On June 17, the Gold Nugget Awards named Grand Award winners in its annual competition, which honors architectural design and planning excellence. The winners, themselves selected from Merit Award recipients, were the most highly-decorated of the nearly 600 entries from across the United States and internationally. The Balboa Reservoir Master Plan - a design collaboration between Van Meter Williams Pollack Architecture | Urban Design, PYATOK, and GLS Landscape | Architecture - won a Grand Award for Best On-the-Boards Site Plan; PYATOK's Jones Berkeley and The Village SF both were recognized with Merit Awards in their respective categories.
- Grand Prize, On-the-Boards Site Plan: Balboa Reservoir Master Plan is a model of comprehensive community-oriented urban design linking the surrounding commercial, residential, and institutional uses into a cohesive neighborhood around a new Reservoir Park. The deep understanding of context, rooted in comprehensive community outreach and a commitment to equitable development, resulted in 1,100 units of mixed-income housing, 50% of which will qualify for affordable/workforce housing.
The GNAs note: "The Balboa Reservoir Master Plan captured the judges’ interest as a smart and innovative solution to create a meaningful impact on housing within one of the country’s most expensive cities in a beautiful way. The plan balances an impressive 64.7 du/ac density while providing a network of beautifully considered and designed open spaces that will enhance the quality of life of the residents. The concept respects and complements its metropolitan surroundings and feels like a natural part of the tapestry of the City of San Francisco."
- Award of Merit, Multi-Family Housing Community (60-100 DUA): Jones Berkeley transforms a 1.7-acre auto dealership into a vibrant mixed-use project that thoughtfully transitions from five stories along bustling San Pablo Avenue to townhomes towards the detached-residence West Berkeley neighborhood.
- Award of Merit, Supportive/Transitional Housing: The Village SF was developed by a coalition of Native organizations serving San Francisco’s Indigenous population, and will be a physical, cultural, and spiritual “gathering of fires” at the heart of the city’s nascent American Indian Cultural District.
Now in its 58th year, the Gold Nugget Awards recognize efforts to improve communities through exceptional concepts in design, planning, and development. The largest and most prestigious competition of its kind in the nation, the GNAs honored design and planning achievements in 64 categories, recognizing community and home design, green-built housing, site planning, commercial, retail, mixed-use development, and specialty housing.
The 2021 awards jury included: Ike Balmaseda, partner at IDEArc Architecture & Planning; Mollie Carmichael, principal at Zonda; Debra Falese, president at Woodley Architecture Group; Laurie Ford, principal at Lomonaco Investments; John McManus, founder of The Builder’s Daily; Anne Postle, president at Osmosis Architecture; Chelsea Richardson, principal, vice president at Jeffrey DeMure + Associates; and Symone Strong, assistant editor at Multifamily Executive and Builder magazines.
