A house designed, built, and owned by Associate Professor of Architecture Marc Manack, with his firm SILO AR+D, has been awarded the 2023 George Matsumoto Prize from NC Modernist, a non-profit organization and educational archive established for the documentation, promotion, and preservation of residential modernist architecture in North Carolina. Founded in 2012, the George Matsumoto Prize is the state's highest honor exclusively for modernist residential architecture.
Manack's home, "Steel Louise," was chosen as the first place winner from among 19 applicants by a distinguished six-member jury of nationally respected architects and architectural critics: Fred Bernstein; Angie Brooks, FAIA; Mina Chow, FAIA; Steven Ehrlich, FAIA; Myron Goldfinger, FAIA; and Pulitzer-winner Inga Saffron.
“For the first time in the prize’s history, the jury was nearly unanimous in choosing Manack’s entry as first place,” said George Smart, HAIA, executive director of US Modernist.
"Steel Louise" is a single-family residential urban infill project in the Belmont neighborhood of Charlotte. The design/build team, hired by SILO, included recent UNC Charlotte architecture graduates Amelia Gates, Whitni Irving, Nicholas Sturm, Francisco Ceron, and Jake Froning.
Manack describes the concept and design of "Steel Louise."
Manack, who serves as president of the Charlotte chapter of the American Institute of Architects, frequently engages students and alumni in design/build projects. Learn more about that work in this digital feature, Building Impact.
All images by Keith Isaacs.