by Cara Battaglini
AIA Media Relations Specialist

The AIA Board of Directors voted on December 8 to award California’s Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners the 2006 AIA Architecture Firm Award.

The AIA Architecture Firm Award, given annually, is the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture firm and recognizes a practice that consistently has produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years. The award will be presented at the American Architectural Foundation Accent on Architecture Gala, February 10, 2006, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Previous recipients include Murphy/Jahn (2005), Lake/Flato Architects (2004), and The Miller/Hull Partnership (2003).

Nurturing community
“This is a wonderful honor, which we share with our colleagues and clients,” said Moore Ruble Yudell founding partners, Buzz Yudell, FAIA, and John Ruble, FAIA, when notified by AIA President Douglas L Steidl, FAIA, MRAIC, that his firm had been selected for the award. “We hope to do more and do better as we go forward.” Steidl applauded the firm for contributions to the architecture community, and particularly for the culture the firm established for intern education.

The firm’s leadership includes principals Krista Becker, AIA, LEED® AP; Jeanne Chen, AIA; Michael S. Martin, AIA; Neal Matsuno, AIA, LEED® AP; James Mary O’Connor, AIA; and Mario Violich, ASLA, who each share in the design and management of the office with the partners. Tina Beebe continues her recognized leadership as a colorist, and Stanley Anderson, AIA, IIDA heads the interior design team. Moore Ruble Yudell, in practice for 28 years, employs a staff of more than 60 people. The firm’s primary work began with residential designs and has since evolved to a broad spectrum of public and private projects, as well as institutional and cultural spaces.

“Spirited celebration of habitation”
“The firm has consistently produced an outstanding body of work rooted in a deep commitment to humanistic architecture,” wrote AIA Committee on Design Firm Award Committee Chair Michael Franklin Ross, AIA, in nominating the firm. “Their work is widely admired for its spirited celebration of habitation at many scales and its respect for people, context, and place. The firm continues to evolve in response to new challenges and opportunities while remaining true to the fundamental principles of humanism.”

Moore Ruble Yudell declares that architecture is inherently the act of habitation, part of a continuum that seeks connections among people, place, and culture. Its vision, centered on careful examination of site and climate, qualities of light, and the human experience, is credited in its development of spaces and buildings of every scale.

MRY also is known for its integration of light and color into design, evidenced in the United States Embassy in Berlin; Tango Housing at the Bo01 Exhibition in Malmö, Sweden; and the Joseph A. Steger Student Life Center at the University of Cincinnati. Moore Ruble Yudell’s work in the international arena is credited with bringing to the foreground issues in sustainability, social housing, construction practices, and the need to work collaboratively with diverse civic groups, clients, and consultants throughout the life cycle of a project.

Kudos from hometown to globe
Moore Ruble Yudell is widely acclaimed as a regional, national, and international design leader. In the 28 years since its inception, the firm has received numerous awards including:

• Two AIA Committee on Architecture for Education Merit Awards (2005)
• AIA California Council Merit Award (2005, 2004)
• AIA Los Angeles Merit Award (2005)
• AIA Los Angeles NextLA Citation Award (2004)
• Westside Urban Forum Westside Prize (2005, 2004)
• National AIA Honor Award for Architecture (2003)
• Council for New Urbanism Charter Award (2002)
• National AIA Honor Award for Urban Design (1999).

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