Formed by the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago in 2014, MCHAP consists of two biennial awards: the MCHAP.emerge Award, given to an outstanding built work in the Americas by a practice within their first ten years, and MCHAP (aka the Americas Prize), awarded to the best built work in the Americas in the preceding two years. 

Winners of the more high-profile MCHAP have included the Iberê Camargo Foundation in Porto Alegre, Brazil, by Álvaro Siza and 1111 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, Florida, USA, by Herzog & de Meuron in the first cycle; Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut, USA, by SANAA in the second cycle; Edificio E at the University of Piura in Piura, Peru, by Barclay & Crousse Architecture in the third cycle; and the remodeling and expansion of the Anahuacalli Museum in Mexico City, Mexico, by Taller|Mauricio Rocha in the fourth cycle. 

One of the five finalists listed below (in alphabetical order by project name, with statements from the jury, courtesy of MCHAP) will join the previous winners when the announcement of the recipient of the 2025 Americas Prize is made on May 5, 2025.

The gran acuario Mazatlán is activating an underutilized park and lagoon of a seaside resort town. A massive series of walls conceptualized as a discovered “ruin” inhabited by birds, fishes, plants and water. This arrangement sets up a series of beautifully composed mise-en-scene one point perspective view corridors, replete with dramatic oculi allowing light to frame the water displays.

A non-prescriptive circulation pattern allows the visitor to wander and discover, easily moving between moody indoor spaces, glowing tanks of water holding the aquatic species, and outdoor gardens open to the sky. The mechanical complexity of such a program is deftly concealed to allow for a fluid and effortless experience of the exhibition space. A building that is driven by the spectacle of a captured nature, it amazes and delights the public as it connects to the surrounding park landscape and paves the way for an elevated public architecture for the city as a whole.

Despite the synthetic decisions and sharp material palette this subtraction within a preexisting house is in no way reductive. All the opposite, the generous volume of air adds to a wide range of readings of the new piece: a serene and ventilated waiting room, stimulating the interaction of all its users, a passage to the hidden plaza that draws the sidewalk into the backyard, a temple-like city lantern radiating at night.

It is the ultimate political project, making the city one small piece at a time, on a tight plot, recycling its structure, taking a normal program and elevating it to improve everyday life for humans and nonhumans alike.

A mangrove, a square and a promenade; a strong idea that transcends its materiality. Rarely does a line materialized into a pasarell do so many things at once. This linear topography, slightly tilted to give each of its corners a different height, and hence experience, manages to combine a healthy ecosystem with an open air museum, public space for swimming, and walking, jogging while offering the users a new opportunity and perspective on recreation and learning. Paradoxically, this protective perimeter preserves nature while also allowing thousands of people to enjoy a highly fragile yet mainly privatized shoreline, heightening consciousness of this unique endangered ecosystem and becoming part of the signature identity of Bacalar.

A plot that had no future, pushing zoning and regulatory envelope the project builds a contemporary new way of living within the memory of an industrial archaeology. A series of smart strategies allow to maximize the identity of the Pumphouse, the new residential use, views and private and shared spaces in this complex urban plot. The abandoned pump house seems to extend its precise and rigorous material language beyond its original enclosure.

The small domestic interiors expand into shared spaces and circulation that animate the block in all directions. These units are elevated making ways for the use of alleys and a series of pockets of communal activities.

The powerful interpretation of a new academic pedagogical mission of youth learning while doing is matched by an equally powerful campus. Steeped in the rural culture of its place—the barn, the porch and the long and low farm buildings of Arkansas are assembled to creates new type of public space keeping in scale with the surrounding fabric. 

The design of five academic buildings loosely scattered within a garden with different characters, successfully creates an environment of constant indoor/outdoor porosity. Students and the general public richly gather and co-mingle under outward-facing porches, covered passageways that shelter outdoor activities and framed views, encouraging the movement through spaces with a strong community orientation. Within the comfort of containment this campus masterfully composed, allows for natural flows of people, wildlife and weather.