Architecture honors awarded

The American Institute of Architects has given its 2006 AIA Architecture Firm Award to Moore Ruble Yudell, a Santa Monica firm.

The Washington, D.C.-based professional association praised the firm, with a staff of about 60, for its “deep commitment to humanistic architecture ... its respect for people, context and place,” in the words of Michael Franklin Ross, AIA design committee chairman.

The AIA Gold Medal, the highest award the group gives to a single architect, went to New Mexico-based Antoine Predock, who designed San Diego’s new baseball park.

The group’s remaining award, the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, was given to William G. McMinn, who retired last year from Florida International University, where he was a professor and founding dean of the architecture program.

Known nationally for municipal and campus work, Moore Ruble Yudell may be best known locally for renovations of two buildings at UCLA: Glorya Kaufman Hall, a dance building reshaped from a women’s gym, and the historic Powell Library.

Partner Buzz Yudell described himself as “enormously honored and thrilled” and added: “We’re pleased with the way the award reinforces our office culture of collaboration, both among ourselves and with our clients.”

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Scott Timberg