perspective

Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.
– Jonathan Swift

Perspective provides us the vision to see our work and how we shape our surroundings with increasing clarity as we aspire to evolve and seek ever better answers to the challenges of our world. Our perspective begins with the most personal of the individual, to ever expanding rings of reference and community. This year’s 2011 AIA Honor Awards for Washington Architecture recognizes the transformative potential of vision in shaping our work and our communities.

We invite the design community to engage in the conversation of the Awards and submit your perspective whether realized, latent, or an idea in the pursuit of design excellence. This year’s esteemed jury and moderator will share their perspective in an engaging evening of dialogue at Benaroya Hall.

We look forward to your participation and the celebration of perspective in our work and our region.

Wendy Pautz AIA & Guy Michaelsen ASLA
Chairs, 2011 AIA Seattle Honor Awards for Washington Architecture 

WHY SUBMIT?

Thanks to Sean O'Connor for filming!

MODERATOR

Nancy Levinson, Places/Design Observer
Nancy Levinson is editor of Places/Design Observer, a leading journal of architecture, landscape, and urbanism with a global readership. Nancy brings to her editorial work experience in academia and practice, most recently as the founding director of the Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory at Arizona State University. At ASU, she developed the interdisciplinary project Post-Petroleum Phoenix: Transforming the Low-Density City for an Eco-Energy Future, a multiyear initiative focusing on the systems-scale adaptation of postwar suburbia. At the Harvard Graduate School of Design, she cofounded Harvard Design Magazine and directed its rise to international prominence. At Princeton Architectural Press, she developed books on subjects ranging from visual perception to landscape urbanism. Nancy is a frequent design juror and lecturer, and has contributed to diverse academic and trade periodicals, including Architectural Record, the Journal of Planning Literature, the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Perspecta, The Architect’s Newspaper, and Metropolis. She received a B.A. from Yale University and Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

JURORS

Marlon Blackwell FAIA, Marlon Blackwell Architect, Fayetteville, Arkansas
Marlon Blackwell, FAIA practices architecture in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and serves as Distinguished Professor and Department Head in the School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. Working outside the architectural mainstream, his architecture is based in design strategies that celebrate vernaculars, that draw upon them, and that seek to transgress conventional boundaries for architecture.  Work produced in his professional office, Marlon Blackwell Architect, has received national and international recognition, numerous AIA design awards and significant publication in books, architectural journals and magazines

The significance of his contributions to design is evidenced by the publication of a monograph of his work entitled “An Architecture of the Ozarks: The Works of Marlon Blackwell” published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2005. Marlon was selected by The International Design Magazine, in 2006, as one of the ID Forty: Undersung Heroes and as an “Emerging Voice” in 1998 by the Architectural League of New York.

Martin Felsen AIA, UrbanLab, Chicago
Martin Felsen, AIA, is co-principal of UrbanLab, a collaborative architecture and urban design firm based in Chicago. UrbanLab strives to respond to the complexity, growth and unintended consequences of the modern city by developing a catalogue of architectural, infrastructural and urbanistic design strategies, in particular examining natural and artificial systems underpinning urban environments. Built work to date includes houses, housing, mixed-use commercial/residential buildings, restaurants, art/educational installations, and urban infrastructural projects such as recreational and productive landscapes. Parallel to this realized work, Martin is the principal investigator for research projects funded by organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Institute of Architect’s College of Fellows. His research focuses on public space, public infrastructure and public resources in American (and American-style) cities and megaregions. Since 1996, he has taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture.

Jennifer Yoos AIA, VJAA, Minneapolis
Jennifer Yoos is an architect and Principal of VJAA based in Minneapolis. The fourteen-person firm is known for its innovative approach to architectural practice, to environmental design, and to highly crafted buildings. Over the past fifteen years VJAA has received seventeen national design awards, including four National American Institute of Architects Honor Awards, six Progressive Architecture Awards, and two American Institute of Architects/Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Building Awards. In 2010, Architect magazine ranked VJAA first in the United States for design recognition. Recent projects include the Hostler Student Center at the American University of Beirut and a Guesthouse, Chapterhouse and Chapel at Saint John’s Abbey and University.

Jennifer was educated at the University of Minnesota, the Architectural Association in London and was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.  She teaches graduate level design as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota and has lectured widely.

SUBMITTAL CATEGORIES

The Honor Awards program seeks submissions in the categories of realized, latent and ideas. Submissions shall successfully articulate the challenges presented; identify the ideas that guide responses; and show how the project is shaped. Submissions should demonstrate clarity of idea, process and execution through a combination of text, diagrams, drawings, photographs and other illustrative materials. Projects should respond, but not be limited by, place, history, ecology, purpose, society, the 2030 Challenge®, and the AIA’s 10 Principles for Livable Communities.

realized
Recognizing built work and the challenges inherent in realizing an architectural idea. Realized submittals should clearly display site context, program, design process and its manifestation in the built project.

latent
Recognizing design that is present but not yet visible, these projects are rooted in an actual client and program that has yet to be built. Latent submittals should clearly display a project need anchored in reality and how the design’s conceptual basis and organizing principles meet that need.

idea
Recognizing an idea expressed in a conceptual endeavor. Submittals should clearly identify the underlying idea behind a design and explain the conceptualization and realization of the design solution.

ELIGIBILITY

• There are no geographical boundaries on the projects eligible for submission
• Projects must have completed construction (realized) or have been initiated (latent/ideas)after November 2006
• Projects built in any location may be submitted by firms with an office within the state of Washington wherein the primary design phases were performed by the Washington branch.
• Projects built or planned to be built within the state of Washington may be submitted by project teams located outside the state of Washington if the project team includes a Washington Licensed architect
• Submissions to the ideas category may be submitted by designers, artists, researchers, scientists and students currently working in the state of Washington

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

ABKJ Inc.
BetterBricks
Charter Construction
Clothier & Head
Coughlin Porter Lundeen
Hoffman Construction Company
Inn at the Market
Kibble & Prentice
KPFF Consulting Engineers
Magnusson Klemencic Associates
McKinstry
Nucor Steel
PCS Structural Solutions
Pro Image Photography
Shannon & Wilson, Inc.
Site Workshop
SSA Acoustics, LLP
Stantec
Turner Construction Company
WSP Flack + Kurtz