NEW YORK – The architects who designed Bill Clinton’s presidential library, a gleaming glass and steel building in Little Rock, Ark., invokes his administration’s theme of “building a bridge to the 21st century,” has won a National Design Award for excellence in architecture.
Polshek Partnership Architects of New York, whose projects include Carnegie’s newest concert hall and the planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, was one of two winners in the architecture design category for the prizes, awarded Tuesday by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Architect Rick Joy, currently working on a resort in Utah and several residential projects in the Southwest, also received an architecture award.
The $165 million Clinton presidential library is scheduled to open in November with a major celebration. It is expected to draw 300,000 visitors in 2005. The structure, designed to be airy and inviting, mimics six industrial bridges that span the river and contribute to the city’s look.
Polshek Partnership specializes in projects for educational, cultural and nonprofit organizations, and tries to combine beauty with a connection to history, company founder James Polshek said.
“Architecture has a responsibility somewhat greater than making beautiful form – it has to make beautiful form that has some lasting meaning,” he said.
Polshek Partnership also was recently selected to design an underground exhibit center at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Polshek and Joy were to receive the architecture awards Tuesday evening at a ceremony that celebrates “the important role that design and designers play in people’s lives,” museum director Paul Thompson said. “This year, the jury seems to have made a very strong commitment toward environmental responsibility and design that emphasizes human values.”
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