Thom Mayne

Architect Thom Mayne won the 2013 AIA Gold Medal, the most important award granted by the American Institute of Architects, and which annually commends the work of professionals with a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. Born in 1944 in Waterbury (Connecticut), Mayne directs the California-based office Morphosis, firm in which he has developed most of his career defined by a language of deconstructivist codes, and with relevant works like the Caltrans building for District 7 of the California Department of Transportation, the United States Federal Building in San Francisco or the new headquarters for the Cooper Union in New York. Mayne has also built in Spain, where he has completed a residential complex in Carabanchel – in collaboration with Begoña Díaz-Urgorri –, and is in charge of the design of the high-speed train station of Vigo. Mayne is the 69th recipient of the medal, picked up before him by architects the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, I. M. Pei, Glenn Murcutt, Fumihiko Maki or Steven Holl.