The Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Chicago) will honor the best architectural work of the year at Designight, its annual awards gala where nearly 1,000 people are expected to attend. The 59th presentation of Designight will take place at Navy Pier’s Grand Ballroom on Friday, October 24, 2014. 

Thirty-three awards will be presented in four categories: Distinguished Building, Interior Architecture, Divine Detail, and Unbuilt Design. Architect jurors from around the country convened to judge each category and choose the winners from a total field of 253 entries. 

“The influence of Chicago architects reaches down the street and across the globe, and the 2014 Design Excellence Awards winners are proof of that,” says AIA Chicago board president Scott Rappe, AIA. “This year’s winners demonstrate continued commitment to enhancing the human experience and reducing environmental impacts while attaining the design excellence for which Chicago is known. And this is happening on a global scale.” Awarded projects are located in diverse locales from China to Haiti to the United Arab Emirates and of course, Chicago. 

A total of 12 Honor Awards, the program’s highest distinction, will be presented. In addition, AIA Chicago will announce 11 Citation of Merit Awards and 10 Special Recognition Awards. The biggest winner of the program is Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, which will be recognized with four Design Excellence Awards. Additional firms to be honored include Goettsch Partners, Harding Partners, Perkins+Will, Ross Barney Architects, Searl Lamaster Howe Architects, and UrbanLab, among numerous others. 

The night’s program will also include the presentation of the 2014 AIA Chicago Lifetime Achievement Award to John Vinci, FAIA. Vinci, 77, has been practicing architecture since he graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1960. An outstanding contemporary architect, Vinci is also known for his staunch, outspoken defense of classic Chicago architecture over the past 50 years. From Vinci’s initial preservation work as a student – organizing an IIT exhibition on the work of Adler & Sullivan, or salvaging ornamentation from the then soon to be demolished Garrick Theater – he has played an integral role in the preservation and restoration of works by renowned architects as varied as Frank Lloyd Wright and the modernists Edward Larrabee Barnes, Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen. Vinci’s numerous restoration projects include his instrumental role in the salvation and reconstruction of Louis Sullivan’s Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room. 

“John Vinci has played an important role in the development of new American architecture as well as the preservation of iconic works in the Chicago area,” says Zurich Esposito, AIA Chicago’s executive vice president. “We have been lucky to have a vocal advocate and an accomplished practitioner at the forefront of the fields of architecture, historic preservation and the creation of singular new works.” 

Founded in 1869, AIA Chicago represents nearly 3,000 licensed architects, architectural interns, and allied professionals in northeastern Illinois. AIA Chicago is the second largest AIA chapter in the nation.

WINNERS LISTED BY CATEGORY 

* PRESS RELEASE AND IMAGES UNDER EMBARGO. Do not publish before Friday October 24, 2014 22:00 Time Zone: -05:00 (Chicago) *

DISTINGUISHED BUILDING 

HONOR AWARD 

Beverly Shores Residence – Beverly Shores, IN – Booth Hansen 

Jinao Tower – Nanjing, China – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP 

Morgan Street Live + Work – Chicago, IL – UrbanLab 

Orchard Willow Residence – Chicago, IL – Wheeler Kearns Architects 

William Jones College Preparatory High School – Chicago, IL – Perkins+Will 

CITATION OF MERIT 

FKI Tower – Seoul, South Korea – Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture 

New Faith Baptist Church International Worship Center – Matteson, IL – Harding Partners 

OSU South Campus Chiller – Columbus, OH – Ross Barney Architects 

WMS Boathouse at Clark Park – Chicago, IL – Studio Gang Architects 

University of Minnesota Duluth Labovitz School of Business & Economics – Duluth, MN – Perkins+Will 

SPECIAL RECOGNITION 

Harbert Cottage – Harbert, MI – Searl Lamaster Howe Architects 

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Renovation – New York, NY – FXFOWLE | Epstein Joint Venture 

Wrigley Building – Chicago, IL – Goettsch Partners 

INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE 

HONOR AWARD 

American Society for Clinical Pathology Expansion – Chicago, IL – Epstein 

Booth 455 – Chicago, IL – Woodhouse Tinucci Architects 

Kids Science Labs – Chicago, IL – Woodhouse Tinucci Architects 

CITATION OF MERIT 

Chapel and Office Wing – Lisle, IL – Harding Partners 

SPECIAL RECOGNITION 

PAHC Studio – Chicago, IL – Studio Gang Architects 

Pearson Residence – Chicago IL – Searl Lamaster Howe Architects 

DIVINE DETAIL 

HONOR AWARD 

Congregation Solel Reading Table – Highland Park, IL – Eckenhoff Saunders Architects 

University of Minnesota Duluth, Pickle Barrel Scuppers – Duluth, MN – Ross Barney Architects 

CITATION OF MERIT 

Soochow Securities Headquarters – Suzhou, China – Goettsch Partners 

University of Chicago Administration Building Portal – Chicago, IL – Krueck + Sexton Architects 

SPECIAL RECOGNITION 

Charles Deering Library West Entry – Evanston, IL – HBRA Architects, Inc 

Illinois State Capitol Exterior Doors – Springfield, IL – Vinci | Hamp Architects, Inc. 

UNBUILT DESIGN 

HONOR AWARD 

Liansheng Financial Center – Taiyuan, China – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP 

United States Air Force Academy Center for Character & Leadership Development – Colorado Springs, CO – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP 

CITATION OF MERIT 

Nozul Lusail Marina – Doha, Qatar – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP 

Tata Main Hospital – Jamshedpur, India – CannonDesign 

Urban Filter Office Building – Geneva, Switzerland – John Ronan Architects 

SPECIAL RECOGNITION 

BRT: HALO – Chicago, IL – RTKL Associates Inc. 

Haiti Cathedral – Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Epstein | Metter Studio 

Virtual Water – Queens, NY – UrbanLab