Celebrating Excellence: Whitten Architects Wins AIA Maine Awards

We’ve made it through awards season in Hollywood (step aside, Grammys and Oscars); now it’s time to celebrate architectural excellence in Maine.

This year, we were honored to receive several awards for our work, including two from AIA Maine: an Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture for the Overlook, as well as The Architrave Award for Little Hen House.

Since 1983, AIA Maine has recognized outstanding architectural projects and firms through its Design Awards program. AIA Maine sponsors a juried review of Maine architecture to recognize the important and diverse work of Maine architects. The jurors are nationally recognized peers who, after reviewing and critiquing the entries, select outstanding projects for recognition. 

About the Overlook the Design Awards jury commented, “The simplicity and clarity of this project is commendable. The materials feel ‘of the place’ and have an experiential quality that is richly residential. There’s a sophistication to the detailing on the inside and outside.”

The Architrave Award, a pilot award from AIA Maine, “aims to acknowledge excellence in traditional design through the thoughtful adaptation of tradition to address 21st-century needs.” This award ran simultaneously with the Design Awards program but had a separate jury who reviewed these projects in the context of excellence in traditional design.

According to the jury: “Traditional architecture needs to embrace the materials and detailing of the past, but it must also employ historic design principles such as proportion and speak to the history of a place by exploring the architectural vernacular. Little Hen House does all three, creating a timeless beauty characteristic of traditional architecture and making it the clear winner of AIA Maine’s first Architrave Award.”

In addition, we were proud to learn that the Overlook also won a 2024 Residential Design Award for Architectural Interiors from Residential Design magazine, who received nearly 500 entries in 11 categories of residential design and selected just 25 projects for awards.The jury reviewed projects at their own pace virtually before gathering for an intense, two-day deliberation of the strongest entries. Winning projects will appear in print and online in an expanded form.

We extend our gratitude to our Little Hen House and Overlook clients for trusting us with the design of their homes, as well as to all our collaborators on these projects who contributed to their success.