Professionals with vision are honored by their peers
CONNECTICUT AIA HONORS THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS
The Connecticut branch of the American Institute of Architects (the AIA) is like the American Medical Association for doctors or the American Bar Association for lawyers. The AIA, AMA, and ABA are all dedicated to their respective professions.
But the AIA is different, because architects are different. Just like lawyers and doctors, architects deal with laws, best practices, trends in technology and licensing — but only architects deal in art. The fine arts world apart from architecture has no AIA, but it has exhibits, competitions, even aesthetic journalism — and the AIA has those too.
The Connecticut AIA is a very active group of 1,200 architects and 1,500 “allied” members. The organization offers a host of programs including awards. These awards are granted from hundreds of submissions to 10 individual programs. These programs include the Alice Washburn Awards, Business Architecture Awards, Connecticut Treasures Award, Design Awards, Elizabeth Mills Brown Award, Emerging Professionals Award and even the President’s Award for Public Service.
This holiday season, the Connecticut AIA recognizes scores of winners from these programs, en masse, even though these programs happen throughout the year. I know this because I have entered them, en masse, for about 30 years (winning a bunch, losing far, far more often). Projects can be in Connecticut or have a Connecticut architect building in state or out. Any licensed architect can win, so nonAIA members can enter — they just pay higher entry fees.
Although it was a bit awkward, I won a bunch of AIA Awards as a nonmember, but when an publisher congratulated me for having a book being the second, ever, to be granted a National AIA “imprint,” I joined. When I became a member, my competition fees went down, and I still won about once for every dozen entries because the judges do not know who is submitting what. I know this because I have been on a bunch of juries for design competitions in Connecticut and other states. The process of picking winners is universally fair.
But humans have biases. Some groups of humans have biases to the point of canon. That canon in architecture is predominantly manifest in the style of “modernism.” Fairness and canon are not the same thing. Being fair simply means being judged on a level playing field, but if the jurors have a canon that they judge by, the aesthetic results are obvious.
To embrace more than one dominant canon, local AIAs across the country have dealt with the many aspects of “style” present with a plethora of awards programs, intentionally created to embrace a wide range of professional perspectives. There are 10 AIA awards programs in Connecticut to recognize all the varieties of expression that architects produce. However, among architects there is a first among equals among these varying competitions: The Design Awards.
The jurors of the 2019 Design Awards were Bradford Perkins, FAIA; Maryann Thompson, FAIA; and Alan Ricks, AIA.
“The number and quality of all award submissions this year were truly exceptional,” said Gina Calabro, executive director and CEO of the Connecticut AIA. Cesar Pelli’s and Turner Brooks’ projects shown were picked by the jury among the 18 winners.
The jurists in these competitions have a hard deadline to review a few words, drawings and photos, so their judgment is reactive, like Internet dating sites. At a competition in the District of Columbia, I pressed my fellow jurors to give an AIA award to a now famous architect — his first ever. They agreed. He won.
I found out after the judging that this was his last available chance to win for this project, as there was a limit of five tries, and he had lost the first four. Was his design less worthy before I saw it? Were there more superior entries in prior years? I think architectural competitions are a snapshot of how a jury feels about what it sees.
I think the jurors must have felt pretty good about the projects you see here.