ArchVoices announces the Second Annual ArchVoices Essay Competition. Its organizers note that this year’s topic has been expanded from “internship” to “the profession—from your present, to our future.” The range of prizes and sponsors has also expanded, as has the time you have to respond. Stage One essays (500 words) are due March 19. But, urge the competition organizers, “prove another architecture stereotype wrong and turn yours in early.”

Theme

For Stage One, entrants are challenged to write a 500-word proposal for an essay on the following statement and multi-part question:

From your vantage point as one of the profession’s newest members, you hold the power to shape its future with your ideas, values, and actions. What does it mean to be an intern today, and how will that influence what it means to be an architect in the future? What roles will licensure and the idea of the architect as a professional play in the identity of the next generation of architects?

Finalist essays will be judged by a distinguished jury, composed of Denise Scott Brown, RIBA, partner, Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, Philadelphia; Gordon H. Chong, FAIA, president, Chong Partners Architecture, San Francisco, and 2002 AIA president; Shannon Kraus, AIA, associate, HKS, Inc., Dallas, and 2003 associate representative to the AIA Board of Directors; and Kate Stohr, freelance journalist and cofounder of Architecture for Humanity in New York City.

Prizes

First Prize (one):

• $981 cash reward, equal to the base cost of NCARB’s Architect Registration Examination (ARE)
• Full set of all Kaplan Architecture (formerly Architectural Licensing Seminars) ARE study materials, valued at $1,528
• One-year subscription to Architecture magazine
• An invitation to serve as the guest editor of a special 2004 issue of ArchVoices.

Second Prize (one):

• An Apple iPod
• Approximately $300 of Kaplan Architecture (ALS) ARE study materials
• One-year subscription to Architecture magazine.

Honorable Mentions (four):

• The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice
• About $300 of Kaplan Architecture (ALS) ARE study materials
• One-year subscription to Architecture magazine.

All Semifinalists (approximately 25):

• 2004 Almanac of Architecture & Design
• One-year subscription to The Architect's Newspaper.

A new “Readers’ Choice” category has been added for 2004. Six of the Stage One participants will be selected by ArchVoices readers (you) for the following prizes:

• Complete set of Archiflash ARE Flashcards
• $100 gift certificate to Princeton Architectural Press.

The 2004 competition is made possible by the support of architecture firms, AIA components, and other corporations. The following architecture firms and AIA components are making this opportunity possible:

AIA Minneapolis
Boston Society of Architects/AIA
Chong Partners Architecture*
Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture and Engineering, P.C.*
EPIConnection.org
HKS, Inc.
Lake/Flato
RTKL Associates*

Additionally, these companies have contributed in-kind prize donations:

Archiflash
Architecture magazine
Architosh*
Design Intelligence*
Kaplan Architecture
Princeton Architectural Press
The Architects’ Newspaper
Wiley*

*Firms or companies that are sponsoring the competition for the second year.

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