Top-notch real estate development deserves a little recognition, too. The Urban Land Institute announced the winners in their 2014 Global Awards for Excellence, considered as the most prestigious awards program in the land use industry. Now in its 36th year, the open awards competition selects projects that best exhibit high standards in design, construction, planning, management, and economics. — bustler.net

In a large evening benefit dinner at IIT College of Architecture's S. R. Crown Hall in Chicago last night, Álvaro Siza and Herzog & de Meuron were announced as the winners of the inaugural Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP).

Established by IIT architecture dean Wiel Arets and launched earlier this year with Phyllis Lambert and Dirk Denison, the MCHAP honors what is considered the best built works in the Americas. — bustler.net

"Living Breakwaters" took the grand prize of the 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, considered to be the highest award for social impact design. Designed by a multidisciplinary team led by SCAPE / Landscape Architecture, Living Breakwaters uses an "Oyster-tecture" ecological intervention concept to help create resiliency for coastal cities. As its starting point, the project uses the Northeastern Seaboard of the U.S., which suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Sandy. — bustler.net

Stage One of the Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition reeled in a whopping 1,715 entries from 77 countries. Although the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation officially launched the competition this past summer, the idea of proposing a new Guggenheim Museum for the city of Helsinki has already stirred plenty of debate...Most of the entries received were from the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and of course, Finland. — bustler.net

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, is preparing to launch its first major expansion effort in more than 50 years. [...]

In 2012, the board commissioned the architectural firm Snøhetta to produce a master plan for future growth, but the details of this project have remained under wraps. Museum leaders told the Buffalo News that they are interested in holding an architectural competition for design proposals following their meetings with the public. — theartnewspaper.com

Barack Obama still has two long years left to cement his legacy as something between “yes we can” and “at least I tried”. Regardless of how history remembers him, Obama will always represent a shift from the old guard, an idealistic starting point for what (and who) future presidents could be. For now, though, his official museum, his keeper of secrets: couldn’t that still be a tangible change we can believe in? At least an architectural one? — theguardian.com

The winners of the Holcim Awards 2014 Africa Middle East regional competition were recognized in a recent awards ceremony in Beirut, making it the fourth installment of the 2014 global awards program. The Africa Middle East competition focused on multi-disciplinary design solutions for building social and environmenal resilience...The winning projects will be implemented in nine countries including Turkey, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, and Morocco. — bustler.net

Congolese performance and theater group Studios Kabako from Kisangani was announced as the 2014 Curry Stone Design Prize winner this past weekend at an awards ceremony in Brussels...Studios Kabako was established in 2001 to address the various emotions linked to the aftermath of civil war. Located in a city that is isolated geographically and culturally, the studio has provided its community a safe creative haven of dance, theater, and music through its urban interventions and cultural programs. — bustler.net

Following RIBA's announcement of the 2014 Stirling Prize winner, two more UK-based projects won big in the 2014 Manser Medal and the Stephen Lawrence Prize competitions.

The Stormy Castle in Wales by Loyn & Co. Architects received the Manser Medal, which is the UK's highest housing design award. The Stephen Lawrence Prize, which recognizes fresh architectural talent and smaller construction budgets, went to a residential project this year: House No 7 in Scotland by Denizen Works. — bustler.net

Haworth Tompkins architects spent nine years transforming the rundown historic Everyman Theatre in Liverpool into the building it is today. Those nine years were well worth it, as Haworth Tompkins just won the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize 2014 for the UK's best new building of the year. — bustler.net

OMA and OLIN Studio have been selected to design the new 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington D.C. The competition was held as part of the 11th Street Bridge Park project initiative, which will transform an old freeway bridge into D.C.'s first elevated park. From the six shortlisted teams in phase one of the nationwide competition, and down to four finalists, OMA + OLIN won with their proposal, "Anacostia Crossing." — bustler.net

Acclaimed architect Steven Holl received the Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award medal for architecture in a ceremony in Tokyo today. Japan's Prince Hitachi, honorary patron of the Japan Art Association, formally presented the awards to each of the 2014 laureates. Created in 1988, the prestigious Praemium Imperiale recognizes lifetime achievement in the arts in categories that aren't covered by the Nobel Prize. — bustler.net

The Creative City Challenge is a competition for Minnesota-resident architects, landscape architects, urban designers, planners, engineers, scientists, artists, students and individuals of all backgrounds to create and install at the Minneapolis Convention Center Plaza an artwork, which is an innovative use of the space and acts as a sociable and participatory platform for scheduled and impromptu onsite programs throughout the summer. — Minneapolis Convention Center