The board of directors and the Strategic Council of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has named Edward Mazria the recipient of the 2021 Gold Medal. One of the institute’s highest honors, the prize acknowledges an individual whose “significant body of work has a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture.”
A native New Yorker and graduate of the Pratt Institute, Mazria declined his selection in the 11th round of the 1962 NBA draft to serve in the Peace Corps in Peru. His work in South America informed his understanding of responsible architecture as a key element in social and environmental improvement.
Once he returned stateside, Mazria began working under 2007 Gold Medal winner Edward Larrabee Barnes before migrating to New Mexico in 1973 to pursue teaching opportunities and an advanced degree. A teaching position on solar energy research at the University of Oregon followed, as did the 1979 publication of Mazria’s work on the subject: The Passive Solar Energy Book, which has since been translated into five languages with more than one million copies sold. Mazria further exercised his theories of passive solar and highly contextual buildings in New Mexico with the design of the Stockebrand Residence, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, and late artist Georgia O’Keefe estate’s, Sol y Sambra.
The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Sante Fe, New Mexico; photo by Robert Reck © Mazria, Inc.
As founder of the AIA’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) during the 1990s, Mazria urged the architectural community to divest from fossil fuels. In 2002, Mazria’s firm also kicked off pro bono work under the banner Architecture 2030, which later became a nonprofit organization dedicated to altering the course of climate change. The impact of Architecture 2030 has reshaped aspects of the AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and even informed aspects of the Paris Agreement. During the historic United Nations conference in 2016, Mazria presented his organization’s research on the greenhouse gas footprint produced by buildings created through standard practices and principles, as well as the Roadmap to Zero Emissions for the building industry.
Read more about the 2021 AIA Gold Medal honoree here.
