The best and worst of a weighty year for design In keeping with our times, we bring you America?s greatest architectural awards, which of course means the world?s greatest architectural awards. For the seventh consecutive year, Curbed?s own Alexandra Lange and the critic Mark Lamster of the Dallas Morning News cover the ups and downs, triumphs, and tragedies of the year in design. In deference to new regulations governing the architectural press, we submit these awards for your consideration.

Okay, now that we?ve gotten the big winner out of the way, we can move on to the lesser awards.
The Jackie Treehorn Connoisseurship Award: LACMA, for acquiring John Lautner?s Sheats-Goldstein Residence. We raise a White Russian in salute.
Jacques Cousteau Award for Civic Design: Miami, soon to be America?s first casualty of sea-level rise. Worst Use of $4 Billion in Public Money: Santiago Calatrava's Oculus is a very pretty, very expensive shopping mall for well-heeled tourists.

Erik Botsford; Elizabeth Daniels; Max Touhey
Clockwise from top left: A rendering projecting the 2030 Miami skyline with a dramatic rise in sea level; A rendering of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which will not be built in Chicago; The Sheats-Goldstein House; Santiago Calatrava?s Oculus.

Shut Our Mouths Award: Los Angeles, for opening the Expo line and voting in a tax increase toward further transit expansion. We?ll never make traffic jokes again.
Yeah Right, Award: T...