A w a r ds D e s i g n T S A
Jury Duty by Michael Rey, AIA
T
his year’s jury event comprised an 11-hour marathon that resulted in the selection of 15 Design Awards and four Studio Awards. Meeting on June 27 in the TSA conference room, the three jurors began their work at 8:30 a.m. Each year’s jury creates its own process. Minus the distinction between the Design Awards (projects that have been built within the past 8 years) and Studio Awards (projects that have not been built) there were no categories for the work submitted. As this year’s jurors settled into their task they decided to begin by viewing the 267 Design Award slide presentations. That initial phase took almost five hours, with each project illustrated through a series of images (up to a maximum of 20 per project) projected at a pace of one to two seconds per slide. The jurors were mostly silent, but each noted the projects he or she wanted to see again. As a group they decided to allow a second viewing of any project selected by at least one jury member. This hushed process resulted in 93 entries chosen for review. Through the second pass the projects were discussed, debated, and scrutinized. The jury member who had selected a particular project made a case for its value. Unanimous choices automatically moved to the next round without discussion. This process reduced the list from 93 to 48 projects, which were then organized in categories, such as small projects, large projects, master plans, restorations, and housing. Balancing the categories, each jury member analyzed these remaining projects in relation to its closest competitor in order to further refine their selections. By mid-afternoon the projects remaining totaled 24. Up to that point the jurors had been reviewing the works through projected images, occasionally
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