Located on the banks of the Tiber River in Rome, Italy, the Museo dell’Ara Pacis was designed as a renewed setting for the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), a sacrificial altar dating to 9 B.C. Several years ago, it was decided that the facility housing the altar was not properly equipped to ensure its long-term conservation and that a new museum complex needed to be built in accordance with the most up-to-date conservation criteria. The resulting museum space, which was designed by Richard Meier & Partners, LLP, utilizes Roman travertine as a primary building element.

Recently, the design of the Museo dell’Ara Pacis was honored with a special mention as part of the 25th Marble Architectural Awards (MAA), which were presented at the CarraraMarmotec event in Carrara, Italy. Although the MAA typically focuses on a specific region, the “silver edition” of the program opened the competition to include projects completed anywhere in the world with any marble, granite or other stone materials from anywhere and processed anywhere across the globe.



The MAA panel of judges included Fulvio Irace, lecturer at Milan Polytechnic and architecture critic, Flaviano Maria Lorusso, lecturer at the architecture faculty in Florence and Andreina Guerrieri, director of the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade. In honoring the project, the panel cited the project’s use of travertine, which “made it akin” to Meier’s renowned design of the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles.