping the built environment to better facilitate community in the present as well as the future.

Category: Merit Awards

CALIZA COURTS
Alys Beach, FL

The Caliza Court rowhouses are composed of nine attached units, fronting an attached park and sited just south of Caliza Pool, a major neighborhood amenity. Seven of the units are 3–bedroom residences on 18–foot wide lots, while 4-bedroom units on 29-foot wide lots bracket the ends. Together, they form a unified facade ‘en filade,’ turning outward to frame the front entry loggia to the Pool beyond. The project participates in the larger urban context of the town, sponsoring its own green and framing the approach to a civic amenity for the community.

SIDE HUSTLE HOUSE
Prototype for Adaptable Housing

This starter home concept has the charm of a classic cottage and the flexibility of a Swiss Army knife. The house starts compact and comfortable but can adapt to meet life’s changes while supporting methods of generating income on the side. With a simple form and intuitive details, the design is easy to build using standard methods, conventional materials, and a reasonable time line. House plans, including optional additions, are affordably available online.

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