The Arc wins 2006 AIA National Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design

The U.S. architectural profession’s highest recognition of excellence; jury calls project “compelling” and “visionary”.

Suisman Urban Design received the architectural profession’s highest recognition of excellence for a project when its plan for a Palestinian state, “The Arc”, won a national Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The AIA awards are given in the areas of architecture, interior architecture, and urban design. Selected from over 680 total submissions, the 30 recipients will be honored in June at the AIA 2006 National Convention and Design Exposition in Los Angeles.

“The jury reviewed a broad spectrum of submissions from the smallest scale projects to the largest proposal for the transportation framework for the new nation of Palestine” said Jury Chair Diane T. Georgopulos, FAIA, of Mass Housing Finance Agency in Boston. “The awards recognized projects that best demonstrated the application of sustainable design principles to creatively use open space and density to advance social, economic and environmental health”.

Of Suisman Urban Design’s Arc project with RAND Corporation, the jury said, “Clear and compelling framework plan for a thoughtfully shaping expansion of the newly created Palestinian nation… The necessity to create public transit to support the huge expansion of population was proposed through the development of a transportation spine, settlement areas and intertwining environmentally sensitive areas, which were conveyed with extraordinary sensitivity… Visionary plan built on logical approach to infrastructure creating immeasurable hope for a displaced people and nation.