The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, founded in 2012, is a biennial award recognizing excellence in built works of architecture in the Americas. MCHAP is an initiative of Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture. MCHAP defines architectural excellence in a holistic sense: it evaluates how architecture integrates natural, built, and human environments to enhance the quality of the places where we live. Grounded by an awareness of the present, MCHAP optimistically points to the future, exploring how architecture can address today’s challenges and imagine new possibilities for communities in North and South America. MCHAP also shares the stories of these inspiring projects, spurring conversations and setting new agendas both within IIT and for designers and civic leaders worldwide. Through its connections to a renowned global network of established and emerging voices, MCHAP generates engaging events and symposia, inventive studio classes and workshops, and sophisticated publications. The prize becomes an essential platform bringing nominators, jury members, students, faculty, practitioners, and clients into dialogue about what architecture makes possible. In this sense, the award itself is only the beginning.