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The AIA Akron Design Awards program honors the exceptional commitment of its member architects who continually serve, shape, discover, and imagine contemporary solutions to the evolving needs of our living and working environments. The biannual AIA Akron Design Awards event celebrates design and recognizes the architects who shape our local, regional, and national communities. Design Award submissions are juried by a team of industry thought-leaders that evaluate design achievement, regardless of project category, type, or budget.
All submissions (design, emerging professional, photography, maker, and experiential graphics) are to be submitted to AIA Akron through this online registration portal. AIA Akron will be utilizing an outside jury to judge all submissions (design, emerging professional, photography, maker, and experiential graphics) for potential awards. Each entry will be judged for the success with which it meets the individual project program, intent, and requirements. All entries will be weighed individually for their merits, not in competition with each other. All evaluations will be based solely on the information contained within the submissions. The decisions of the jury will be final.
Release Waiver: By submitting an entry, entrants take full responsibility for the accuracy of all information submitted and warrant that all necessary permissions have been obtained from others who may have rights to the work. Entrants further acknowledge that no royalty or compensation is due to anyone, hold AIA Akron, its sponsors, staff, consultants and members harmless from all liability and grant to AIA Akron the non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce and distribute copies of the original entry.
All projects, regardless of submission type or category, will follow the same schedule:
- March 1, 2023: Call for Entries Available
- May 22, 2023: Submission Portal Opens
- July 1, 2023: Submissions Due
- August 1-15, 2023: Jury Review
- October 20, 2023: Design Awards Celebration + Winners Announced
Winners will not be notified before the Design Awards Celebration.
All questions should be directed to AIA Akron's Executive Director, Jillian Tipton through email: jtipton@aiaakron.org.
For more information, please read our Call for Entries packet.
Design Awards Submissions
The AIA stands for universal respect for human dignity, and the unbiased treatment of all persons in employment, civic, and business transactions regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical abilities, or religious practices. Your submission affirms that you uphold this value in all of your business practices. The Rules of Conduct of the AIA Code of Ethics are mandatory for all AIA members and enforceable by the National Ethics Council. Click here to review the AIA Code of Ethics in its entirety,
Eligibility:
- The submitting organization must employ a member of AIA Akron (except student work).
- The primary design must be originated by a local AIA Akron chapter member. In the case of joint ventures and design collaborations, appropriate credit must be given in the submission regarding the responsibilities of each firm or individual.
- Submissions are accepted from either the design architect or the architect on record, and the location of projects is not restricted.
- Due to the previous design awards cycle occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic, the AIA Akron Design Awards Committee has extended the eligibility for submissions to works completed after January 1, 2019. If a project won a 2021 AIA Akron Design Award, then please refrain from resubmitting that work for the 2023 Design Awards.
Submission Requirements:
- Each submission must recognize all firms and individuals involved in the design process.
- All submissions must have drawings that are clear with scale shown and nothing that identifies the firm in any way.
- Please view our Call for Entries packet for more in-depth information.
Submission Categories:
Submissions will be reviewed based on the following descriptors (view our Call for Entries packet for more in-depth information):
- Newly Completed Buildings, Additions + Remodelings
- Interior Project
- Urban Design or Landscape Architecture
- Unbuilt Project
- Historic Preservation + Adaptive Reuse
- Small Project
- Student Work
Submission Fees:
- AIA Akron members: $100.00 per project
- Students: Free (use coupon code FREESTUDENT at checkout)
Emerging Professional Submissions
In order to encourage leadership, engagement and design excellence, The AIA Akron Board of Directors has established the AIA Akron Emerging Professional Award. Through this award, AIA Akron seeks to recognize those individuals who, in the early stages of their career, have continuously demonstrated an innovative approach to design, have created a unique architectural voice, have shown exceptional leadership or who have made significant contributions to the architecture profession.
Eligibility:
Assigned Associate or Architect members of AIA Akron who graduated from an accredited school of architecture no more than 15 years prior to the current year are eligible. AIA membership is not required.
Submission Requirements:
Evaluative Criteria:
Candidates will be evaluated on his or her 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 through local, state, or national components.
- Advancement of architectural education.
- Service to community.
- Service to the profession.
- Advancement of social justice, equity, diversity, or inclusion.
Submission Fee:
- Free
Architectural Photography Submissions
Regional architects, allied-discipline professionals, designers, artists, students (university and secondary), and photographers (professionals and enthusiasts) are requested to submit photographic works for award consideration and exhibition. Photographic works submitted should be original photographic interpretations of the designed environment centering on the Akron/Canton region.
Eligibility:
- Entrants must be 14 years of age or older or in 9th grade of secondary education. Applicants under the age of 18 must include documentation of written parental consent to participate.
- Entrants can be professional photographers or amateur enthusiasts.
- Open to AIA members, non-members, and students.
- Subject matter must include an architectural work or subject matter associated with built environments located or near the regional centers of Akron and Canton (Northeast Ohio, with an emphasis on Akron/Canton and its environs).
- The photographer must be the creator/originator of the submitted photograph. Professionally commissioned photographs are ineligible.
- Photographs can originate from digital cameras or mobile device photographs.
- Photographic submissions can be subjected to professional editing software (Photoshop or other editing software).
