The new Fukuoka city hall building and an underground pedestrian walkway in the same city have won two of the 2000 Business Week/Architectural Record awards, the American Institute of Architects said Friday.
Awards went also to eight other architectural designs, including the Mahindra United World College of India and the Rose Center for Earth and Space of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
The results will be published in Monday's issue of Business Week magazine. The Fukuoka Prefectural and International Hall, called ACROS Fukuoka, is a stairs-like structure entirely covered by glass, featuring a terrace park on each "step" on the outside of the building, preserving nearly all the site as parkland.
The structure, which also accommodates a concert hall and conference facilities, was designed by Emilio Ambasz and Associates of New York. The pedestrian passage, designed by Walker Group/CNI of New York, leads to the basement of the Iwataya Department Store. One of the jurors described it as "a tunnel connection where you never get the feeling of being in a tunnel." One in four visitors to the department store enter the store through the passageway.