The Boston Society of Architects (BSA) has announced announced Mecanoo and Sasaki as the winners of the 2016 Harleston Parker Medal for their design of the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building. Awarded each year by the BSA and the City of Boston, the prestigious award honors “the single most beautiful” building or structure built in the metropolitan Boston area over the past 10 years.
The building was selected from a shortlist of 4 projects including: East Boston Branch Library, Boston Public Library, William Rawn Associates, Architects; Education and Community Center, Korean Church of Boston, Brian Healy Architects; and Tozzer Anthropology Building, Harvard University, Kennedy & Violich Architecture.
Designed in collaboration between Mecanoo and Sasaki Associates, the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building now serves as the home of the Boston Public Schools department and the Roxbury Innovation Center. The building is notable for its integration of three historic facades and its textured masonry which uses a variety of techniques to achieve rhythmic reliefs and intricate shadows.
“The building is the most important catalyst for the revitalization of Roxbury,” said Francine Houben, creative director of Mecanoo architecten from Delft, the Netherlands. ”The building is very well-used by the community and was made with a beautiful, time-honoured level of craftsmanship: Boston bricks with a Dutch touch.”
One of the oldest prizes in the country, the medal was established in 1921, and has celebrated projects from Le Corbusier, Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei.
Recent winners of the award include: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Addition by Renzo Piano Building Workshop with Stantec (2015) and Foster + Partners’ Art of Americas Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2014).
Learn more about the award here.
News via Mecanoo, Boston Society of Architects.
Correction Update (3/1/17): A previous version of this article named Mecanoo as the sole winners of the medal; it has since been amended to name Sasaki Associates as co-recipients.
Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building / Mecanoo + Sasaki Associates
