Design Awards

Winner of the 2004 TSA cover Contest;
Image by Z PROJECTS; Susy Lau, Designer

Toward Objectivity

Fifty (or so) years of the TSA Design Awards

Architects do not claim to be good with numbers. Although we celebrate the golden anniversary of the TSA Design Awards this year, the first such awards are mentioned in the inaugural issues of Texas Architect in 1950. It is unclear when the erroneous 50th anniversary countdown began, but the ambiguity surrounding TSADA's origins does not detract from the fact that the program remains strong to this day. The vitality of this long running program is a testament to the importance Texas architects place on promoting design excellence. For more than 50 years, the TSA Design Awards have communicated the status of architectural design to the public and have affirmed practitioners who seek to advance architectural expression.

Architectural design awards are conferred all over the world by various organizations, some by architects and others by groups focused on specific building types or products. Recognizing architectural design excellence is a compelling way to communicate the importance of the issues surrounding the built environment. Programs have accordingly proliferated. However, such public acclamation is somewhat peculiar to the design professions. (Do attorneys receive awards for the best closing arguments? Are accountants honored for especially inspiring audits?)

Perhaps because excellent design is in so many ways immeasurable, architects feel compelled to seek other avenues for affirmation. "Immeasurable," however, should not be confused with "subjective." While it is difficult to measure how design results in a great building, an objective look at 50 (or so) years of TSA Design Awards suggests that TSADA juries through the years have made awards that were not subjective. By logical extension, this cursory and admittedly informal survey of the history of the TSADA suggests that recognition of design excellence is objective.

Consider the table above that lists firms that have won six or more TSA Design Awards. Obviously, these are not the only firms who have made significant contributions to architecture in our state. But any serious historical survey of Texas firms that have consistently produced great architecture would have to include those listed. A deeper look at the objective data available through the record of the TSADA further solidifies the place of these firms in Texas architectural history.

All totaled, 70 percent of the TSA Design Awards have gone to firms that have received two or more awards. There's a decided minority of firms that have won a single award, a fact that suggests that firms capable of producing design excellence tend to demonstrate that capability repeatedly over time.

Given that this consistency with the top-performing firms occurs in a "blind" process where awards are conferred without indication of the firms who produced them adds weight to the objectivity argument. Couple that with the TSADA tradition of selecting highly respected jurors who have demonstrated that they know design excellence when they see it. In addition to the members of the 2004 jury (see next page), the list of jurors has included such luminaries as Gunnar Birkerts, Robert Campbell, Francois DeMenil, Joseph Esherick (twice), Fay Jones, Reed Kroloff, Richard Meier, Enrique Norten, Gyo Obata, Patricia Patkau, Peter Pran, Antoine Predock, Stanley Saitowitz, William Turnbull, Robert Venturi, and Tod Williams.

Over the years, various titles of honors within the TSA Design Awards have come and gone or changed (Award of Excellence, Award of Merit, Commendation, Award of Merit with Special Commendation, Finalist, First Honor, Highest Honor, Honor, Honorable Mention, Merit, Meritorious Design, and Top Award Winner), and skeptics could consider this inconsistency as proof of the competition's subjectivity. In many cases, full freedom has been given to the jurors to name the award as they felt appropriate. But whatever label was applied to the award, recognition of design excellence was in view.

A pair of photographs in one edition of Texas Architect shows a TSADA winner, the West Columbia Elementary School, designed by Donald Barthelme, along with the jury's comments:

This project is first of all a brilliant design. A fresh and well studied plan conception has been coupled with painstaking care in detailing and execution. Taking advantage of all the contributions of technological progress, the architects have used them in a light, colorful, apparently effortless way, to capture some of the essence of delight in architecture.

Those comments, from the 1952 competition, could have been made in any one of TSA Design Award's 50-plus years. The values expressed then, by one of the very first juries, have served jurors ever since as they seek to recognize and affirm design excellence.

In the end, design excellence is intangible, elusive, immeasurable, and difficult to label. But the history of the TSA Design Awards helps show that recognizing design excellence can be done objectively.