On December 9, the American Institute of Architects awarded its 2022 Gold Medal to Brooks + Scarpa, a Los Angeles firm best known for designing affordable housing but active in many other areas. The award puts founders Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa in the company of Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, and Thomas Jefferson (one of several posthumous recipients of the medal). Also on Thursday, the AIA gave its annual Architecture Firm Award to MASS Design Group, the Boston-based non-profit with a social justice mission.

THE SIX, a Los Angeles housing project completed by the Brooks + Scarpa in mid-2016 in the MacArthur Park neighborhood. Photo © Tara Wujcik