The American Academy of Arts and Letters awards Marina, Tabassum, Justin Garrett Moore, Julie Eizenberg and Hank Koning, Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu, and Ersele Kripa and Stephen Mueller as the 2021 architecture award winners.

The jury chair Anabelle Selldorf and fellow jury members, including Steven Holl, Toshiko Mori, Thom Mayne, and Billie Tsien, selected this year's winners from a group of 32 nominated individuals and practices. The Academy awards four cash prizes that will provide further funding for each architect and designer in their efforts to pursue the realms of creative exploration within architecture.

Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize

Award Details: A prize of $20,000 is awarded to an architect of any nationality who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art.

Marina Tabassum: She is the founding principal of Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her work prioritizes projects and their relationship to contemporary architecture, local materials, climate, culture, and history. She won the Aga Khan Architecture Award in 2016 for her Bait Ur Rouf Mosque and the Jameel Prize 5 in 2018. 

Winners of Arts and Letters in Architecture Award 

Award Details: A prize of $10,000 is awarded to American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction.

Julie Eizenberg and Hank Koning: Founding principals of Santa Monica, CA-based architecture firm KoningEizenberg, the veteran design duo fuses "thoughtful programming and formal pragmatism" to develop projects that focus on adaptive reuse and sustainability. Read more about them in Archinect's exclusive interview: "KoningEizenberg on Designing with the Sun."

Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu: Founding principals of LA-based architecture and design firm Oyler Wu Collaborative the pair's work   have positioned them as strong influencers within the realms of academia and professional practice. Both are teaching faculty at SCI-Arc and Wu is also the current Undergraduate Studio Coordinator. 

Justin Garrett Moore: A designer, urbanist, scholar, activist, and leader Moore's continued works within architecture and has positioned him as a powerful force. He is the program office for the Humanities in Place program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a faculty member at Columbia University, and co-founder of the Urban Patch a family-run social enterprise. He is also a board member for BlackSpace Urbanist Collective and a member of Dark Matter University.

AGENCY: Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller are the founding partners of the collaborative interdisciplinary practice, AGENCY. Their work focuses on "engaging contemporary culture through architecture, urbanism, and advocacy." Krip and Mueller are both faculty at Texas Tech College of Architecture (CoA) – El Paso and both Director of Projects at POST (Project for Operative Spatial Technologies). They recently exhibited their work at this year's Exhibit Columbus 2021.