The AIA Board of Directors named Murphy/Jahn the recipient of the 2005 AIA Architecture Firm Award December 2. The award is the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture firm and recognizes a practice that has consistently produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years.

“It’s a great privilege,” said Murphy/Jahn President/Chief Executive Officer Helmut Jahn, FAIA, when notified by AIA President Eugene C. Hopkins, FAIA, that his firm had been selected for the award. “I want to thank everybody. We worked very hard to put a presentation together that reflected a history of the firm, which goes way back to Charles Murphy and to the Chicago School of Daniel Burnham. We’re putting forward in architecture what we believe is the next step to solving the problems of the profession in the future.”

In nominating the firm, AIA Board member and Ohio Valley Region Director Hal P. Munger, FAIA, commented, “For nearly 70 years Murphy/Jahn has been leading our profession through design, technology, and practice issues. From its solid beginnings, which literally helped create ‘the city that works,’ to its ongoing successes exporting American’s can-do mindset, Murphy/Jahn has combined futuristic vision, boundless energy, and steady passion for the good that wonderful American architecture can provide to people everywhere.”

Architectural legacy
Murphy/Jahn’s roots are firmly affixed in Chicago. In the 1950s and ’60s, CF Murphy Associates Architects and Engineers designed key Chicago institutions. Long closely associated with Mies’ Illinois Institute of Technology, CFMA set industry standards and enlisted prominent designers like Jacques Brownson and Gene Summers. In that period, the firm created the world’s busiest airport at O’Hare and the largest convention center at McCormick Place.

Throughout its history, Murphy/Jahn has been dedicated to a progressive stance on technology and design. Over the years, important changes were made to the structure of the firm through the creation of peer relationships with innovative engineers outside the firm who offered cutting-edge technical knowledge to solve challenges. The system of collaboration streamlined the firm while allowing a consistent product respectful of the firm’s historical importance. The term “Archi-neering” was coined by Jahn to express what he sees as the very synergistic, non-hierarchal relationship between architecture and engineering. It is this idea of convergence and collaboration that is the very philosophy of the firm.

Murphy/Jahn has been the subject of many exhibits and more than a dozen monographs. The 65-member firm derives much of its success from a talented, dedicated staff and an open culture that honors individual creativity and nurtures teamwork. With Jahn as its dynamic leader, the firm has garnered accolades, including three 2004 national AIA Honor Awards and nine previous national AIA Honor Awards. This year’s honored projects are the Post Tower, Bonn, Germany; Bayer Headquarters, Leverkusen, Germany; and Sony Center, Berlin. Other works include the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Student Housing, Chicago; One Liberty Place, Philadelphia; Chicago O’Hare’s United terminal; McCormick Place On-The-Lake, Chicago; and the Xerox Center, Chicago. “Form has followed function. Through mentoring, collaboration, efficient energy/material/system utilization, through globalization and sound business practices, the men and women of Murphy/Jahn have, with their partners, built an architectural legacy,” Munger said.

Enlightened architecture
The firm’s far-ranging contributions to the built environment have focused on office buildings, convention centers, and commercial centers, high-rises, airports, and other cultural and transportation facilities. A strong international presence has led to numerous commissions in Africa, Asia, and Europe, including large-scale airports in Munich and Bangkok. Additional recognitions include more than 60 AIA Chicago chapter awards, over 15 steel and structural awards, and various urban planning and energy-usage awards.

Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin wrote in a letter of support for the firm’s nomination, “The firm is producing some of the world’s most technologically advanced, formally sophisticated, and urbanistically significant buildings. And its best work is still ahead.” Kamin adds in conclusion, “Murphy/Jahn’s enlightened architecture does not simply comment on our times. It engages the world in order to transform it. The firm richly deserves the 2005 Architecture Firm Award.”

The award will be presented to Murphy/Jahn at the American Architectural Foundation’s Accent on Architecture Gala, February 11, 2005, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

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