Sharon Johnston, Professor in Practice of Architecture, and Mark Lee, Chair of the Department of Architecture & Professor in Practice of Architecture, are recipients of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2022 Architecture Award. Sharon Johnston (MArch ’95) and Mark Lee (MArch ’95) are founding partners at Johnston Marklee, an architecture firm based in Los Angeles, CA, and Cambridge, MA. Arts and Letters recognized Johnston and Lee as “American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction.”
The Academy’s annual architecture awards program began in 1955 with the inauguration of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize and has since expanded to include four Arts and Letters Awards. This year’s winners were chosen from a group of 25 individuals and practices nominated by the members of the Academy. The jurors were Toshiko Mori (MArch ’96, chair), Marlon Blackwell, Peter Eisenman, Steven Holl, Annabelle Selldorf, Nader Tehrani (MAUD ’91), and Meejin Yoon (MAUD ’97).
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is an honor society of the country’s 300 leading architects, artists, composers, and writers. Each year it elects new members as vacancies occur, administers over 70 awards and prizes, exhibits art and manuscripts, funds performances of new works of musical theater, and purchases artwork for donation to museums across the United States.