The AIA Board of Directors on December 6 named the Atlanta firm Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates, Inc., as recipient of the 2002 AIA Architecture Firm Award. The annual award, the highest honor the AIA confers on an architecture firm, recognizes a practice that has produced distinguished architecture consistently for at least 10 years.

"We're so thrilled! I'm overwhelmed," exclaimed TVS President Roger L. Neuenschwander, AIA, when notified by AIA President John D. Anderson, FAIA, that his firm had won the award. "This is fantastic. You have made us extremely happy."

In nominating the firm, Lugean L. Chilcote, FAIA, and Thompson E. Penney, FAIA, write: "We have observed at TVS a corporate culture that emphasizes collaboration, continuity and depth and breadth of achievement and expertise. The focus on TVS is its emphasis on people; the human scale and human experience are the base on which every building is conceived." Over the past three decades, wrote Chilcote and Penney, TVS has been committed to excellence in design, insistence on client satisfaction and concern for all human aspects of architecture.

Founded in 1968, Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates quickly established itself as a leading architectural firm in the Atlanta area by designing the Omni/CNN Center and the Georgia World Congress Center. Recognizing the advantages of having a diverse practice, TVS expanded into the markets of hotels, retail complexes and interior design. While rooted in its southern origins, TVS has expanded its business to other regions of the United States, establishing a national reputation for the firm's enlightened and effective design concepts.

The firm is organized around a system of largely autonomous design studios, which are largely responsible for overseeing a project from conception all the way through completion. This practice allows clients contact with the architects throughout the design process.

Throughout its existence, TVS has strived to bring to the local Atlanta community something that exceeds design and business excellence. The firm has dedicated itself to adding value to the community by participating in pro bono work ranging from acting as a leader in annual United Way drives to building Habitat for Humanity homes. The firm is also considered among the world's leaders in the integration of sustainable design practices. TVS has the capacity to design any facility according to the client's desired level of environmental sensitivity, and has institutionalized the practice of proposing to the client additional means by which the environmental impact of the facility's use and construction can be minimized.

The innovation in design that characterizes TVS has been recognized by the nearly 200 design awards that the firm has won throughout its three decades of practice. Past awards have included four AIA National Honor Awards, multiple AIA Georgia Sustainable Design, Honor, and Design Awards, and AIA Atlanta's Silver Medal Award. The firm's portfolio of award-winning projects includes the Woodruff Arts Center Renovation, Philadelphia Convention Center, McCormick Place Expansion, Salt Palace Convention Center, and United Parcel Service World Headquarters.

Previous recipients include I.M. Pei & Partners, Cesar Pelli & Associates, Skidmore Owings and Merrill, and Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck, the 2001 winner. TVS will receive its award at the the 2002 American Architectural Foundation Accent on Architecture gala, March 1, 2002, in Washington, D.C.

Copyright 2001 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.