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AIA Chicago's annual Design Excellence Awards are our own little version of the Academy Awards. This electronic presentation is an overview of the 200 submissions to this year's Design Excellence Awards competition, highlighting the 33 winning projects from that competition. Much like the diverse opinions about why Hollywood critics honor certain films, there are just as many insights and viewpoints on why architecture juries recognize the projects they do. These insights are relevant, whether voiced by critics, architects, users, contractors, or owners. There is rarely a clear voice of unison within this group. But this is good. We learn from it and hope that it raises the bar. Ultimately, though, it's a hard bar to reach. As Mies van der Rohe observed: "we do not invent a new architecture every Monday morning." Only the hindsight of historians seems capable of distinguishing when we reach that bar. The awards are not intended to predict which winning project will become a classic. The jury members, who do not have the benefit of the historian's vantage point, base their selections on the architect's submittal as seen by the photographer's eye. The Design Excellence Awards are given by our peers in architecture. While the jury does not get to hear other viewpoints, in this presentation we are lucky to hear another-arguably the most important-point of view: that of the client. In addition to the information on the winning entries, we also provide you with "the other side of the fence." These insights broaden the picture, and though they may not illuminate the struggle to create an admirable work, it emphasizes the importance of the collaborative effort between architect and client. Deborah Doyle, AIA President AIA Chicago |