The University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning (SA&P) is hosting renowned architect Marc Tsurumaki, AIA, to the school’s auditorium next month. 

SA&P announced Tsurumaki will serve as the jury chair and speaker for the Jeff Harnar Award for Contemporary Architecture and the Jeff Harnar Award for Unbuilt Design.

“We are thrilled to have such an esteemed visitor come to our campus,” said Geraldine Forbes Isais, dean of SA&P. “It is an opportunity for students, faculty and community members to be exposed to fresh ideas and different perspectives that can only come from such a successful career as Marc Tsurumaki’s.”

Tsurumaki is an internationally award-winning contemporary architect. He is a principal at Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis Architects of New York City. He received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Virginia and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. Tsurumaki is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and a visiting critic of Cornell AAP NYC. He is also on the Board of Directors at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. 

The firm has designed award winning and notable cultural buildings such as the Telluride Center for the Arts in southwestern Colorado and the Arthouse at the Jones Center in Austin, TX. They have also designed a variety of academic buildings at Vassar College, Columbia University, New York University, Gallaudet University, Claremont University and the College of Wooster.

The awards presentation and lecture will be held on Feb. 22, 2019 at 5 p.m. at SA&P’s Garcia Honda Auditorium located in George Pearl Hall. The jury of architects and designers will select the winners that morning, and they will be announced at the awards presentation. The event is open to the public.

The Jeff Harnar Awards are prestigious in the architecture profession and offers one of the top prize amounts in the country. The award honors the late Jeff Harnar, known for his groundbreaking design in contemporary architecture in New Mexico. The winner of the Contemporary Architecture Award will receive a $10,000 cash prize.                                  

Submissions for the 2019 Jeff Harnar Award for Contemporary Architecture must be submitted by an architect or architectural firm for a building completed in New Mexico in the last five years. The architect or firm do not need to be from New Mexico.  Submissions for the Jeff Harnar Award for Unbuilt Design must be designed by an architect, landscape architecture, designer, or student while the individual or team were living in New Mexico, but the design can be sited anywhere.  Last year the unbuild architecture award went to a UNM Master of Architecture student. Entries must be completed and received no later than Feb. 1, 2019.

The Harnar awards and program are organized by John Quale, Chair of the UNM Department of Architecture, and sponsored by the Thornburg Foundation, which has supported the award since 2007.