The University of New Mexico School of Architecture + Planning (SA+P) has announced that the winner of the 2019 Jeff Harnar Award for Contemporary Architecture in New Mexico is New Mexico Highlands University Trolley Barn.  The renovation was designed by Baker Architecture + Design, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The subtle and sophisticated renovation of an historic building has helped rejuvenate NMHU’s campus.  The firm received a $10,000 prize.  This is the third time that the firm has won the award.  Last year’s winner was SITE Santa Fe, designed by SHoP Architects in New York City.

The announcement was made in Friday, February 22nd in the auditorium of the UNM School of Architecture + Planning building, designed by Antoine Predock.  The Jury Chair and Lecturer was Marc Tsurumaki of LTL Architects in New York City.

The award honors the late Jeff Harnar, know for his groundbreaking design in contemporary architecture in, mostly in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In addition to the contemporary architecture award, the Jeff Harnar Award for Unbuilt Architecture was given two four UNM undergraduate architecture students:  W. Martin Joyce, Martin Luna, Jade Sheridan Moore and Jacqueline Smith.  Their winning project “Marsborial Oasis Simulation System (MOSS)” imagined the first human settlement on the planet Mars.

The winners of the Unbuilt Landscape Architecture category were Jared Winchester of Entropic Industries, and Cory Greenfield of CampoVerde Architecture, for their project “Wilding Towers.”  The project was sited in a full-scale fake city in for 35,000 people in Lea County, NM.  However the city will not have any inhabitants, but will instead be a site to test driverless vehicles, smart grids and other merging technologies.  The towers consist of a steel frame, compacted earth and seed blocks.  As the blocks are eroded by wind and rain, the looser inner seed mix is exposed and allowed to germinate on the surface of the tower and to propagate across the city’s surfaced.

UNM Architecture Department Chair John Quale manages the awards.  The Thornburg Foundation financially supports the awards.  For more information about the awards, go to architecture.unm.edu and www.jeffharnarawardcom.

@jeff_harnar_award @unm_architecture @baker_a_d