The Library of Congress has announced the winners of the 2016 Holland Prize, which recognizes the best single-sheet, measured drawing of a historic building, site, or structure, completed to the standards of the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), or the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS).
The prize is awarded annually to “increase awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of historic resources throughout the United States while adding to the permanent HABS, HAER, and HALS collection at the LOC, and to encourage the submission of drawings among professionals and students. By requiring only a single sheet, the competition challenges the delineator to capture the essence of the site through the presentation of key features that reflect its significance.”
This year’s top prize was bestowed to a team of students from Universidad Politécnia de Puerto Rico for their drawing of the Lazaretto Isla de Cabras, a ruined 19th-century health institution in Puerto Rico, while honorable mentions were given to a drawing of the Chess Pavilion on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago by a team of students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a drawing of the Plaza at the Mission of San Juan Bautista, California, by Cate Bainton.
Winner
Lazaretto Isla de Cabras (Goats Island); Toa Baja, Puerto Rico / Anexyulianne Thillet, Alneris Lugo, Monica Ortiz, Angel Marrero, Jessica Martinez, Fabian Rivera, Natalie Santa and Emmanuel De La Paz
Faculty sponsors: Prof. Claudia Rosa-López and Prof. José Lorenzo-Torres (Universidad Politécnica de Puerto Rico)
The lazaretto's original purpose was to house yellow fever and cholera patients, but few remember such noble commitment today. Instead, for over a century today—and in spite for being a ruin—the lazaretto has been an emblematic landscape component in San Juan's Bay with a distinctive profile that has been appreciated by many generations of residents and visitors to the old city. It represents the only example of its kind ever built in Puerto Rico, simultaneously underlining how Spanish Colonial building codes required health related facilities to be built outside the walled enclave. Its construction methods highlight building practices imposed on the Island (and Cuba) by Madrid's School of Engineers, Roads and Port Facilities. The project's dossier (narrative) became the precedent for detailing succeeding comparative building initiatives in terms of scope, tectonics, and contents.
Honorable Mention
Chess Pavilion; Chicago, Illinois / Joyce Ramos with Melanie Bishop, Brenda Bohnen, and Meredith Stewart
Faculty sponsor: Prof. Charles Pipal, AIA (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
The Chess Pavilion is an open-air structure that was built in 1957 out of concrete and Indiana limestone. The site where the pavilion is located has been a popular gathering place for chess players since the 1930s. The Chess Pavilion received a Citation of Merit from the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects at its Civic Pride Luncheon in 1957.
Honorable Mention
Mission San Juan Bautista, Plaza; San Juan Bautista, California / Cate Bainton
Franciscan missionaries founded twenty-one missions on the Pacific coast of the Spanish colony of Alta California between 1769 and 1823. Control of Alta California shifted to Mexico in the 1820s and to the United States in the 1840s. Some of the communities that grew around the missions became major cities; some missions were abandoned and later reconstructed. Portions of El Camino Real, the road connecting the missions, became interstate or state highways. Mission San Juan Bautista was the fifteenth mission to be established, in 1797. Despite repeated damage from earthquakes on the adjacent San Andreas Fault, Mission San Juan Bautista was never moved from its original location and has been in continuous use as a church since its establishment. Its environs are still largely agricultural, its plaza has been restored to the spirit of its 1870 state, and its adjacent portion of El Camino Real is still unpaved. Noted architect Irving Morrow, landscape architect Emerson Knight, and mission restoration specialist Harry Downie played a part in the restoration of the buildings and landscape. Current and former mission sites are of archeological interest.
More information on the prize and this year’s winners can be found at the National Park Service website, here; or search through the Library of Congress’ database of drawings, here.
News via Library of Congress, project descriptions via NPS.
