AIA honors collaborative achievement

American Institute of Architects selects recipients for the 2011 Institute Honors for Collaborative Achievement, to be presented at the 2011 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in New Orleans

January 20, 2011

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected the recipients of the 2011 Institute Honors for Collaborative Achievement. The award, to be presented at the 2011 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in New Orleans, recognizes and encourages distinguished achievements of allied professionals, clients, organizations, architect teams, knowledge communities, and others who have had a beneficial influence on or advanced the architectural profession. 

The jury for the 2011 Collaborative Achievement Award includes: Chris Morrison, AIA, Chair, Cunningham | Quill Architects; Edward Feiner, FAIA, Perkins & Will; David Frommer, AIA, UNLV Planning and Construction; Diane Georgopulos, FAIA, Mass Housing Finance Agency and Clyde Porter, FAIA, Dallas County Community College District.

Active Design Guidelines

Published in January 2010, through a unique multi-agency, inter-disciplinary collaboration with the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC), the Guidelines are a set of evidence based practice strategies to guide public and private sector architects, designers, planners and owners and managers on the routine inclusion of physical activity-promoting strategies in the design, construction, and operations of buildings, streets and neighborhoods.

The Guidelines provide an excellent reference for architects and policy makers. Resources include checklists, specific design strategies, illustrations, project examples and a model LEED Innovation Credit for Increased Physical Activity. Over 4,000 copies of the Guidelines have been downloaded. A series of workshops with designers, design academics and property management professionals is currently underway to garner input to guide ongoing implementation activities.

Active Design Guidelines, a collaborative effort of multiple municipal agencies; Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), Department of Correction (DOC), Department of Transportation (DOT), and Department of City Planning (DCP), the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), along with countless civic organizations and professional societies, sprang from the results of several Fit City conferences.

Dallas Architecture Forum

The Dallas Architecture Forum is a not-for-profit civic organization devoted to bringing the best current ideas on architecture and urban design to the wider community. The forum’s backbone is its lecture series, which has brought nearly 130 distinguished Forum lecturers, who have provided a diverse array of impressive contributions. While design professionals give the majority of the lectures, there are also critics, curators, historians, patrons, public servants, photographers, filmmakers and philosophers.

In addition to the lecture series, key parts of the Forum include panels—local, informal, open, and free—led by a moderator who brings a subject or concern along with brief comments by several invited members of the community. Panels offer members and others the opportunity to participate in creating discourse and not just responding to it. Other features of the Forum include Symposia, presentations and discussions by invited participants offered twice annually in cooperation with the Nasher Sculpture Center, and tours to architectural sites.

The Dallas Architecture Forum prides itself on its diversity, which connects new audiences through the culture of architecture. Frederic Schwartz, FAIA, notes in his recommendation, "One of the Forum’s strengths is its non-traditional outlook that brings together different people and disciplines that are passionate and curious about architecture." Additionally, it has become a vehicle for young people, especially students and recent graduates in architecture and the arts, to network in a more casual atmosphere than the usual professional or academic setting.

Louis Poulsen Lighting, Inc.

Founded in 1874 in Copenhagen as an electrical company, Louis Poulsen evolved into a firm that creates and produces many of the most beautiful and functional lighting fixtures ever designed. In the 1920’s Louis Poulsen began a collaboration with the Danish architect Poul Henningsen, who developed a completely new lighting philosophy: the functional aspect of any fixture, the quality of the light itself, had to be resolved before addressing the beauty of the lamp’s form. With Henningsen, Poulsen initiated the tradition of working with architects. In 1941, the firm founded the architectural and lighting design journal, NYT ("New" in Danish). Poul Henningsen was the first editor of NYT, which became a widely read and respected design magazine among architects worldwide.

Louis Poulsen Lighting has made significant contributions in several areas: in the theory and practice of architectural lighting, in working directly with architects as the designers of lighting equipment, in the production of custom lighting fixtures for architects, and in the education of both the profession and the public about the importance of excellence in lighting and design. Continuing with this thought, Carol Bentel, FAIA, says of the firm in her nomination, "They seriously cultivate a "design dialogue" that travels in two directions. This is unique and supports our needs as architects striving for excellence in our field. They serve as a singular model for other product manufacturers to follow in their willingness to educate, to assist, and to collaborate at the highest level."

Peter Lindsay Schaudt, Assoc. AIA, FASLA, FAAR

Peter Schaudt is an accomplished landscape architect who for over two decades has achieved numerous design awards and honors, exemplified by the coveted Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture and with Fellowship in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Through his undergraduate degree in architecture from University of Illinois at Chicago, he developed a rare and valuable quality: the ability to achieve a symbiotic relationship with architects in the design process, integrating his ideas with theirs.

Throughout his career, Schaudt has consistently brought issues of site and context into conversation with some of the most influential architects of our time. In addition to designing specific projects, he donates time generously to organizations that affect the perception of architecture and design nationally, including the General Services Agency (GSA), AIA Awards juries, and ASLA Award juries. Within this arena, he is a consistent voice calling attention to the importance of multiple perspectives within a single design solution.

Andrew Metter, FAIA, states in his nomination, “True collaboration is an Art, and as such requires a generosity of spirit, recognition of the value of other’s ideas, and the ability to weave varied conceptual strands into a holistic integrated cloth.”

Walter J. Hood, Jr.

Walter Hood is Professor and former Chair of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and principal of Hood Design in Oakland, California. Since 1992, his studio’s contributions have spanned the design profession and have included community and urban design, planning, landscape design, art installations, and research.

Hood was a fellow at the American Academy in Rome in Landscape Architecture in 1997, and has exhibited and lectured on professional and theoretical projects nationally and internationally. His work was featured in the "Open" New Designs For Public Spaces, the Van Allen Institute, NY, Metropolis Magazine, the New York Times and Dwell Magazine. His published monographs—"Urban Diaries" and "Blues & Jazz Landscape Improvisations"—illuminate his unique approach to the design of urban landscapes. These works won an ASLA Research Award in 1996. This year, he appeared on the cover of Fast Company Magazine (Oct, 2010) as one of three "Masters in Design," the magazine’s article noting his goal as "to prove that every place, and every person, can benefit from good design." (p.122).

"The Institute Honor for Collaborative Achievement should be awarded to someone who is truly collaborative, who lifts our spirits and raises the design dialogue to new heights," says Michael Franklin Ross, FAIA, in his nomination letter, "This is what Walter Hood does every day."

Original Press Release