Buildy Awards

What is the “BUILDY” Award?

This annual national award recognizes the most outstanding recent museum construction project. The purpose of the Buildy Award is to increase awareness within the field, and by the public at large, of the value of museums and the need for their ongoing rehabilitation and expansion to serve future generations. Recipients of the Award will be featured in museum-related, national and international publications, as well as other media.

Buildy Award Winners

• 2011: Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture in Washington, D.C.

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• 2010: Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York

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• 2009: The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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  Call for Nominations

  2012 Museum “BUILDY” Award

  Please read the nomination instructions below 
then download the Nominations Form

  What is the “BUILDY” Award?

  About the Award:
  This annual national award recognizes the most outstanding recent museum construction project. The purpose of the Buildy Award is to increase awareness within the field, and by the public at large, of the value of museums and the need for their ongoing rehabilitation and expansion to serve future generations. Recipients of the Award will be featured in museum-related, national and international publications, as well as other media.

  The 2012 “Buildy” Award will be announced at a ceremony in Philadelphia on March 5 with over 300 of Building Museums® Symposium peers in attendance. The Director/CEO of the winning museum will receive a plaque commemorating the museum’s achievement.

  Nominations are solicited from all Museum Directors with qualifying projects. Architects and other project team members are encouraged to collaborate with the Museum Directors participate. Nominations submitted previously are eligible for resubmission but must now originate from the Museum Director.

  Who gives the “Buildy” Award?
  The award is given by the Building Museums® organizing committee, a program managed by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM), a non-profit organization devoted to museums and institutions as well as the professionals who serve them.  The award is given at the annual Building Museums® Symposium.

  The Building Museums® Symposium is for museum leaders, architects, planners, project managers, technical experts, and all those who plan or implement new construction, renovation, or expansion projects for museums. Whether your institution is a small historic site under renovation, a mid-sized art museum planning an expansion, or a large children’s museum building a new facility, this symposium will provide you the opportunity to:
  •            Better understand the process of planning, implementing, and surviving new construction, renovation, or expansion projects
  •            Examine case studies, current trends, topical issues, and specific projects related to building projects across a broad range of museum sizes and scales, budgets, scope of building projects, diversity of disciplines, and collecting vs. non-collections-holding institutions
  •            Actively discuss museum building projects with other museum professionals, architects, planners, project managers, and technical experts to better inform the process of building
  •            Access resources for architectural firms, consultants, museum projects, and museum leaders through the on line Building Museums Resource Guide

  The Buildy Award recognizes institutions whose construction projects demonstrate high achievement in these three areas. The content of each day of the symposium will reflect these themes across a broad range of museum sizes and scales, budgets, scope of building projects, disciplines, and collecting vs. non-collecting institutions.

  Eligibility:

  A Buildy Award nominee museum must have been open for at least one year and completed a museum construction project within the preceding 5 years (calendar years 2006 through 2010).

  Criteria:
  Criteria used to judge nominations include:
  •Originality of concept (vision)
  •Ingenuity in bringing the concept to design (planning process)
  •Community benefit
  •Success of the project (institutional sustainability)
  •Green design
  •Director during construction is still employed by the museum

  How to Nominate a project for the Buildy Award?:

  Required supporting materials must include:
  •            Fill out the Nominations Form (link);
  •            A one-page, non-technical summary of the project;
  •            Photos, design plans, news clippings or other media, technical journals, marketing materials, letters from visitors to support the nomination.
  •            Nominations shall be submitted in a bound 8 ½” by 11” document and a CD-Rom with a digital copy of all information submitted.
  •             Confirmation that the Museum Director will make a presentation at the Symposium, of about 15 minutes, on the “Lessons Learned” from the project if awarded the Buildy.

  Please Note: A short list of finalists will be considered and the Award Nominations Committee may contact the Director and other team members for additional information.  The winner will be selected and notified in advance of Building Museums® 2012.  The winner is encouraged to showcase the project on a table-top display at the Building Museums® Symposium. The Award should be accepted by the Director of the Museum.

  Where to send your nominations:
  Submit nominations via mail with supporting materials to the following address no later than December 15, 2011.

  Building Museums® Symposium
  Attention: Buildy Award 2012
  C/O Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums
  1025 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW • Suite 500 East
  Washington, DC 20007

  For more information about Building Museums® visit our website or call 202.452.8040.