Save the Date for our 2024 Design + Honor Awards Gala
AIA Blue Ridge seeks to recognize outstanding design by practitioners and students in our region from the last ten years. Our call for entries have now closed. Thank you to all who have submitted!
The 2024 jury includes talented architects from Chesapeake, Maryland. Projects will be judged independently from other entries on their individual merit, solution to the challenge presented, and worthiness for recognition for excellence in architecture and design. All designs the jury considers worthy will be awarded, regardless of category and number.
The 2024 Design + Honor Awards will be presented the evening of September 13, 2024, at the Fire Station One Boutique Hotel, in Downtown Roanoke. We'll kick things off at 5:30 with drinks and a tour of the AIA Blue Ridge member-designed venue. A cocktail style dinner reception will begin at 6:30 and we'll celebrate our award winners with remarks from the jury at 7:00.
AIA Blue Ridge will continue to advocate for the quality design work being produced in our region by our talented community members by promoting 2024 Design Award recipients via public, printed, and online platforms across the region and beyond.
DESIGN AWARD CATEGORIES
ARCHITECTURE
Designers may submit projects of all types (including residential design) for consideration in the Architecture category. In their deliberations, the jury will consider aesthetics, adherence to the client program, proven and projected building performance, and concept development. An entry may be one building or a related group of buildings forming a single project. The work may also include any completed improvement designed by the submitting Architect including Parks and Plazas.
DESIGN FOR CONTEXT
Awards in this category recognize outstanding architecture that reflects the history, culture, and physical character of its surroundings while also contributing to the function, beauty, and meaning of the larger context. Both contemporary and historical design responses are eligible. Evaluation criteria include:
How does the design contribute to the architectural vocabulary of the surrounding physical context through tangible qualities such as scale, form, and materials?
How does the design respond to the place’s history and culture?
How does the design creatively embody the identity or mission of the place?
EXTENDED USE
AIA Blue Ridge welcomes submissions of Historic Preservation or Adaptive Use projects that highlight strategies and technologies for preserving, reusing, and restoring existing buildings. Projects submitted under Extended Use can fall into one of two categories:
Adaptive or Continued Use
Projects submitted in this category should include either a renovation within an existing building or new construction that expands an existing structure or site. The intent of this award is to recognize thoughtful interventions that create synergy between old and new construction, improve functionality, energy-efficiency, meet contemporary standards for comfort and utility, and/or capitalize on the embodied energy of an existing structure.
Historic Preservation
The Historic Preservation category includes restoration and rehabilitation of historically significant buildings, focusing specifically on excellence in strategies, tactics, and technologies that advance the art, craft, and science of preservation. The jury will also take into consideration adherence to state and national criteria for historic preservation.
INTERIORS
Interior architecture projects of distinction will evince mastery of composition, functionality, material and color palettes, and well-integrated adherence to the highest levels of accessibility, health and safety, environmental, and occupant-comfort considerations, standards, and regulations.
SMALL PROJECTS
Design excellence can be achieved, no matter the size or scope of a project. These awards celebrate projects with modest budgets that have a substantial impact. Projects must be under 5,000 square feet or under $150,000 in construction cost.
STUDENT WORK
AIA Blue Ridge invites submissions of built or unbuilt projects by Designers currently enrolled in an Architecture School in the AIA Blue Ridge Region OR who currently reside in the AIA Blue Ridge region and have been out of school no more than 3 years.
BLUE RIDGE CHAPTER HONOR AWARDS
EMERGING PROFESSIONAL AWARD (NEW!)
This award is presented by the AIA Blue Ridge Board for outstanding community engagement, leadership, and chapter involvement by an emerging professional in our region.
Eligibility:
AIA or Associate AIA member in good standing.
Must be either unlicensed or have been licensed to practice architecture fewer than 10 years by the submission deadline.
Criteria:
Candidates will be evaluated on their contributions to the profession in one or more of the following categories:
Advancement of design and/or design discourse
Advancement of the profession, including service to the AIA
Service to their community
Service to the profession
Advancement of social justice, equity, diversity, or inclusion
Advocacy of the built environment