Design Awards – 2011

The 25th ANNUAL AIASFV DESIGN AWARDS – The AIA San Fernando Valley held its 25th Annual Installation and Design Awards Banquet on January 21, 2012 at the beautiful The Castaway in Burbank with its spectacular view of the Valley. If you missed the Banquet, you missed a party!  We had a wonderful time with all sorts of celebration!!

  • If you would like to view the 2011 Winning Entries Design Awards Presentation - Click here
  • The recipients of the 50 Year & 30 Year Awards are listed under the Design Awards index page
  • If you would like to obtain any of the following hi-res images for printing, please notify the webmaster or the Chapter office -  Contact (Click on the images to see an enlarged view and obtain the image number)
  • Please Note: When site construction is occuring, the gallery will be temorarily unavailable; however, lower resolution .pdf images of the Design Awards Event can be accessed by clicking HERE

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Article By Leslie Nathan, AIA

The 15 design award winners’ displays took center stage during the cocktail hour. In honor of our 25th anniversary, we also added some special nuances to the event’s festivities.

The selected music for the evening was architecture‐related in some way—everything from the Talking Head’s “Burning Down the House” (and Tom Jones’ powerful remake) to the Commodores’ “She’s a Brick House”, and everything in between. Accompanying the music, were photographs of renowned Architects, Actors playing Architects, AIASFV events over the year, and Architectural illustrations—a virtual “architecturalpalooza”.

In homage to the architectural way of thinking, we invited 5 ‘opportunity thinkers’ to share their ideas with guests during the cocktail hour—from wind power to innovative methods of compacting soil for road use during wet or snowy weather or loose soil conditions, and a method of extracting water from the atmosphere. We will be presenting additional information on some of these wonderful ideas during the year.

Another first for our 25th year celebration was our emcee, John Cervenka, who kept the program moving on schedule and maintained levity throughout the night. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, John was a television producer and hosted a game show on the Game Show Network. His hosting skills came through and made for a light‐hearted, entertaining evening.

We also added a new and streamlined method of displaying and honoring the design awards and acknowledging the winners. One of our sponsors, Angelus Block, erected a ‘presentation wall’ in the banquet hall comprised of their new and beautiful ‘Sine’ wave block pattern, a dimensional façade used as our photography backdrop.

Cast light added a wonderful architectural dimensionality. The 2012 Board of Directors was installed by chapter member Rudy DeChellis, FAIA. Rudy, along with Ebbe Videriksen, AIA celebrated their 50 years of membership with the AIA. Our other chapter 30 year award honorees, celebrating with us, were Jim Heimler, AIA and Charles Flannery, Sr, AIA. Soon after, the reviews for the evening’s program and festivities came in: “That was the ‘Bestest’ Ever …! “Best ‘Show’ that I have seen in 21 years ! Fast, funny and good food!”; “The most successful banquet so far.” The Chapter is off to a grand start in this New Year. With the impressive celebration beginning to honor our Chapter in its 25th anniversary year, we hope to bring more impressive programs to our membership and supporters.

Last year’s event (the 2010 Design Awards) can be viewed by clicking here