It should come as no surprise to anyone in North Carolina, but the state is suddenly more than a minor blip on the nation’s architectural radar.

That’s the primary takeway from the 2024 Matsumoto Prize Competition, whose results were announced last night.

“North Carolina is a very popular state now – everybody wants to move here,” says George Smart, executive director of NCModernist, organizer of the competition. “Real estate here is relatively inexpensive, compared to other parts of the country like New York and California.”

And when modernists move here – whether to the ocean, mountains or uber-chic urban scenes in between – they’re not just hiring local architects to design their homes. Brooks + Scarpa from Los Angeles, Studio Becker Xu from Chicago and Point Office from Atlanta all had winning entries this year in the Matsumoto Competition.

It’s split into two equally weighted factions. One is a People’s Choice series of three awards, based on several thousand online votes. The second is a jury of nationally known professionals, who this year included WG Clark, architect of the exquisite East Addition to U.Va.’s A-School, Blair Kamin, Pulitzer Prize-winning former architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, as well Shannon Battison, Jerald Cooper, Melissa DelVecchio, Stewart Hicks and Katie Swenson.

The jury awarded first place to Brooks + Scarpa’s Steeplechase in Hillsborough (with Raleigh’s Katherine Hogan Architects). Its second place went to a Point Office home in the mountains known as Brevard House. And third place went to Studio Becker Xu’s Dogtrot House in Hillsborough.

The People’s Choice award for first place went to Studio Becker Xu’s Dogtrot House. Second place went to the Bridge House in Chapel Hill by Sophie Piesse of Carrboro. And third place went to Hylton-Daniel Design & Construction’s Modernist 3 Residence in Durham

Once derided by Virginians to the north as a place where college students learned the “three r’s of readin’, writin’ and the road to Richmond,” North Carolina has come a long way in a very short time.

And it owns a design mojo that should be the envy of any out-of-stater – Virginian or otherwise.

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