The Jury

 

This year's jury was the Niagara Society of Architects, www.niagaraarchitects.com, Jury Members:

 

Greg A. Redden, MArch, OAA, RAIC, Chair NSA
Partner, Macdonald Zuberec Ensslen Architects Inc.
www.mzearchitects.com

 

Ian Ellingham, BArch, MBA, MPhil, PhD, PLE, OAA, MRAIC
Lecturer, Author, Professor, International Housing Development Consultant
www.carltd.com

 

Michael Mirynech, OAA
Partner, 2M Architects
www.2marchitects.ca

 

Paul Shepherd, OAA
Retired Architect.

 

Scott Walker, OAA
Director of Campus Planning and Design at Brock University

 

A society of the OAA, the Niagara Society of Architects (NSA) is one of 14 regional subsidiary non-profit organizationsof professional architects, intern architects, or, individuals that, through their related professions/interests, are nominated as honorary members or sponsor members.
The NSA provides:

• A venue for dialogue between regional architects;
• A support network for professional advice;
• Social interaction among the local architectural community;
• Opportunities for community leadership; and,
• Continuing education.

 

Judging occurred October 24, 2009.

We first separated the submission panels into their respective categories and evaluated all the entries against one another. Establishing the caliber of the submissions in that category allowed us to disqualify those projects that were agreed not to be quite the standards established by the other submissions. In one case we determined that a project was better represented the requirements described in a different category, and thus we took the liberty to reclassify it. With a somewhat reduced number of projects in each category we had greater discussions regarding the intent of the project function, the representation of that intent in the design and the integration of the project into the existing contextual circumstances. There was also much discussion regarding the presentation panels and their ability to deliver the information we required to evaluate the project against our criteria – we did not have the opportunity to visit the projects. When we finally had our selected projects of distinction we evaluated the different categories against each other to determine if the projects award distinction compared across the board.