Kirk Family YMCA Receives the Prestigious American Architectural Award for 2022

Kirk Family YMCA Receives the Prestigious American Architectural Award for 2022

The Kirk Family YMCA in Kansas City, MO, received The American Architecture Award for 2022 from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. MidAmerican Energy Corporate Office and Conference Center Renovation in Des Moines, IA, received an honorable mention. 

Kirk Family YMCA: Bringing the Y back to the urban core after more than two decades, the Kirk Family YMCA is an adaptive reuse renovation of a historic theatre, that has created renewed purpose as a welcoming and inclusive community resource in downtown Kansas City, MO. The facility includes health and fitness programming and provides supportive spaces for community engagement, workshops, volunteer training, and events. The design restores and retains much of the original character of the 1926 façade and lobby while bringing a new energy to the building's spaces and the surrounding district.

MidAmerican Energy Corporate Office and Conference Center: The renovation of this corporate office and conference center facility transformed a large warehouse-like structure into a vibrant environment of workspaces and amenities that promote productivity and wellness. BNIM's design team worked to maximize the potential of the existing office space through reorganization, modernization, and human-purposed design strategies. Office work areas and amenities are joined together by a 640-foot-long ‘Main Street’ lined with a series of unique truncated pyramid skylights that introduce dynamic natural daylight into the core of the facility.

Now celebrating its 28th year, The American Architectural Awards® are the nation’s highest and most prestigious distinguished building awards program that honor new and cutting-edge design in the United States. This annual program, organized by both our institutions, also promotes American architecture and design to our public audience in the U.S. and abroad. This year, the Museum received a record number of projects for new buildings, landscape architecture, and urban planning from the most important firms practicing in the U.S. and globally.  From a short list of 400 projects, the 2022 Jury for Awards was held in Italy, and over 150 projects were selected by a distinguished group of Italian architects, educators, and designers.