We are honored to share that three Olson Kundig projects have received 2024 Word Architecture News (WAN) Awards: Leach Botanical Garden (led by design principal Kevin Kudo-King, AIA, LEED AP) received a Gold Award for the Leisure category; 8899 Beverly Boulevard (led by design principals Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, Kirsten Ring Murray, FAIA) received a Silver Award for the Over 10,000 SQM Residential category; and Fourth Ward Office Project (led by design principals Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, Kirsten Ring Murray, FAIA, and Steven Rainville, AIA, LEED AP) received a Bronze Award for the Commercial Buildings category. The WAN Awards is the largest international design awards program, recognizing architects and designers globally with categories ranging from residential and commercial to cultural and sustainable design.

Fourth Ward Office Project is a 1.1 million-square-foot commercial high-rise building fronting the Atlanta BeltLine with offices and street-level retail. Organized around a central thoroughfare that doubles as public civic plaza space, the building creates new urban connections between Old Fourth Ward Park and the rapidly revitalizing Atlanta BeltLine corridor. Certified LEED Gold, the building includes sustainable design features that reduce energy consumption, address stormwater runoff, and encourage alternate forms of transportation. Utilizing extensive daylight and thermal modeling, the building façade enhances building performance while maintaining daylight and thermal comfort for occupants.

Leach Botanical Garden represents the first phase of implementation following a new master plan led by landscape architects Land Morphology, which includes a new arbor, fireside terrace and elevated tree walk. The arbor and fireside terrace add dedicated space for gathering and special events, integrated within the surrounding gardens. Inspired by lath houses, a type of greenhouse, the 770-square-foot arbor features a precise composition of wooden screens attached to a steel and glulam structure instead of traditional solid walls, allowing plants to grow unimpeded up to and around the pavilion. An elevated tree walk adjacent to the arbor creates a new experience of the forest and gardens, weaving through mature trees and hovering above the hillside instead of following the topography.

8899 Beverly Boulevard converts a mid-century office building into a new residential program, reflecting a contemporary design approach in dialogue with historic architecture. Rather than demolishing the existing building—designed by Richard Dorman and built in 1964 as the Los Angeles International Design Center—the project preserves its embodied energy and neighborhood significance through reuse. Aspects of the existing façade, concrete megastructure, and distinctive original balconies were retained, with the architectural language of old and new clearly expressed. The updated design honors the character and integrity of the original building while responding to the new use and needs of the surrounding community, adding housing density and improving connections to the pedestrian-oriented neighborhood.

We are honored to have our work recognized by this program, and deeply thankful to the incredible client teams, collaborators, and project partners we had the opportunity to work with on each project.

For more information about the WAN Awards and winning projects, visit this link.

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Leach Botanical Garden, Portland, Oregon, USA

Design Principal: Kevin Kudo-King, AIA, LEED AP
Project Architect: Misun Chung Gerrick
Architectural Staff: Michael Wright
Lead Consultant, Landscape Architect & Master Planning: Land Morphology
General Contractor: JW Fowler
Civil Engineer: Janet Turner Engineering
Structural Engineer: Lund Opsahl
Electrical Engineer and Lighting Design: Reyes Engineering
Green Infrastructure: GreenWorks
Traffic Engineer: Lancaster Engineering
Land Use Planning: Winterbrook Planning
Specifications: Friday Group
Cost Estimating: Mitali & Associates

8899 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Design Principals: Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, and Kirsten Ring Murray, FAIA
Principal: Mark Olthoff, AIA, LEED AP
Project Architect (Tower): Gus Lynch, LEED AP
Project Manager (Townhomes): Brian Walters, LEED AP
Architectural Staff: Elizabeth Bianchi Conklin, AIA, LEED AP and Jeff Ocampo, LEED AP
Interior Design: Laina Navarro and Megan Adams
Interior Design Staff: Irina Bokova, Francesca Krisli, Fernanda Ximenez and Kathy Hanway
General Contractor: Pankow Builders
Architect of Record: Large Architecture

Fourth Ward Office Project, Atlanta, Georgia USA

Design Principal: Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, Kirsten Ring Murray, FAIA, Steven Rainville, AIA, LEED AP
Project Manager: Kimberly Shoemake-Medlock, AIA
Project Architect: John Hallock, AIA, LEED AP
Architectural Staff: Christopher Hall, Kailin Wang, Ana Brainard, Betty Huang, Evan Harlan, Erik Gunderson, Amir Ghazanfari, Laura Sinn, and Alexis Burson Nichol
Building Performance: Vikram Sami, AIA, BEMP, LEED AP
Interior Design: Sarah Muchow, IIDA, NCIDQ, and Margaret Undine, NCIDQ
Interior Design Staff: Kinsey Johnson
Project Administrator: Jane Devine
Developer: New City, LLC
Executive Architect: HKS
General Contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie
Design Landscape Architect: Future Green Studio
Landscape Architect, Civil Engineer, and Parking & Traffic Engineer: Kimley Horn
Structural Engineer: Uzon + Case
Sustainability, LEED, and Commissioning: Working Buildings
MEP Engineer: ENGR3 Consulting Engineers
Façade Consultants: Front and Green Facades
Lighting Design: Niteo
Estimator: Arc Cost Group
Accessibility Consultant: Studio Pacifica