The AIA Board of Directors voted at its December meeting to change the Rules of the Board to streamline the process of selecting recipients of two of the Institute’s top awards, the AIA Gold Medal and the AIA Architecture Firm Award. The Gold Medal honors an individual in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture, and the Architecture Firm Award is the highest honor that the AIA can bestow on an architecture firm for consistently producing distinguished architecture. Following is a brief outline of changes to the nominations process.

1. Who may nominate Gold Medal or Architecture Firm Award Candidates: Nominations may be made by:

• Members of the national AIA Board of Directors
• Components
• Knowledge communities
• Petition format, if a candidate receives signatures from either 5 Fellows or any 10 AIA members in good standing (signers cannot be an employee of the candidate or the candidate’s firm).
  (Under the old rules, only Board members and select knowledge communities with Board sponsors could nominate candidates. The new rules open the field of nominations.)

2. Due date: All nominations for the 2005 Gold Medal and Architecture Firm Award are due July 9, 2004.
(Under the old rules, nominations were due in May.)

3. Number of finalists: The Gold Medal/Architecture Firm Award Advisory Jury will narrow the field of candidates to three finalists in each category.
(Under the old rules, five semifinalists were chosen.)

4. Presentation to the Board: An oral and visual presentation will be made on each finalist's behalf by the nominator at the December Board meeting.
(Under the old rules, nominators for the five semifinalists made presentations at the September Board meeting, after which the Board narrowed the field to three finalists. Nominators for the three finalists then made presentations to the Board at the December meeting. Eliminating the semifinalist step is intended to simplify and speed up the process.)

5. Majority vote of two-thirds: At the December meeting, in order to receive the Gold Medal or the Firm Award, a finalist will require a two-thirds majority vote of the Board.
(Under the old rules, the Board selected a recipient by a three-fourths majority vote.)

6. Resubmission of nominees: Any nominee selected as one of the three finalists but not chosen as the recipient in any given year automatically will be nominated in the subsequent year. The nominee will be reviewed by the advisory jury following the standard process with all other candidates put forward that year.
(Under the old rules, finalists who were not chosen as recipients were required to find a new sponsor/nominator in the following year. This often proved difficult if the nominator’s champion was no longer serving on the Board.)

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