Five architecture projects have been named for the 2025 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, including an aquarium in Mexico by architecture studio Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and a Buenos Aires veterinary clinic by Adamo Faiden.
The five projects are part of Cycle 5 of the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) program, which awards a biennial prize to works of architecture in the Americas.
The finalist selections include two projects from Mexico and one from Argentina, Canada, and the United States. They also span a variety of programs and typologies, from landscape design to school and housing projects.
An eco park by Colectivo C733, the Clínica Veterinaria Guayaquil by Adamo Faiden, an Arkansas school by Marlon Blackwell Architects, an aquarium by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and a converted pumphouse in Winnipeg by 5468796 Architecture are all up for the award.
Completed in 2023, Ecoparque Bacalar is a square boardwalk that stretches out over a lagoon in Bacalar, Mexico. Colectivo C733 designed the project to have minimal impact on the habitat, which is home to the world’s largest freshwater bacterial reef.
Across the country, with Centro de Investigación Mar de Cortés aquarium in Mazatlan, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio also aimed to showcase and preserve marine habitat.
The sprawling concrete aquarium was designed to resemble a “ruin” and is part of a larger regeneration project for the surrounding Mazatlán Central Park.
In Buenos Aires, Adamo Faiden converted a former residence into the Clínica Veterinaria Guayaquil, an urban veterinary clinic.
The studio removed the central staircase from the original building to create a courtyard with an adjoining garden that connects to the street. The design caters to the “non-human members” of cities, or pets, addressing their “new rights and responsibilities”.
Canadian studio 5468796 Architecture also worked on an adaptive reuse project for the finalist selection. The studio preserved elements of the 1901 James Avenue Pumphouse in Winnipeg, opting to leave the original pumping equipment on display on the building’s ground floor while inserting glass office volumes above.
The project also includes the addition of two black-clad housing blocks on either end of the pumphouse that connect to the building via elevated walkways.
Lastly, Marlon Blackwell Architects, Eskew Dumez Ripple and Andropogon Associates completed the Thaden School in Bentonville, a complex of buildings designed for grades six to 12 with a focus on learning by doing.
Marlon Blackwell Architects designed five long, angular buildings for the project informed by the vernacular architecture of the area. The structures have features that control exposure to the intense southern sun and optimise natural ventilation.
The review of “hundreds” of projects submitted for the prize began in Spring 2024, overseen by a jury that includes urban designer Maurice Cox, Canadian Centre for Architecture director Giovnna Borasi and Taller Mauricio Rocha founder Mauricio Rocha.
The winning project will be announced on 5 May 2025 at the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, where the MCHAP was founded in 2013.
Previously, a weaving centre in Ecuador was awarded an Emerging Practice Award from the MCHAP, while Taller Mauricio Rocha’s “fearless, heartfelt, and original” extension of Juan O’Gorman and Diego Rivera’s Anahuacalli Museum in Mexico City won in 2023.
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