Conjunctive Points – The New City, a decades-spanning urban revival plan designed by Eric Owen Moss Architects, has been recognized with the AIA Twenty-five Year Award.

The initiative began in 1986 with selective transformations of former industrial sites and warehouses in the Hayden Tract, a district at the border of Los Angeles and Culver City, ultimately leading to a rejuvenation of the area with a new sense of identity.

According to the jury verdict, the Eric Owen Moss-designing project "set contemporary standards for adaptive re-use, launched the concept of creative office space, and positioned architecture as a method to uncover new social and civic opportunities."

Contributing to the success of Conjunctive Points – The New City were the land developers Frederick and Laurie Samitaur Smith who had acquired a number of buildings along the tract and, over the course of three decades, worked closely with Moss.

"8522 National Boulevard, the first project Moss designed in the Hayden Tract, set the architectural and organizational precedent for what is now known as Conjunctive Points – The New City," explains the prize announcement.

Key buildings and transformation sites, such as Umbrella, Beehive, Pterodactyl, have attracted creative start-ups, and in recent years increasingly also major companies, making the district one of the most significant office hubs in the Los Angeles area.

The 2020 award jury comprised Samuel M. Miller, FAIA (Chair), LMN, Seattle, Washington; Merrill Elam, AIA, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, Atlanta, Georgia; Rebecca Sharkey, AIA, EHDD, San Francisco, California; Dale Frens, AIA, patterhn ives, llc, West Chester, Pennsylvania; Michael Johns, FAIA, NOMA, Mdesigns + MWJ Consulting LLC, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Michelle Acosta, AIA, SmithGroup, Phoenix, Arizona; Trinity Simons, Mayor's Institute on City Design, Washington, District of Columbia; Kevin Alter, Assoc. AIA, Alterstudio Architecture, Austin, Texas; and Caleb Bertels, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Other recipients of the AIA Twenty-Five Year Award in recent years were Venturi, Scott Brown for their Sainsbury Wing design, I.M. Pei's Grand Louvre, the Exchange House by SOM, and the Washington D.C., Metro.