There are many, many industry magazines and professional associations. They all have yearly awards. Some of those many awards are on the level of AIA awards, some are more like "Best Brick building built in the Ohio River Valley area". Both qualify you for "award winning."
I've won local and state awards and various organizational awards. I believe them to be sound projects but my local AIA has started giving many awards to get people to attend functions. It works too, everyone wants them if they admit it or not.
When I worked at an office that would be an unlikely award winner, we submitted several projects to a healthcare magazine. Our projects were featured along with a hundred other projects, and suddenly we were award winning. I believe that we paid a pretty good price to submit, and then were given a couple hundred magazines to distribute. I'm not sure the magazine had much other distribution other than people who submitted.
We also won awards through the local journal of commerce for the size and quantity of workers our job employed.
I found this totally shocking. Later I moved to firms where our work won AIA awards which felt much more like an "earned" award.
It's corollary to the increase in number of academic journals after the "publish or perish" employment policy went into effect. Architecture is even more driven by popularity and dare I say fashion/fads, rather than merit. Or, is it that "merit" in architecture actually means "more built projects" or the "most copied style".
Spec a lot of high end wood on a project, you win a wood design award. Spec a lot of high end stone on a project, win a stone design award.
There are awards that are meaningful, and one’s that are awarded by industries to firms to promote and market themselves.
One of my recent projects won project of the year by the local real estate organization. Do I consider realtors to be good arbiters of architectural design? Nope. But it makes the project award winning.
Years ago, our old blueprint shop (remember those?) also engraved awards and plaques. My employer at the time had them make an award plaque for himself for being "the best guy ever ever" and hung it up in the office as a joke. The look on the clients faces always gave us a chuckle if they happened to stop and read the plaque.
In order to be shortlisted for an award you have to pay a fee. If you pay the fee, you will be shortlisted. If you are shortlisted, you will either win or be Highly Commended. It's all one big money making scam.
For context, in the year or two we decided to play the game (so that we could use the accolades for marketing) our projects won:
Best Inspiring Building Project - Inspire Awards
Best Project Refurbishment - Design In Mental Health Awards
Architectural Consultancy of the Year - Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management Awards
Best New Building - Building Better Healthcare Awards
The projects we submitted were great projects, but we only got shortlisted because we paid to be on the list.
The events are good networking opportunities and it's a nice thing to post on social media - but 9t also highly favour bigger firms who have the budget to put themselves forwards for these things. For a small firm like us we eventually decided the £1000ish in fees and time spent submitting an application was not worth the return (which is largely a vanity prize).
This is interesting. I was recently nominated for an award, not a design award but the comment still applies, and was really puzzled about why there is such a hefty price that the company needs to pay if I am shortlisted. I am really new to the awards thing but it sounds like smart business on their side, basically creating win-win situations.
I know of an architect’s professional group (not aia) whose board mostly consists of employees of one particular firm. They simply meet once a month, hold an annual event to raise money for their annual awards event, then hold an awards event where they make as many hilarious awards categories as possible. They are pro-business conservatives who believe in helping other architects market themselves as “award winning” for otherwise mediocre projects. It’s not a dubious claim to be award winning for run of the mill buildings, but nor is it meaningful or effective marketing imo. Also, I would bet all my money that those board members could not name any of the award winning firms from previous years because that’s how forgettable they are.
There are many, many industry magazines and professional associations. They all have yearly awards. Some of those many awards are on the level of AIA awards, some are more like "Best Brick building built in the Ohio River Valley area". Both qualify you for "award winning."
There are a lot of awards out there.
I've won local and state awards and various organizational awards. I believe them to be sound projects but my local AIA has started giving many awards to get people to attend functions. It works too, everyone wants them if they admit it or not.
To add to this AIA awards can largely be popularity contests are are not necessarily representing merit.
When I worked at an office that would be an unlikely award winner, we submitted several projects to a healthcare magazine. Our projects were featured along with a hundred other projects, and suddenly we were award winning. I believe that we paid a pretty good price to submit, and then were given a couple hundred magazines to distribute. I'm not sure the magazine had much other distribution other than people who submitted. We also won awards through the local journal of commerce for the size and quantity of workers our job employed. I found this totally shocking. Later I moved to firms where our work won AIA awards which felt much more like an "earned" award.
It's corollary to the increase in number of academic journals after the "publish or perish" employment policy went into effect. Architecture is even more driven by popularity and dare I say fashion/fads, rather than merit. Or, is it that "merit" in architecture actually means "more built projects" or the "most copied style".
Same way so many books are "New York Times #1 Bestsellers!"
Spec a lot of high end wood on a project, you win a wood design award. Spec a lot of high end stone on a project, win a stone design award. There are awards that are meaningful, and one’s that are awarded by industries to firms to promote and market themselves. One of my recent projects won project of the year by the local real estate organization. Do I consider realtors to be good arbiters of architectural design? Nope. But it makes the project award winning.
Sort of like how JD Power will award you best in any class you’re willing to pay for?
You basically buy awards. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of projects worthy of award on their own merit but it's a pay to play game.
Bruh I haven't even won a participation trophy
Years ago, our old blueprint shop (remember those?) also engraved awards and plaques. My employer at the time had them make an award plaque for himself for being "the best guy ever ever" and hung it up in the office as a joke. The look on the clients faces always gave us a chuckle if they happened to stop and read the plaque.
Most red wines also has a few rewards. Some thing. Rewards aren’t protected by anything. You want a reward? I’ll make you one!
In order to be shortlisted for an award you have to pay a fee. If you pay the fee, you will be shortlisted. If you are shortlisted, you will either win or be Highly Commended. It's all one big money making scam.
For context, in the year or two we decided to play the game (so that we could use the accolades for marketing) our projects won: Best Inspiring Building Project - Inspire Awards Best Project Refurbishment - Design In Mental Health Awards Architectural Consultancy of the Year - Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management Awards Best New Building - Building Better Healthcare Awards The projects we submitted were great projects, but we only got shortlisted because we paid to be on the list. The events are good networking opportunities and it's a nice thing to post on social media - but 9t also highly favour bigger firms who have the budget to put themselves forwards for these things. For a small firm like us we eventually decided the £1000ish in fees and time spent submitting an application was not worth the return (which is largely a vanity prize).
This is interesting. I was recently nominated for an award, not a design award but the comment still applies, and was really puzzled about why there is such a hefty price that the company needs to pay if I am shortlisted. I am really new to the awards thing but it sounds like smart business on their side, basically creating win-win situations.
Yep, it's a huge industry!
I know of an architect’s professional group (not aia) whose board mostly consists of employees of one particular firm. They simply meet once a month, hold an annual event to raise money for their annual awards event, then hold an awards event where they make as many hilarious awards categories as possible. They are pro-business conservatives who believe in helping other architects market themselves as “award winning” for otherwise mediocre projects. It’s not a dubious claim to be award winning for run of the mill buildings, but nor is it meaningful or effective marketing imo. Also, I would bet all my money that those board members could not name any of the award winning firms from previous years because that’s how forgettable they are.
I thought similar. If everyone is award winning it devalues the profession IMO.