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Date
Monday, October 20 2025
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Time
6:30pm - 7:30pm
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Location
Virtual (via zoom)
Small firms make up nearly 75% of all architecture practices, yet often lack the resources for comprehensive awards submissions, such as research, performance evaluation, energy modeling, and marketing support. Expanding their representation in design awards advances AIA’s goals of equity, climate resilience, and the Framework for Design Excellence, while also engaging its largest constituent group.
This panel, moderated by Janet Bloomberg, features Rusty Bienvenue (Executive Director, AIA Houston), John Michael Day (Co-chair, AIA|DC Design Excellence Committee), and Bart Shaw (AIA SFx National Board Member). Panelists will discuss the relevance of awards in the age of social media, the need for a dedicated Small Firm Design and/or Firm Award, and strategies for implementing a small firm awards program.
Presenter Bio(s):
Janet Bloomberg, FAIA is a partner and founder of KUBE architecture in Washington DC, a modern architecture studio that challenges the norms of daily life and attempts to reinterpret ways of working and living in the built environment. Janet is a native of the Washington area, and attended the University of Virginia for her undergraduate degree and Columbia University for her Master of Architecture. While a student at Columbia, she was awarded the SOM Traveling Fellowship, with which she traveled to India and Nepal for research on ritual space. Janet’s work has received numerous local, regional, and national design awards, including over 50 AIA awards, and her projects have been extensively published nationally and internationally. She has taught architectural design at a number of universities, including the University of Virginia and Catholic University. Janet has been invited to serve as jury chair and juror on AIA design awards programs around the country. She was the President of the Washington Architectural Foundation Board, where she started several new programs for DC youth in architecture. In 2016 Janet received AIA|DC’s prestigious John Wiebenson “Wieb” Award, the highest local architectural honor recognizing service to the profession and to the community. In 2020 Janet was elevated as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in the category of Design, and since that time she has been an active member of both the AIA DC Fellowship committee and WFAIA committee, encouraging women to submit for AIA Fellowship. Recently Janet served as Chair of the national AIA Small Firm Exchange, including 3 additional years as a board member.
Rusty Bienvenue has served as Executive Director of AIA Houston since October 2010 and has run professional associations for more than 25 years. He is a recovering attorney who began his career as an Assistant District Attorney and later defended multi-national corporations involved in large scale product liability litigation at a large Houston firm. Rusty was born in Houston, but grew up in 11 different cities (small towns mostly) in 7 different states. He returned to Texas to attend the University of Texas and to Houston to attend the University of Houston Law Center. Rusty was elected to the Council of Architecture Component Executives (CACE) in 2017, served as CACE President in 2021 & 2022 and on the AIA National Board of Directors in 2022 & 2023.
John Michael Day, AIA has spent more than 20 years creating a diverse and award-winning body of work, including adaptive reuse and historic preservation projects, infill mixed-use projects, commercial office buildings, healthcare facilities, hospitality, institutional, single- and multi-family residential projects. As Co-Chair of the AIADC Design Excellence Committee, Mr. Day. is committed to design excellence that elevates the physical environments of communities and enriches lives of their residents. Mr. Day is an advocate for an innovative and thoughtful design process that supports diversity and team collaboration.
Bart Shaw, FAIA is cofounder and Principal of Ibanez Shaw Architecture, a design-driven practice based in Fort Worth, Texas. Renowned for architecture of conceptual clarity and material expression, his work ranges from buildings to public art to crafted objects. Each project is a lucid manifestation of an idea, brought to life through Shaw’s deep engagement with fabrication and making. His projects have been honored with more than fifty design awards, including recognition from AIA and IIDA chapters, National AIA Small Project Awards, the American Architecture Award, and Americans for the Arts. Elevated to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects for design excellence, Shaw continues to shape the profession as a practitioner, lecturer, juror, adjunct professor, and advocate for a culture of design excellence across scales of practice.
Learning Objectives:
- Discuss the relevance of design awards within today’s social media landscape.
- Explore the benefits and concerns of a Small Firm design award program.
- Review the impacts of the Framework for Design Excellence on Small Firm design awards submissions.
- Layout strategies for implementing a Small Firms design award program.
Sponsored by: