What does a five-story ice-making plant have in common with a remodeled church basement? They both are among this year's winners of AIA Chicago's design awards program. If you think that architecture competitions are like beauty pageants with lip service paid to brains and talent but the final decision based only on looks, the results of the 1996 Design Excellence Awards of AIA Chicago should convince you otherwise.
The jury for each award category looked beyond the glamorous images to ask some key questions of the projects, from their impact on the community to the consistency of their design and details. What were the challenges the architect had to overcome? Does the building or interior express its purpose and project the image sought by the client? What is it like to walk past this buildings or to work every day in this office? The winners are those projects that go above and beyond expectations, that not only meet but exceed the clients' goals, and show evidence of top-flight creative thinking.
- Laurie McGovern Petersen
- From :
Focus: Architecture Chicago (October 1996)A publication of AIA Chicago