Hadid Is 2004 Pritzker Winner
Zaha Hadid, Hon. FAIA, has been chosen as the 2004 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. She is the first woman to receive the Pritzker in its 26-year history. The 53-year-old Iraqi-born British citizen has recently completed her first project in the U.S., the Richard and Lois Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, and currently is developing an extension to the Frank Lloyd Wright Price Tower Arts Center in Bartlesville, Okla. She has other projects on the boards, including a building for BMW in Leipzig and a Science Center in Wolfsburg, both in Germany; a National Center of Contemporary Arts in Rome; a Master Plan for Bilbao, Spain; and a Guggenheim Museum for Taichung, Taiwan.

National Competition Opens to Design Memorial for Six Worcester Firefighters
Registration forms due April 22;
designs due June 30
A national competition to select a memorial design to honor the six Worcester (Mass.) firefighters who died in a warehouse fire in December 1999 begins this month. The design competition is the first public step toward construction of the memorial and the memorial park next to Worcester Fire Department headquarters.

AIA Survey Demonstrates Architects’ Value to Economy
The seven-year-old Work-on-the-Boards monthly survey of AIA members has drawn the attention of the U.S. Commerce Department, The Wall Street Journal, and Public Radio International in recent weeks because the survey may allow forecasters to see an additional two to three quarters into the future.

Honors and awards
AIA Northeast Illinois Honors Eight Distinguished Buildings
Architects and friends of the profession honored eight projects as AIA Northeast Illinois 2003 Honor Awards recipients. From a field of 52 entries, juries selected four awards for excellence in design and four awards for merit in architecture, which were presented at the component’s biennial “Celebration of Architecture” event in Oak Brook. Most of the winning projects were facilities intended for use by large groups of people and included two schools, two churches, an office interior, a company headquarters, a church renovation, and an electrical substation.

AIA Launches Advocacy Action Center
The AIA has created the Government Advocacy Action Center Web site to bring members news and information on current federal and state issues and connect them with their legislators. The Web site provides the resources to send letters and e-mails to elected representatives to ask them to take action on legislation important to architects.

PROJECT WATCH
SOM Breaks Ground on U.S. Embassy in Beijing
The U.S. State Department’s largest project ever built on foreign soil is currently under construction in the Peoples Republic of China. The new U.S. Embassy in Beijing’s Third Embassy District broke ground February 10. The 500,000-square-foot embassy sits on a 10-acre parcel of land in the city’s northeast quadrant. Architect Skidmore Owings & Merrill’s goal for the project is to create a “pleasant, yet secure, environment for the embassy’s 600-plus employees.”

AIA Officer Nominations Open; Filing Date Is April 12
Thirteen architects already have declared their candidacy for three national AIA offices.

Your Kiplinger Connection (members only)
Business costs: The soaring price of energy, insurance, and industrial metals will dampen 2004 growth. Housing: Low interest rates and echo-boomers entering the market will keep this market going strong. Health care: Staffing shortages are hitting hospitals hard.
AIArchitect offers AIA members exclusive access to three stories a week to help them manage their practices and plan for the coming year. Nonmembers may subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

Need to catch up on recent editions of AIArchitect This Week?
March 1 | March 8 | March 15 | March 22

best practices (members only)
From Basketball to Recital Hall—an Acoustic Transformation
Starting with a square, low-ceilinged, 1930s-era gymnasium, John Morris, AIA, created a 425-seat recital hall, which, with adjustable acoustic curtains within secondary volumes, can accommodate a variety of musical performances.

ASLA 2004 Awards Entries Due Soon
Each year, the American Society of Landscape Architects Awards program honors the best in landscape architecture from around the globe. ASLA presents honors in the categories of Professional Awards, Community Service Awards, and the Landmark Award, which recognizes a 15- to 50-year-old project that has become an integral part of its community. A landscape architect must be a member of the project team. Entry forms are due April 30; submissions May 14. The ASLA Web site has details and forms.

There’s Still Time: Renew Your Membership Online
If you haven’t yet paid your AIA dues, you still can do it the easy way—online. You can review your invoice, update your membership profile, and submit credit-card payment for 2004 renewal dues. Visit www.aia.org and click “Pay Member Dues” in the menu. You need to type in your eight-digit AIA membership number and password (your last name in lowercase letters). It’s that easy—thousands of AIA members already have done it. Questions? Send an e-mail to AIA Information Central or call 800-242-3837. (If you want to pay your dues by mail, you can log in and download your renewal form.)

Honor Dione Neutra, April 4
The Institute For Survival Through Design, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to the preservation of the Neutras’ architecture legacy is sponsoring a 103rd anniversary celebration of “Dione Niedermann Neutra: Who She Was” April 4 at the Eagle Rock (Calif.) Recreation Center and later at the Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research House. Participants at Eagle Rock will enjoy a screening of a special video
documentary featuring Dione Neutra. For details, visit the institute’s Web site.

AIA CAREER CENTER
Here Are This Week’s Featured Opportunities

Order Home by Design From the AIA Store: In her newest book, Home by Design, Sarah Susanka, AIA, presents 27 key concepts that can be applied to any home. Using 30 of the best designed homes from around the country, Susanka brings these concepts to life with 150 powerful and inspirational examples. $29.95 AIA members/$35 retail. To order from the AIA Store, call 800-242-3837, option 4, or click here.

See other books by Sarah Susanka.

Join Your Colleagues June 10–12 in Chicago: The AIA 2004 National Convention and Expo offers high-quality continuing education, access to more than 800 exhibiting companies, inspiring speakers, and myriad collegial events. Visit the AIA Web site for more information and to register.

Get the New 2005 AIA Honors and Awards Program Book: This just-released PDF gives you descriptions, schedules, and requirements for all of the AIA’s honors and awards programs.

Reminder: March 26 (today!) is the deadline for advance registration for the AIA Committee on Design’s “The Art and Science of Human Habitat” conference, April 22-24 in San Diego. Check out details on the conference Web site.

Check Out the Free Online Courses From the 2004 Grassroots Conference: AIA eClassroom has just released three new courses featuring keynote speakers from this year’s AIA Grassroots Leadership conference. Hear EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt; pollster Frank Luntz, PhD; and Richard Jackson, MD, MPH, senior advisor to the director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Save on All Dell-branded Product Lines: To custom configure and order your systems, access your AIA Premier Dell.com Web site. (Access code, AIA; Access key, AIADELL99.) Or call Dell toll free at 877-571-3355. For more information and benefits, visit the AIA Advantage site.

Tap the LINX Automated Editor: LINX is an automated, on-screen editor that optimizes MASTERSPEC’s relational database structure and can be used either as an interactive Q&A editor or as a point-and-click editor.

Gain Protection for your architecture office and property with Business Owners Protection insurance. Ensure general liability protection with options to add business auto, workers comp, umbrella, and employment practices liability. Get specific information about this program. For information about all AIA Trust programs, visit their Web site.