COMPONENTS AT WORK
Aloha! AIA Honolulu’s Online Voting a Success for People’s Choice, Members’ Choice Awards

How does an AIA component: form a People’s Choice Award from its existing Members’ Choice Award by creating a visually inviting, state-of-the-art Web site with voting capabilities?

Summary: AIA Honolulu has successfully completed a year-long project that used online Web voting to combine its chapter’s AIA Members’ Choice Award with its first People’s Choice Award, all part of the chapter’s Design Awards. The chapter’s People’s Choice was launched this August to celebrate AIA150. On August 28, AIA Honolulu hosted a gala event of more than 200 members and business associates to present both awards. The voting process was generated by the chapter’s inviting Web display of 41 nominated Honolulu projects and used one Web template for both awards. The online voting was also instrumental in member involvement and public outreach. (The Web template has now been duplicated by 20 AIA chapters, with 11 additional chapters presently looking into its construction and implementation.)

In addition to its juried awards, AIA Honolulu has been providing its members since 1999 with an opportunity to vote for the Jack C. Lipman AIA Members’ Choice Award, named in honor of the chapter’s distinguished past president. The Members’ Choice Award was greatly enhanced this year by allowing members to view nominated projects on the component’s Web site. The nominated projects were also made available on the Web site for the chapter’s first People’s Choice Awards, which the chapter created to celebrate AIA150 and plans to hold annually. The winners were recently announced at an event at the Hawaii Prince Hotel. The Members’ Choice Award recipient was Glenn Mason, AIA, of Mason Architects Inc., who designed the Visitor Center at the Pu‘ukohola Heiau National Historic Site. The first People’s Choice Award went to John Black, AIA, of Lapis Design Partners, for a private residence in Halawa Heights.

Members’ Choice voting goes online
AIA Honolulu researched and worked for almost one year on improving its Web site. The chapter worked with Austin-based company Affiniscape this past year to create a new and colorful Web slideshow for its Design Awards. “We are trying to push ourselves to the next level of excellence,” says AIA Honolulu Executive Vice President Amy Blagriff. She says originally the Members’ Choice Award was a great idea, but getting people to vote without an online presence was impossible. “We would actually have to bring around the boards to the firms to beg people to vote, so it required a committee to spend a couple of weeks knocking on firms’ doors, saying: ‘We think it’s important that members weigh in on each others’ work.’ It was a horrible process. The committee approached me last year thinking that we should either disband it or fix it.”

Blagriff believed the voting process for the Members’ Choice Award could be enhanced by allowing members to view projects on the component’s Web site. “Our site two years ago was bad,” she says. “If a site is confusing, it’s probably a liability. And as far as I knew, I hadn’t seen any other components doing online voting,” she says. “The AIA had been saying they were going to find a Web vendor … maybe there would be some kind of bulk arrangement, but I couldn’t wait. I found Affiniscape last December.“

Last July, the chapter’s Web site launched its Members’ Choice Awards with a rotating slideshow of vivid project images with descriptions. Members could log-in for a two-week period to vote. Becoming Web savvy was a fun process that kept Blagriff and her team on their toes. “I formatted all of these images, times four, in Adobe Acrobat, loaded them onto an FTP site, and edited an XML file. I never thought I’d be doing Web coding and loving it. We also had a lot of training videos, and I even have my HTML for Dummies. But we were very fortunate to have a designer at Affiniscape whose grandfather was an architect. He was very interested in this project and invested in the work that we were trying to accomplish. Ultimately, the navigation on our site is now very purposeful. The rotating slide show reinforces this idea that design matters, and my goal is that no one ever be lost on the site.”

One nice thing, Blagriff enthuses, is that AIA Honolulu does all its Web work in-house. “The ability to make changes and immediately be responsive to the members’ needs and the public’s needs has shaped our organization and the way people view us.” Blagriff says that member response to the site has been fabulous. “They are thrilled at our online presence, and we had more members than ever vote for the Members’ Choice Awards.”

AIA Honolulu’s Design Awards go public; collaboration and sharing
Blagriff explains the chapter’s People’s Choice Award came about as an AIA150 impetus and from the AIA’s America’s Favorite Architecture, which asked the public to vote. “At the time we were talking about doing a People’s Choice, the AIA’s America’s Favorite Architecture came out. I thought, ‘Great minds think alike.’ We needed to engage our community and involve them more in conversations around design. The one thing that our members were saying is that they can’t do things alone and want our help with public outreach.”

Blagriff and her team decided to launch a People’s Choice Award for this past August. “We decided to use the same templates and graphics as the Members’ Choice Awards template. We awarded the Members’ Choice award winners, but we didn’t announce it. We didn’t want to sway the public.

“The positive is that we are taking AIA150 to heart this year and doing projects that promote it,” notes Blagriff. “We are doing events around the theme ‘Celebrating the Past, Designing the Future’ to foster local awareness of our built environment so that future generations can enjoy our unique island lifestyle. It’s worked! I think AIA150 helped the People’s Choice come to life, and also helped us shape it.”

A pioneering component model
After AIA Honolulu launched its new-look site, Blagriff says that Terry Poltrack, managing director of AIA Communications, approached her and asked about using their site as an AIA component model. “He negotiated a bulk discount with Affiniscape to allow components across the country to adopt my template. Components can populate it with their own content. I think the power of collaboration and sharing is very important for the AIA.

“But some people asked: ‘How can you let all of these people copy your work?’ I said: ‘That’s what it’s about … it’s about branding; it’s about making AIA components across the country all look good!’ And it’s the highest compliment to have people copy the look, feel, and content of our site. I also told them that my hope is that other AIA components have projects and programs that I can copy and fast track. It’s worth it for components to experiment, and we can all build on each other’s successes. Think of what we all can accomplish if we all start coming up with seeds of ideas and trying things out. We can all reach new heights of excellence.” Blagriff says that 20 AIA components are talking with Affiniscape, and there at least 11 who have started, as well as affiliated groups in Honolulu, such as the Building Industry Association and the American Council of Engineering Companies.

Web site paying dividends
For next year, Blagriff says, AIA Honolulu is considering having write-in votes for its Design Awards. “Is there a way that people can submit things?” she asks. “How can we get the images? How do we get permission for the images? So the goal is to make it more about public outreach.”

Blagriff points out that her goal for AIA Honolulu’s Web site is that it never remain static, and that the images of the winning projects of the Members’ Choice Awards and the People’s Choice Award appear on the Web site for one year. “It’s a great presence for the members and a very good marketing tool for them,” she says. “I will keep the images up all year because when Joe Public calls and wants to hire an architect, we can say: ‘You can view some of the work.’”

On August 28, AIA Honolulu hosted a gala of more than 200 members, clients, partners, and media at the Hawaii Prince Hotel to announce both award winners. For the last two weeks, AIA Honolulu has been displaying its Design Award winners at City Hall on banners. “The banners and Web site images have a similar look and feel,” describes Blagriff. The banners are 100 times better than any foam-core boards. The colors and prints are very vivid. The presence it provides is incredible.”

Because architecture is visual, notes Blagriff, she believes a colorful, comprehensive Web site is a worthwhile pursuit for any AIA component. “It’s a powerful tool. Our Web site was a process, but we have clearly seen the payoff. AIA components need to continue to strive toward innovation and excellence. It’s not always easy, but I think the end result of experimentation can be very positive.”