Great American Building to Become Cincinnati Skyline Beacon
St. Louis-based HOK has designed the 41-story, 800,000-square-foot Great American Building at Queen City Square in Cincinnati, aka “Queen City.” The sustainable office tower will serve as a skyline beacon and be capped by a three-tiered tiara. Demolition of an existing parking structure has begun on the site, with construction of the Great American Building to begin this fall. When completed in 2011, the Great American Building will be one of the tallest buildings in Cincinnati. Western & Southern Life Insurance is the project developer. The project is seeking LEED® Silver.

Academy for Health Honors Four with AIA National Healthcare Design Awards
The AIA Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) on August 19 announced the recipients of ins inaugural AIA National Healthcare Design Awards program. Continuing the AIA’s legacy of celebrating outstanding works of contemporary architects, the new awards program showcases the best of health-care building design and health design-oriented research.

AIA Northern Virginia Honors 23 Projects
AIA Northern Virginia is pleased to announce the winners of the chapter’s 2008 Design Awards competition. The program, now in its 33rd year, recognizes design excellence achieved by the chapter’s members. American University’s Katzen Art Center in Washington, D.C., by Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture, provided a splendid space for the gala, where 23 winning projects, selected from 170 entries, were presented. Projects in seven categories were chosen by the prestigious jury from Miami—Chad Oppenheim, AIA, Oppenheim Architecture+Design; Michael Kerwin, AIA, Spillis Candela DMJM; Max Strang, AIA, Max Strang Architecture; Rene Gonzalez, AIA, Rene Gonzales Architect; Jacqueline Gonzalez Touzet, AIA, Touzet Studio; and Roney Jorge Mateu, AIA, Mateu Architecture Inc.—who bestowed 7 Awards of Excellence, 15 Awards of Merit, and one special award for craftsmanship.