Polshek Partnership Architects of New York, whose projects include Carnegie's newest concert hall and the planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, was one of two winners in the architecture design category for the prizes, awarded Tuesday by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Architect Rick Joy, currently working on a resort in Utah and several residential projects in the Southwest, also received an architecture award.

The $165 million Clinton library in Little Rock, Ark., is scheduled to open next month with a major celebration and is expected to draw 300,000 visitors in 2005. The structure, designed to feel airy and inviting, also mimics six industrial bridges that span the river and contribute to the city's aesthetic.

Polshek Partnership specializes in projects for educational, cultural and nonprofit organizations and tries to combine beauty with a connection to history, company founder James Polshek said.

"Architecture has a responsibility somewhat greater than making beautiful form - it has to make beautiful form that has some lasting meaning," he said.

Polshek Partnership also was recently selected to design an underground exhibit center at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Polshek and Joy received the architecture awards at a ceremony intended to raise public awareness about "the important role that design and designers play in people's lives," Cooper-Hewitt director Paul Thompson said. "This year the jury seems to have made a very strong commitment toward environmental responsibility and design that emphasizes human values."

Among the architecture finalists was Joseph E. Spear, renowned designer of Major League Baseball stadiums, including Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, and the new Phillies ballpark in Philadelphia.

The seven other design award categories are lifetime achievement, corporate achievement, communications, environment, fashion, product design and the patron award.

For lifetime achievement, graphic designer Milton Glaser was honored for a career that spans more than 50 years.

The communications award was presented to @radical.media, an entertainment and media company. The museum said founder and chairman Jon Kamen is an "innovative leader in providing advertisers with communications vehicles that link their brand messages to consumers."

William McDonough+Partners, an architecture firm based in Charlottesville, Va., received the environment award for its work creating projects that are "ecologically, socially and economically sound." Its projects range from Nike's European headquarters in the Netherlands to the revitalization of Ford Motor Co.'s sprawling River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Mich.

The National Design Awards were launched in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council.