Vote for US Building of the Year 2021

John Hill

1. January 2022

Image: World-Architects

In 2021 we presented 44 Buildings of the Week, featuring short Q&As with architects about recently completed buildings in the United States, most of them renovations and adaptive reuse projects. It's your turn to help us crown a US Building of the Year by voting for your favorite — the winner will be announced at the beginning of February.

Unlike previous years, which presented new construction, especially that most American building type of single-family houses, the selection of Buildings of the Week in 2021 focused on adaptive reuse and renovation projects. We were inspired by Carl Elefante's much-repeated phrase that "the greenest building is the one that is already built."

In many of the selected projects, the old buildings have been transformed into dramatically different uses. A church on Long Island was turned into an arts center, for instance, while another arts complex in Arkansas is housed in a former cheese factory. Numerous renovations find architects furthering the life of old buildings, some from the middle of the last century, while the occasional additions see them creating new expressions from the juxtapositions of old and new.

The adaptive reuse/renovation theme for 2021 was intended to focus on what is considered the best means architects have at addressing climate change, as Elefante's words attest, and draw attention to the creative ways architects in the United States are working to extend the life of old buildings.

Visit the voting page on American-Architects.com to cast a vote for your favorite project. The deadline is Sunday, January 30, 2022, with results presented on our website the first day of February.

Throughout the year, buildings are selected by our editors after seeing them firsthand, coming across them online or in print, and/or hearing about them directly from architects. For 2022 the Building of the Week feature will be more open-ended than in 2021, including new construction alongside adaptive reuse projects that will continue to be important for their sustainability and other merits. Know of a recent project that should be a Building of the Week? Just email us for consideration.

The German-Architects, Swiss-Architects and Austria-Architects platforms are also holding polls for their respective "Bau des Jahres." Visit them to see more great projects and cast more votes: