First-time contributor here.
I've been following the awards discussion with interest and it brings back memories of my involvement in the AIA Housing Committee, the organization which preceded the HKC. I was active in the late 1980's and early 1990's and wanted to mention the issue of awards and recognition for "mainstream housing" was also a sore subject even back then.
The AIA Housing Committee met three to four times a year in different cities, we generally had around 20-40 attendees. At that time, the committee was somewhat bifurcated into three groups: (1) architects of custom homes, (2) architects doing government-assisted affordable or senior housing, and (3) architects of production housing for builders. The meeting themes tended to change as the type of architects in the leadership group rotated through.
During my year as chair in 1990, we initiated an awards program, which as I recall, was "The AIA Housing Committee Awards". The purpose was to include examples from at least the three types of practices mentioned above. We had a nice representation of custom homes, production houses and affordable/senior housing selected for awards, which were announced at a banquet held in Union Station in Washington.
One of the things we did was to have a three-person jury comprised of an architect representing each of the three practice groups to promote balance in the selections. Since this was a first time program, there was little to no publication of the winners. I am not sure of the legacy of this program, perhaps it evolved into the current award program, or maybe not.
Regardless, these are some thoughts on how to have a more diverse housing awards program:
1. Keep the entry fee low. Also, the submission requirements should not be burdensome. That will encourage more entries, which is critical.
2. Define the categories as clearly and with as much detail as possible, and have a wide variety of categories to include work from the varied practices of housing architects. I only saw four categories and some had only one winner, while the custom homes had many.
3. Have a small but balanced jury of housing architects recommended by the HKC and CRAN leadership.
4. In the call for entries, emphasize the diverse categories that will be considered in the awards as well as the names of the architect jurors.
Right now, frankly, it will be a major challenge to change direction for the AIA Housing Awards, since, as Andrew Porth points out, once the award program goes in a certain direction, such as modernism, expensive custom homes, etc., it discourages others from entering. That's where the program is right now.
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James Wentling AIA
Principal
James Wentling/Architect
Philadelphia PA
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Show Original Message
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-20-2012 16:57
From: Andrew Porth
Subject: : HOUSING AWARD JURIES TO BE CHOSEN FROM THE RANK & FILE OF AIA MEMBERS ON THE HKC.
I'd like to reply to comments on the Housing Award jury composition and the lack of stylistic diversity among award winners.
Each year, the Foreperson of the Housing Awards Jury is selected from the ranks of HKC or CRAN advisory groups. I can assure you all that for the last 5 years at least, and probably longer, that person has been a residential architect "working in the trenches".
HKC and CRAN are given an opportunity to nominate additional jurors, but the final selections are made by the AIA Honors and Awards staff, who have assumed responsibilty for running all of the awards programs formerly administered by KCs. In my opinion, they have populated the jury with little regard to KC recommendations in recent years, but to focus on the jury composition largely misses the mark with respect to this discussion.
The biggest reason that there is a lack of stylistic diversity among the award winners (at least in the single family category) is that there is a lack of diversity among the entries. One must enter to win, perhaps repeatedly.
I served as jury chair in 2010 and can report that there was only one entry in the single family category that was not "modernist" in style. There were only a few remodel/addition entries (two of which won awards), and by my estimate only a handful of entries were homes with sub $1M construction budgets. My counterparts on subsequent juries have made similar observations.
For a variety of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with the jury, the composition of the Housing Awards entry pool has largely become a reflection of prior award winners. We have created a self perpetuating cycle where each year, edgy and expensive award winners beget a new crop of edgy and expensive award entries, a few of which are premiated and presented to the public, titillating them while simultaneously reinforcing the perception that our profession is out of touch.
Can this cycle be broken? The jury is out.
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Andrew Porth, AIA
Porth Architects, Ltd.
Red Lodge, Montana
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-19-2012 08:01
From: Edward R. (Ned) Baldwin
Subject: : HOUSING AWARD JURIES TO BE CHOSEN FROM THE RANK & FILE OF AIA MEMBERS ON THE HKC.
Count me in! I too practiced in the "modernist" tradition for decades and won awards for work I now consider quite incompetent. Today I seek energy conservation and simple human comfort over innovation for innovation's sake and have no shortage of clients....
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Edward R. (Ned) Baldwin AIA
Firm Partner/Architect
Baldwin & Franklin Architects
Hastings On Hudson NY
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