Honoring the achievements of local architects and architecture, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Santa Barbara will host its annual Design Awards Gala Dec. 2 at the Mar Monte Hotel.
The AIA Santa Barbara Design Awards draws attention to the extraordinary legacy of outstanding architecture in Santa Barbara, the value of quality design to our community and all those who contribute to its creation. There have been 65 submissions from 19 different licensed architects in the Santa Barbara area, as well as architects outside Santa Barbara for projects within Santa Barbara County.
This year’s categories are: Commercial Buildings; Single Family Residential; Mixed Use and Multi-Family Residential; Conservation Projects: Historic Preservation, Restoration, Rehabilitation or Reconstruction; Santa Barbara Style; Small Projects; Commercial Interiors; Residential Interiors; Proposed/Unbuilt Project.
The annual event is sold out, but originally was open to the any member of the public interested in participating in Santa Barbara architecture.
Lutah Maria Riggs Presidents Award: Lutah Maria Riggs, FAIA, was a well-known local architect and Fellow of the Santa Barbara AIA Chapter, who worked with George Washington Smith.
The award was named for Lutah Maria Riggs due to her dedication to the architecture profession and the idea that design can improve people’s daily lives and make communities better places to live and work. The honor will be presented by the American Riviera Bank to a community member whose efforts echo this notion and have supported the mission of the AIA, the Santa Barbara Chapter or society.
Design Awards Jury: A jury of renowned architects and architectural critic selected the best of architectural design in the community, which will be announced the night of the gala. Each entry was judged on its own merit and evaluated for its ability to achieve successful sensitivity and response to its surrounding community while including innovations in building materials and techniques.
This year’s awards jurors are:
Mariana Ibañez, chair and associate professor, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design. Ibañez is an Argentinian architect involved in practice, academia and research. Before joining the UCLA faculty, she taught at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University for a decade and most recently at MIT.
Ibañez has been adjunct associate professor at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture in Toronto, and at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. She is the co-founder and principal of the award-winning office Ibañez Kim, a genre-defiant practice that works with sensate materials, atmospheres, and new media to generate architecture, objects, and cities.
Her research is in the disciplinary core of architecture and its growing periphery, with a focus on the relationship between technology, culture, and the environment.
Aaron Jon Hyland, FAIA, Architecture, Preservation and Place, San Francisco. Hyland has committed some 30 years to making historic and culturally significant buildings and sites relevant, celebrating what makes these places special while accommodating change and future possibilities.
Hyland is an expert in the restoration, rehabilitation, and adaptive re-use of historic buildings, as well as design of new structures in sensitive contexts. He is adept at translating the intangible cultural significance and qualities of place into tangible work of architecture and urban design.
Hyland spent two decades with Architectural Resources Group and 10 years as its managing principal. He has focused on civic, government, cultural and university work for clients who manage campuses with multiple building assets.
Alvin Huang, AIA, is director of graduate and post-professional degrees at USC School of Architecture. He is a Chinese-American architect, educator and designer based in Los Angeles; is the founder of Synthesis Design + Architecture; and is an associate professor at the USC School of Architecture.
For more about About The American Institute of Architects, visit www.aia.org.
Event sponsors are: Honor Sponsors: American Riviera Bank, Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers, Mission Audio Video, Benjamin Moore, Appleton Partners, DMHA, Ann Kale Lighting and RRM. Merit Sponsors: Eyman Parker Insurance Brokers, Ashley & Vance Engineering Inc., Leonard Unander Assoc, CJM::LA, Allen Construction.