- Awards will be categorized at the discretion of the Awards Jury and may include categories such as best of show, first place, second place, third place, and honorable mention.
Submission Requirements:
- Submissions will be open to a curated public display where the photographer, the title, location, and the year the photograph was taken will be displayed/exhibited at the Awards Ceremony. Not all photographs submitted will be exhibited as based on the discretion of AIA Akron.
- JPG/JPEG files only; any orientation (landscape, portrait, or square)
- Image should be approximately 2000 pixels (about 20 inches) on the longest side
- 96 ppi (pixels per inch) resolution.
- Maximum file size should be 5MB in JPG format.
- No more than 4 image submissions per participant.
Submission Fee:
- Up to four (4) photos for $20.00
- Students: Free (use coupon code FREESTUDENT at checkout)
Maker Submissions
Architects and allied designers develop and utilize the skills of representation, modeling, and making in their daily practice - tied mostly to the design of buildings and environments. However, many architects and designers also employ these same skills in the creation of art objects (2D or 3D), product design, furniture design, the design and fabrication of fixtures, or the extensive restoration and/or customization of historic artifacts. This category celebrates the architect or allied design professional as the maker.
Eligibility:
- Open to all for submission.
- Due to the previous design awards cycle occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic, the AIA Akron Design Awards Committee has extended the eligibility for submissions to works completed after January 1, 2019. If a project won a 2021 AIA Akron Design Award, then please refrain from resubmitting that work for the 2023 Design Awards.
- Work may be the product of collaboration (e.g. the design and execution of a civic mural or sculpture). All collaborators should be acknowledged in the description.
- Participants may submit no more than 2 distinct works; only in instances where items comprise a set or distinct collection (e.g. such as a dining table and accompanying chairs or a related series of drawings) are multiple works allowed per a single submission.
- Work can include 2D or 3D works Video work or animation are not included at this time.
- Work for this category may be designed by the entrant(s) and executed by a fabricator. If this is the case, then the name of the fabricator(s) should be acknowledged.
- Photography and digital design work (2D or 3D) are eligible for consideration in this category. Should photographic works be of an architectural subject, then these works would be eligible for the “Architectural Photography” category.
- Awards will be adjudged at the discretion of the jury and may include categories or define sub-categories.
Submission Requirements:
- Submissions must include a project narrative, providing a description of the basic program and design objectives, and a summary of how the project addresses those objectives in 200 words or less.
- Submissions may have up to 10 slides/images to best represent the overall design. Images should/may include explanatory diagrams,, process drawings/models, images that highlight specific details, and images that present work in its specific context.
Submission Fees:
- $20.00 per project
- Students: Free (use coupon code FREESTUDENT at checkout)
Experiential Graphics Submissions
This award cycle introduces the new category of “Experiential Graphics” to AIA Akron. Architects and allied designers develop strategies for placemaking, place branding, wayfinding, and visual communication design work into built environments with more frequency. This category celebrates the architect, artist, communication designer, or allied design professional for excellence in wayfinding graphics, public art, or experiential graphics that enhances and creates distinctiveness in our region.
Eligibility:
- Open to AIA Akron members, Associate AIA members, and non-member allied design professionals (e.g. Communication Designers, Experiential Graphic Designers, and Artists) with works located in (or working in) the Akron-Canton region.
- Work should have been completed after January 1, 2019 (completed in the last 4 years).
- Participants may submit no more than 2 distinct works; only in instances where items comprise a set or distinct collection (e.g. wayfinding signage and environmental graphics composed as a whole package) are allowed to be considered as a single submission.
- Work for this category can include: Murals, wall graphics, or supergraphics that enhance placemaking and/or wayfinding; Communication design and place branding strategies connected to architecture and/or urban design; Interactive Graphics (e.g. animated video wall, digital projections that engage/enhance space, interactive touch screen wayfinding); and public art that defines a place or serves as a landmark.
- Work for this category must be designed by the entrant(s) and in some cases, executed by a fabricator. If applicable, then the name of the fabricator(s) should be acknowledged.
- Should work be primarily photographic and of an architectural subject, then these works would be eligible for the “Architectural Photography” category. If work is better defined as an affixed wall fabrication or an innovative sculptural or digitally-fabricated wall, then these works would be better suited for the “Makers” category.
- Awards will be categorized at the discretion of the jury and may include categories or define sub-categories.
Submission Requirements:
- Submissions must include a project narrative, providing a description of the basic program and design objectives, and a summary of how the project addresses those objectives in 200 words or less.
- Submissions may have up to 10 slides/images to best represent the overall design. Images should/may include explanatory diagrams,, process drawings/models, images that highlight specific details, and images that present work in its specific context.
Submission Fees:
- $20.00 per project
- Students: Free (use coupon code FREESTUDENT at checkout)
Completing the Submission Form: If you are a first-time visitor to the site, you will need to register. If you are returning to the site, you will have to enter your email and password. These prompts will show up once you click on the link below. If you have previously submitted for AIA Ohio Design Awards and checked the box "remember me", you will be directed to the next screen On the next screen, you may choose to begin a new submittal, or edit an existing submittal. As noted, you can work on the submittal, save the information, and then return to complete it later.
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