Sparano + Mooney Architecture is proud to announce that principal and co-founder Anne Mooney, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, has been awarded the 2021-2022 Silver Medal by the American Institute of Architects Western Mountain Region.
This prestigious award recognizes Anne’s significant contributions to the Institute, profession, region and its citizens, as well as to her community, and that Anne has transcended local boundaries in making these contributions. Importantly, this year’s award is the Institute’s final issuance of the Silver Medal, and Anne is honored to have been selected by her peers for the achievement.
The AIA Western Mountain Region Silver Medal is the highest honor awarded annually to architects in the vast territory comprising the AIA State Components of Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. First issued in 1979, the Medal is “awarded for superiority in design; service to the public or the profession, education, literature, architectural and cultural preservation…” Anne is only the fifth architect from Utah to have received the Silver Medal. Her partner, John P. Sparano, FAIA, was awarded the acclaim in 2019, making Sparano + Mooney Architecture the first and only firm in Utah to possess two Silver Medals.
From her roots in Montana and Utah to her education in New York, Los Angeles and Ticino, Switzerland, Anne has committed to design excellence, service to the profession and her community. She began her career in the office of Eric Owen Moss in Los Angeles before co-founding Sparano + Mooney Architecture in 1997. The firm has grown into a regionally-recognized design leader with projects that elevate the design discourse throughout the Western United States and beyond, with offices in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.
Anne has crafted a career dedicated to exploratory processes and meaningful architecture responsive to context, culture and community in her practice and as an educator and mentor for an emerging generation of professionals. Her practice has established a capacity for design excellence documented in a significant body of award-winning and published work. Her portfolio of design work synthesizes aesthetic and technical innovation and consistently earns recognition through publications and awards at the state, regional, national and international levels. Under Anne’s leadership, Sparano + Mooney Architecture has earned over 50 peer-juried, local, regional and national architectural design awards, and Anne’s projects have been featured in over 45 architectural books, magazines and publications. In 2014, Anne was named the AIA Western Mountain Region Young Architect of the year; in recognition of the firm’s culture of design excellence, Sparano + Mooney Architecture was awarded the 2016 AIA Western Mountain Region Architectural Firm of the Year and the 2012 AIA Utah Architectural Firm of the Year.
Anne’s contributions as a committed educator span two decades on transformative architectural education in a laboratory of applied research, grounded in making meaningful architecture and helping students build community. Since 2004, she has held an appointment at the University of Utah and has earned the rank of Professor of Architecture with tenure. At the University, Anne teaches advanced design studios and professional practice courses as she mentors the next generation of architects inspiring through example. In 2016, Anne was honored with the Professor of the Year Award from the College of Architecture + Planning, exemplifying her leadership in the education of future architects and the impact she has made in successfully bridging the academic and professional in architecture.
Through her architectural work, teaching, service and publications, Anne’s impact has effectively transcended place while simultaneously being deeply rooted in the American West. Her design philosophy is informed and profoundly inspired by the region’s unique history, landscape, materials, culture and mythology. She is honored to have received the 2021-2022 AIA Western Mountain Region Silver Medal.
