2009 at a glance

2009 has been a great year full of many successes. We started out with design charrettes for the Duval County Courthouse site at La Villa and the old Hayden Burns Library. Both events were very well attended and the design ideas that were created were excellent. In May we had our yearly design competition, the Skyscraper Competition. Congratulations to Nick Renard for his First Place Prize.

In the fall was the Raise the Floor Competition that was well attended by our members and we even had three members place: two honorable mentions and one finalist. Congratulations to Nick Renard (finalist), Holly Grimes (honorable mention) and Jeremiah Russell (honorable mention).

Lastly, we finished the year with an exciting competition – The Urban Facelift Competition. Partnering with Content Design Group, we set out to show the city of Jacksonville what Architecture can really do for the Urban Core of our city. The competition and gallery were both a huge success. The gallery itself was held this past week during the December ArtWalk and was attended by the membership, AIA Board members, the general public as well as several news organizations like the Daily Record, WJCT and the Times Union.

As we’ve finished the year on such a high note, we really want to keep the momentum for the coming year. And to do that we’ll be relying greatly on the help of our members as well as next year’s board members. And they are:

President – Jeremiah Russell, Assoc. AIA – R. Dean Scott Architect

Secretary – Kimberly Patrie – RS&H

Events – Jane Novotny – Quality Sign Company

Competitions – Nick Renard, AIA – Cote Renard

Competitions – Tyler Curl, Assoc. AIA – RS&H

2010 is going to be a big year for us. Not only will we be hosting our yearly competition to kick of Architecture Week in May, but we’ll also be hosting a statewide design competition to be hosted at the AIA Florida Convention here in Jacksonville. These competitions are both still under development so keep your eyes open for an announcement in the coming weeks. Both of these competitions will be heavily publicized so we really want to see as many of our members participating as possible. During these tough times design competitions are an easy way for us to continue to stay creative and engaged in the Architecture Community.

Thanks to everyone who has helped make 2009 such an awesome success and here’s to an even more exciting and eventful year in 2010.