General Design Category

Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the Donald Reynolds Center, Smithsonian Institution - MERIT AWARD
Gustafson Guthrie Nichol

Jury Comments:
This is an elegant work of unusual restraint and subtlety that successfully accommodates a contradictory set of programmatic goals. Beautifully crafted in its parts and realization this covered space at times functions as a relaxed break out space, resting area, and café for a major art museum and at others as a giant catering hall for festive events, fundraisers, and parties. The landscape architect astutely chose not to compete with the remarkable and visually rich undulating glass roof with its intricate structural web, but rather to create a calm, recessive, quiet composition of grey and black paving with simply sculpted white marble benches, which sail like a fleet of ships freighted with trees and plants. As a final touch a set of 4 absolutely flat sheets of water lie like carpets—or more aptly, like mirrors—the length of the space, reflecting the extraordinary ceiling of light and structure. Whether empty or full, quiet or active, this once horrid space has been transformed into one of grace that now brings delight to those who enter it, enhancing their day and experience.