The AIA Board of Directors has chosen Los Angeles-based Pugh + Scarpa Architects  as the recipient of the 2010 AIA Architecture Firm Award. This is the highest honor bestowed by the AIA upon its member firms, and recognizes a practice that consistently has produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years.

In the case of Pugh + Scarpa, the honor is based on the firm’s 18 years of consistent excellent work, including its seamless blending of architecture, art, and craft; community involvement; attention to sustainable design; and nurturing of in-house talent. Founding partners Gwynne Pugh, AIA, and Lawrence Scarpa, AIA, and Angela Brooks, AIA, who became a partner in 2001, are known for forging a broad, inclusive, experimental approach to socially and environmentally sensitive urban planning and design. “It was a surprise just to be nominated. It’s just stunning to win,” says Scarpa. The award will be presented June 12 at the 2010 AIA National Convention in Miami.

Thom Mayne, FAIA, wrote in support of the nomination: “Pugh + Scarpa’s practice is known for both design and its commitment to running a socially and environmentally responsive practice. Comfortable with aesthetic, practical, political, and functional issues, they have mapped an architectural path that is as didactic as it is successful.”

Pugh + Scarpa has already been highly recognized in the design community. Over the past 10 years, the firm has won 13 national AIA awards, and more than 40 state and local AIA awards. Earlier this year, the firm received the AIA California Council Firm Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Other awards include: Record Houses, Record Interiors, The Rudy Bruner Prize, Emerging Voice in Architecture presented by the Architectural League of New York, The Collaborative Practice Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, The AIA Henry Adams Medal and The Leadership Award for Sustainable Design presented by the California Legislature Assembly. In 2003, Pugh + Scarpa was also selected as a finalist for the World Habitat Award presented by The United Nations and Building & Housing Social Foundation.