Recently, the winners of the Marble Architectural Awards (MAA) competition were announced by the program's organizer, Internazionale Marmi e Macchine Carrara S.p.A (IMM Carrara). The competition was open to architects who had completed projects using a significant amount of natural stone in Australia and South America as well as central and Southern Africa. Also, participants had the option of submitting their work in three categories - exteriors, interiors or urban landscape.
First place in the exteriors category went to Hector Mejia Velez, Mauricio Gaviria, R. Juan Felipe and Uribe de Bedout for their design of the Crematorium and Ashes Temple in Medellin, Columbia, which utilized Columbian stone. In the interiors division, Jeff Walker of Denton-Corker & Marshal won first place for his design of 363 George Street in Sydney, Australia, where he combined European marble with Brazilian and Australian granites. Cesar Pelli & Associates was also recognized in the interiors category for its work on the Boston Bank head offices in Buenos Aires. Another award in this category also went to Carmen West of Carmen West European Design for the Riverside government office complex in Nelspruit-Mpumalanga, South Africa.