Miami, Florida, USA
On the occasion of the 2021 American Architecture Awards held on December 2 in Miami, Florida, Victor F. “Trey” Trahan III became the 10th Laureate of the American Prize for Architecture.
The annual Prize is organized by The American Prize for Architecture by both The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The award ceremony also held in conjunction with Art Basel was attended by some of the most important architecture offices in the United States.
The 61-year-old Trahan is an architect based in New Orleans.
“With precision and dexterity, Trahan and his firm have built a solid portfolio of award-winning projects across a wide range of building types and scales, including corporate, cultural, performing arts, religious, ecological, master planning, academic, and mixed-use projects,” stated Christian Narkiewicz-Laine architecture critic and Museum President of The Chicago Athenaeum.
“The firm has produced work throughout the U.S. and internationally on five continents.’
“Trahan’s works are best summarized by his own personal design philosophy and unique insight into the meaning of design.
“He states: ‘Architecture is beyond buildings. It’s about arriving at a place where you believe that architecture can create an attitude of kindness.”
“Kindness and compassion are exactly what best exemplify the works of Victor F. Trahan,” continued Narkiewicz-Laine.
“Over the past three decades, Trahan’s buildings have demonstrated a combination of those qualities of talent, vision, and commitment that have produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and to the built environment through the art of architecture.”
In his acceptance speech, Trahan stated: “This recognition holds significant meaning coming from you, Christian; The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design; and The European Centre for Architecture, Art and Urban Studies.”
“As I reflect on the journey that has shaped me including the significant contributions of countless clients, colleagues, and collaborators I’m reminded of the importance of our earliest childhood experiences and memories which for me include growing up in the clay bottom rice fields of South Louisiana; an early example of how soils contribute to agrarian opportunities and culture of the place.”
“The importance of my high school art teacher, Denis Istre, who encouraged me to draw a bowl of apples planimetrically in elevation and in section.”
“At Trahan Architects we have always honored authenticity and an endless desire for rootedness.”
“Expanding the team of collaborators to include artists, landscape architects, ecologists, and ethnographers has brought deeper meaning to our work and the search.”
“This search begins with an in-depth understanding of watershed, its unique flora, fauna, and most importantly the soil, its health is critical to our existence.”
“We respectfully challenged the notion of the starchitect for we all must acknowledge that our work is the work of many contributors.”
Trahan joins other laureates of The American Prize for Architecture: Sir Norman Foster, Michael Graves, the General Services Administration, Richard Meier, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, Form4Architecture, James von Klemperer of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC., Bernardo Fort-Brescia and Laurinda Spear of the Miami-based firm of Arquitectonica, and Eric Owen Moss.
