At the annual AIANY Awards banquet on Friday April 12th, our Saint Sarkis Armenian Church and Community Center received the 2024 Honor Award in Architecture, the highest recognition offered by the New York City Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Only three Honor Awards for new buildings were awarded from the pool of 180 entries submitted by the 500 architecture firms working in New York City.

As a small parish church located in the suburbs north of Dallas Texas that was funded and built by the congregation, this Honor Award has a special significance. Alone among the Honor Award winners the Saint Sarkis Church was created by and for a small local community, rather than by a major institutional client with a lavish budget set on a prominent site in a major metropolis.

With gratitude and congratulations to the visionary primary patron Elie Akilian, associated architect Stepan Terzyan, landscape designer Zepur Ohanian and Bishop Parsamyan of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church In America, all of whom attended the Award luncheon.