by Thompson E. Penney, FAIA

Recently, I had the privilege of attending a luncheon honoring the recipients of the Business Week/Architectural Record (BW/AR) Awards Program. As I sat in the beautiful Art Deco cathedral that is the Rockefeller Center Rainbow Room and listened to the comments of the jury who had selected the 10 recipients, I was struck yet again by this program’s powerful message: Design excellence comes from a mutually enriching partnership between an informed client and an empathetic architect.

In project after project, the pattern was roughly the same: The client invited the architect to be at the front end of a business strategy, not brought in later as an afterthought. Design was thus an integral element in realizing client-user goals that related to productivity, customer satisfaction, sales, service, innovation, energy consumption, security, sustainability, and return on the dollar.

“Partnership” is the default value. And recognition of the achievement of mutually beneficial partnerships is at the heart of the growing prestige of the seven-year-old BW/AR Awards program: Clients receive the highest returns on their investment and the community receives design excellence.

Bigger than architects alone
Too many awards programs are hardly more than beauty pageants. The accompanying jury commentary is often written in self-referential language difficult even for architects—let alone clients and the public—to understand. Worse, when the spotlight falls on us, we often neglect or forget or simply do not care to acknowledge that design excellence, like a winning football season, is a team effort.

But when we open the discourse about excellence to others, as the BW/AR awards do, and if the language we use stresses the fundamental linkages with the client’s expectations as well as issues of consequence to our society—health, education, global warming, livable communities—then we are likely to engage an audience that will seriously discuss the relevance of design in their lives and the contribution architects can make as trusted advisors.

That’s what an awards program should do—engage a population far larger than architects and proclaim values that resonate with the public’s desire for a better world. Discourse about architecture and the value of design is too important to be left to architects alone. And if we not only talk about value, but demonstrate it in quantifiable ways that can be tested and replicated—which is the methodology of the BW/AR awards—then we are in a position to make the best case among our many stakeholders that design and architects matter.

When you think about it, awards and recognition programs should not be the end of the value proposition; they should drive it. By saying up front what our values are and then recognizing only those projects that make our values credible, we can drive the future performance of our profession. Do we value energy consciousness? Do we demand sustainability? Can we celebrate work that disappoints the client and turns off the public? We have in the past, which does little to inspire the public’s confidence.

Elements of success
The BW/AR program offers a proven model for how, through a carefully designed recognition program, we can better align our values with our performance. The elements of its success are pretty straightforward:

• There should be a link to the marketplace, showing the power of architecture to advance a client’s goals.
• Juries should be made up not only of architects, but also members of the public and the market we serve.
• The language of excellence should use the vocabulary of proof rather than fall back on the veiled mysteries of “archispeak.”

When there is a more explicit alignment between the public and the profession as to what is good design, we—the profession and society—will be in a better position to collaborate in achieving a common goal. What we put on a pedestal and say is worth applauding speaks volumes about who we are, what we value, and how we can make a contribution to a better quality of life.

As I headed for the elevators, I looked back. Lunch was over, yet the clients and architects engaged in animated conversation were clearly reluctant to move on. The message was clear: Alignment is within our grasp.

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