January 19, 2023

Battery Playscape wins AIANY Award

The AIA NYC chapter has announced the winners of the 2023 AIANY Design Awards and the Battery Playscape (our project with Starr Whitehouse) was honored with a Citation Award in the category “Project”. One of two winners in the category, the Playscape was recognized as an example of successful public-private partnership to create public space, which was one of the themes the jury recognized in the winning projects. At the celebration and discussion of the winners at the Center for Architecture on January 9th, the jury shared that the collection of winners included projects that served the public or improved the public realm. Interestingly, and for that reason, single family homes were not awarded this cycle.

The jury included:  Ronnie Belizaire, FIIDA – Vice President, JLL ; Gia Biagi – Commissioner, Chicago Department of Transportation; Angela Brooks, FAIA – Managing Principal, FAIA, Brooks + Scarpa; Nondita Correa Mehrotra – Principal, RMA Architects; Director, Charles Correa Foundation; and Ashley Rao, AIA, LEED AP, CPHC – Associate Principal, Leers Weinzapfel Associates.

Gia Biagi said of the Battery Playscape: “It’s not a through space. It’s a series of unfolding rooms. And it’s not just the unfolding of the spaces, there’s also this endless way that you can find your way through objects that are certainly not out of a catalogue, but are really responsive to trying to match that with the different kinds of users that can be in there and be a place that you can continue to go to have that kind of discovery. And what do you do with these weird interstitial spaces anyway? … This is one that is a little more organic and trying to be responsive in a different way.”

We appreciate the ongoing recognition, especially from our local chapter of the AIA. We look forward to the show of all the winners starting on May 4th at the Center for Architecture.