On Monday I attended the lecture and award presentation for the 2016 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize at the Museum of Modern Art. This year the biennial award was given to the team of Molenaar & Co. architecten, Hebly Theunissen architecten, and Michael van Gessel landscapes for the rehabilitation of the Justus van Effen complex in Rotterdam, designed by Michiel Brinkman and completed in 1922. The project sits in the Dutch city's Spangen neighborhood, surrounded by fairly traditional rowhouses, some of which were created around the same time.

[All photos: Photo: Molenaar & Co. architecten/Bas Kooij, courtesy of WMF]

Like the Hizuchi Elementary School in Japan, which won in 2012, I was not very familiar with Justus van Effen before the announcement of the award (only through a+t's 10 Stories of Collective Housing). But like the project in Japan I was thoroughly impressed with the project as presented the other night. Both of the buildings clearly deserve their respective WMF/Knoll prizes ? both for the thorough restorations but also for bringing wider attention to the projects. As mentioned by jury chair Barry Bergdoll on Monday, the attention for the 2012 prize led to the Hizuchi Elementary School being put on a stamp in Japan. (Coincidentally, a 2000 competition image presented by Molenaar & Hebly put Justus van Effen on a stamp.)
This year's award is the fifth WMF/Knoll Modernism Prize, but the first given to a housing project; the f...