Announcing the 2024 Jeff Harnar Award Winners
April 15, 2024
The University of New Mexico School of Architecture + Planning (SA+P) and the Thornburg Foundation are pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 Jeff Harnar Awards. These awards, created by Garrett Thornburg in 2007, honor the legacy of the late local architect Jeff Harnar and his groundbreaking work in contemporary design.
The awards ceremony took place at the School of Architecture + Planning’s George Pearl Hall on April 12, and included a lecture by renowned architect Benjamin Gilmartin of Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
SA+P Dean Robert Alexander González stated, “These awards honor exemplary design and shine a light on innovative contemporary projects happening across the region, and this year’s submissions were truly outstanding. Congratulations to all of the winners for the ways in which they are expanding the boundaries of architectural design in the Southwest.”
The top prize, Contemporary Architecture in the Southwest, was awarded to Baker Architecture + Design for their project, Lincoln Elementary School in Gallup, New Mexico. Mark Baker of Baker Architecture + Design described how “the architectural character of Lincoln Elementary School unites the cultural diversity of the student body with the sustainability and functionality of a contemporary elementary school. As a sustainable educational facility, passive and active systems work in conjunction with other elements of the design to make studying and teaching more efficient and more enjoyable for students, faculty, and staff.”
The prize for Unbuilt Architecture was awarded to Gabriel Fries-Briggs and César A. Lopez for their project, Public Domestic, “an architectural design/research project and exhibition that investigates how mutual aid and solidarity have reformatted domestic spaces, focusing on populations in Central New Mexico. The project centers on the impact of the pandemic and its aftereffects on the domestic experience of Latino/a/x people in the Southwest United States.”
The award for Unbuilt Landscape Architecture was given to Superbloom, for Bluff Lake Nature Center in Denver, CO, a project that works to “expand equitable access to nature in Denver, while being a model for ecological and resilient design in a dynamic and visceral way.” Superbloom “developed a design for a radically inclusive urban wildlife refuge and educational laboratory that responds to our changing climate, and tells the story of this unique, magical environment in totally interactive and powerfully impactful ways.”
The Social Justice Award was given to ROMA Architecture for their project, Walatowa Early Childhood Education Center, in Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico. In describing the project, ROMA Architecture shared, “Situated in the Pueblo of Jemez, this project is the new home of the Walatowa Language Immersion Program, a unique model of Indigenous multi-generational education that offers Pre-K services exclusively in Towa, the tribe’s native language. We facilitated charrettes with teachers, students, and community members to ensure the new building honored the traditions, culture, and language of this community. It was very important to us that what we created was their vision, not ours.”
This year, the First Prize Student Award in Architecture was given to Andrya Mojena Cutié, representing the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for their project, Stage Cue: A New Gateway to the Las Vegas Arts District. Jedidiah Perea, a student at the University of Arizona, was awarded second prize for their submission, resourceXchange.
Jeffrey Coons, a student at the University of New Mexico, was selected for the First Prize Student Award in Landscape Architecture for their project, Starscape: Preserving and Appreciating Dark Skies in New Mexico.
The Social Justice Student Award was given to Prescott Trudeau of the University of Michigan, for their project, 247365: Site of Social Experiment. The jury honored Tristen Durham, a student at The School of Architecture, with a special Student Design-Build Award for their project, The Silt Slab Cinema (Prosthetic Architecture).
Congratulations to all of this year’s Jeff Harnar Awards winners! Applications for the 2025 awards cycle will open next spring.
