The Best, Worst, and Most Questionable in 2022 Architecture and Design

A list of innovative projects, intriguing design, and flummoxing failures.

1 minute read

December 6, 2022, 12:00 PM PST

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


Rendering of Juneteenth Museum

Renderings for the Juneteenth Museum placed the Fort Worth project in Austin, earning the ‘Magellan Geography Award.’ | City of Fort Worth / Rendering of Juneteenth Museum

An annual list of architecture ‘awards’ from Mark Lamster, Alexandra Lange, and Carolina A. Miranda has celebrated and poked fun at all manner of things in the architecture world for over a dozen years. Its thirteenth year has been, as the authors put it, “yet another busy, dispiriting, ridiculous, racist, sexist, anti-semitic, and all around stupid year.”

With that said, the awards range from the ‘YIMBY Seal of Approval’—a commendation to Perkins&Will’s Galbraith mixed-income housing development in Dallas—to the satirical ‘Bye-Bye Birdie Badge’—“How will architects make friends without Twitter?” the authors lament. They also include Jessie Singer's There Are No Accidents, giving it the ‘Straight Talk Award’ for “how nomenclature (accident instead of crash) allows people, places and systems to evade responsibility and avoid change.”

The list also gives a nod to Bernheimer Architecture, which became the first American architectural practice to unionize. And in ‘real’ awards, “The Pritzkers honor Burkinabè architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, making him the first African and the first Black person to win the prize,” winning the ‘Make Prizes Relevant Again’ prize.

See the source article for the full list.

Monday, December 5, 2022 in Medium

"Planetizen federal action tracker" logo superimposed over black and white image of US Capitol dome.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

October 28, 2026 - Zachary Whalen

A car drives through a puddle, making a large splash. Rain pours down.

California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour

If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.

October 28, 2026 - Grist

Lake Powell with much of the water evaporated.

Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River

Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.

October 30, 2026 - Yale Environment 360

A Firefighter sprays water from a hose at a tall blaze.

US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060

Researchers found a high fire risk for socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods in the American West.

2 hours ago - Inside Climate News

People cross a crosswalk in Los Angeles.

LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks

Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.

3 hours ago - ABC7

Two women walking on the sidewalk in Dallas.

Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code

The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.

4 hours ago - Yahoo News