# Twenty-five Year Award

The Twenty-five Year Award is an architecture prize awarded each year by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to "a building that has set a precedent for the last 25 to 35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance" and which was designed by an architect licensed in the United States. The Twenty-five Year Award was first presented in 1969, and has been handed out every year from 1971 onward, with the exception of 2018. In 2023, the prize was awarded to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Bilbao, Spain by Gehry Partners.
Five buildings in New York City have received the award, the most of any city. Washington, D.C., is second with three, while Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Haven each have two. Only six buildings outside of the United States have received the award: two in London, England, and one each in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Barcelona, Spain; Bilbao, Spain; and Paris, France.
Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen designed or contributed to six buildings so honored, tied with the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Louis I. Kahn and Frank Lloyd Wright each have five buildings that have been honored that were designed or contributed to by them; Frank Lloyd Wright has 4, and there are three apiece by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Of the 53 projects that received this award through 2022, only three had women as contributing architects: the Eames House, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery.

## Eligibility

The Twenty-five Year Award can be awarded to any type of architectural project and may be either a single structure or a group of structures that compose a larger whole. Winners have included monuments, such as the Gateway Arch and Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and groupings of buildings, such as the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Most buildings nominated for this award are new structures but one winner, Faneuil Hall Marketplace, was a substantial renovation of warehouses into a festival marketplace.
For a project to be eligible to win the Twenty-five Year Award, it must have been built between 25 and 35 years before the year of the award. It must also have been designed by "an architect licensed in the United States at the time of the project’s completion". This means that the award candidate can be anywhere in the world, but must have been designed by a licensed American architect, such as the Fundació Joan Miró in Spain.
To be nominated the project must be in a "substantially completed form" as well as "in good condition". Potential candidates must not have been altered substantially since they were built. Change of use is allowed by the rules, but the "original intent" of the structure must still be intact. These changes of use include reorganization of interior space. This was taken into account with the Price Tower, which when built was a mix of offices and apartments, but when awarded, had only one apartment remaining. The award is presented at the AIA National Convention each year.

## Nomination procedure

"Any AIA member, group of members, component, or Knowledge Community" is allowed to nominate a project for the Twenty-five Year Award. A project may be nominated multiple times, as long as it still complies with the eligibility requirements. Nominees are judged by today's architectural standards in their function, execution, and creativity. The project and its site are judged together, with any changes in context taken into account.

## Award recipients

The "Year" column, which indicates when the building won the award, links to an article about the year's significant architectural events.
| Year | Building(s) city | Image | Architect(s) |
| 1969 | Rockefeller Center New York City | | Reinhard & Hofmeister; Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray |
| 1971 | Crow Island School Winnetka, Illinois | | Perkins, Wheeler & Will; Eliel & Eero Saarinen |
| 1972 | Baldwin Hills Village Los Angeles | | Reginald D. Johnson; Wilson, Merrill & Alexander; Clarence S. Stein |
| 1973 | Taliesin West Paradise Valley, Arizona | | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| 1974 | Johnson and Son Administration Building Racine, Wisconsin | | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| 1975 | Philip Johnson's Residence ("The Glass House") New Canaan, Connecticut | | Philip Johnson |
| 1976 | 860–880 North Lakeshore Drive Apartments Chicago | | Ludwig Mies van der Rohe |
| 1977 | Christ Lutheran Church Minneapolis | | Saarinen, Saarinen & Associates; Hills, Gilbertson & Hays |
| 1978 | Eames House Pacific Palisades, California | | Charles and Ray Eames |
| 1979 | Yale University Art Gallery New Haven, Connecticut | | Louis I. Kahn |
| 1980 | Lever House New York City | | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill |
| 1981 | Farnsworth House Plano, Illinois | | Ludwig Mies van der Rohe |
| 1982 | Equitable Savings and Loan Building Portland, Oregon | | Pietro Belluschi |
| 1983 | Price Tower Bartlesville, Oklahoma | | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| 1984 | Seagram Building New York City | | Ludwig Mies van der Rohe |
| 1985 | General Motors Technical Center Warren, Michigan | | Eero Saarinen and Associates with Smith, Hinchman & Grylls |
| 1986 | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York City | | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| 1987 | Bavinger House Norman, Oklahoma | | Bruce Goff |
| 1988 | Washington Dulles International Airport Terminal Building Chantilly, Virginia | | Eero Saarinen and Associates |
| 1989 | Vanna Venturi House Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania | | Robert Venturi |
| 1990 | Gateway Arch St. Louis | | Eero Saarinen and Associates |
| 1991 | Sea Ranch Condominium One The Sea Ranch, California | | Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker |
| 1992 | Salk Institute for Biological Studies La Jolla, California | | Louis I. Kahn |
| 1993 | Deere & Company Administrative Center Moline, Illinois | | Eero Saarinen and Associates |
| 1994 | Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Deer Isle, Maine | — | Edward Larrabee Barnes |
| 1995 | Ford Foundation Headquarters New York City | | Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates |
| 1996 | United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel Colorado Springs | | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill |
| 1997 | Phillips Exeter Academy Library Exeter, New Hampshire | | Louis I. Kahn |
| 1998 | Kimbell Art Museum Fort Worth | | Louis I. Kahn |
| 1999 | John Hancock Center Chicago | | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill |
| 2000 | The Smith House Darien, Connecticut | — | Richard Meier & Partners |
| 2001 | Weyerhaeuser Headquarters Federal Way, Washington | | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Fazlur Rahman Khan |
| 2002 | Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona, Spain | | Sert Jackson and Associates |
| 2003 | Design Research Headquarters Building Cambridge, Massachusetts | | BTA Architects (formerly known as Benjamin Thompson & Associates, Inc.) |
| 2004 | East Building, National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C. | | I.M. Pei & Partners, Architects |
| 2005 | Yale Center for British Art New Haven, Connecticut | | Louis I. Kahn |
| 2006 | Thorncrown Chapel Eureka Springs, Arkansas | | E. Fay Jones |
| 2007 | Vietnam Veterans Memorial Washington, D.C. | | Maya Lin, designer; Cooper-Lecky Architects, architect of record |
| 2008 | The Atheneum New Harmony, Indiana | | Richard Meier & Partners |
| 2009 | Faneuil Hall Marketplace Boston | | Benjamin Thompson & Associates |
| 2010 | The Hajj Terminal at King Abdulaziz International Airport Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP |
| 2011 | John Hancock Tower Boston | | I.M. Pei & Partners |
| 2012 | Gehry Residence Santa Monica | | Gehry Partners LLP |
| 2013 | Menil Collection Houston | | Renzo Piano Building Workshop LLP |
| 2014 | Washington Metro Washington, D.C. | | Harry Weese |
| 2015 | Broadgate Exchange House London | | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP |
| 2016 | Monterey Bay Aquarium Monterey, California | | EHDD |
| 2017 | Grand Louvre – Phase 1 Paris | | Pei Cobb Freed & Partners |
| 2018 | No award | No award | No award |
| 2019 | Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery London | | Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates |
| 2020 | Conjunctive Points-The New City Culver City, California | | Eric Owen Moss Architects |
| 2021 | Burton Barr Central Library Phoenix | | Will Bruder |
| 2022 | Chapel of St. Ignatius Seattle | | Steven Holl Architects |
| 2023 | Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Bilbao, Spain | | Gehry Partners |
| 2024 | Tokyo International Forum Tokyo, Japan | | Rafael Viñoly Architects |