The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is calling for entries to its 2002 GSA Design Awards program. The biennial program, now in its seventh term, recognizes outstanding achievements that result from partnerships between the federal government and private firms and individuals across the country.

Eligible for the awards are projects authorized by GSA and completed January 1, 1997, to August 1, 2002 (or architecture projects "on the boards" that were completed and approved by the Commissioner of Public Buildings Service during this period). The awards program is open to contract design professionals, artists, and/or organizations that completed or are working on projects for GSA or under GSA authority and GSA current or former employees with professional responsibility for a GSA-authorized project.

A panel of nationally recognized, private-sector design professionals will select award recipients for honors awards and citations. They will judge projects in terms of:
• Success in meeting GSA project objectives and requirements
• Consistency with GSA environmental goals and policies
• Aesthetic sensibility
• Originality
• Innovation in devising solutions or meeting specific needs
• Technical and functional proficiency
• Cost efficiency on a life-cycle basis
• Extent to which the project can serve as a model for others.

Submission categories include:
• Architecture
• Art in architecture and art conservation
• Child-care center
• Construction excellence
• Craft
• Engineering, technology, and/or energy conservation
• First impressions (attention on plazas, entrance, lobbies, and public corridors and their success in making those who enter feel safe, welcome, and professionally served)
• Graphic design
• Historic preservation, restoration, and/or renovation
• Interior design
• Landscape architecture
• Lease construction (facilities built-to-suit and leased by GSA)
• Security and openness (how well security elements are integrated into an overall urban and architecture design)
• Sustainability
• Urban planning
• Workplace environment.

The winners will be honored in a March 2003 ceremony in Washington, D.C. Firms, individuals, and GSA officials under whose authority the work was performed will receive award plaques.

For more information and entry forms, call 202-501-1888 or send email to lois.carroll@gsa.gov or thomas.grooms@gsa.gov. For a downloadable PDF copy (512Kb) of the Call for Entries and the form, visit the GSA Web site.

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.