Photo contest to increase appreciation of structural significance
By Marilyn McConahay
Record Herald Writer
Article courtesy of the Weekly Record Herald, printed April 8, 2011
If you enjoy seeing various types of architecture and maybe even have a favorite building or structure, the Dayton Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) is hoping you will take a photo and submit to the organization’s upcoming 2011 Greater Dayton’s Favorite Architecture Photography Contest.
The overall goal of the contest event is to increase the public’s awareness of the significant architecture in Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, Logan, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Shelby counties area.
Photographs of interesting buildings and structures from some of the counties it encompasses can already be seen online at the AIA Facebook site, “Greater Dayton’s Favorite Architecture,” said Matthew Sauer, AIA secretary who is with the firm of Rogero Buckman Architects in Dayton.
“The AIA was founded around 1900 to represent the interests of all registered architects in the Dayton area counties. The Dayton Chapter is a member organization for the Miami Valley as an advocate for architecture and awareness of the value of architecture,” Sauer said.
The AIA has a number of programs to encourage students to enter the field, he said.
“For instance, the Students Design Program was created for high school students in the area,” Sauer said. “The students in the program meet with volunteers from the organization over three weekends. They go through the basics of architecture, emphasizing the study of space planning, site planning and the technology of presentation.”
“Ways to present include drawings, models and presentation boards. A jury presents awards to the winners,” Sauer said. “It’s for students who are curious and is designed to help them enter into the profession. A lot of students ends up entering college and make a career out of it.”
“The program is conducted once a year and we believe it works well. We’ve been doing it for 30 years,” he said
Sauer said AIA also has a scholarship program.
“The scholarship awards are partially funded by our golf outings. In 2010, three area students received scholarships totaling $3,000, including Paul Connor from Troy Christian School,” he said. The other two were from Bellefontaine and Bellbrook.
“We believe it encourages local high school students to study architecture,” Sauer said.
Another AIA program is Rebuilding Together Dayton, in which a team of 40 volunteers goes out into the community and fixes up the home of an elderly person.
“That might be someone who is partially disabled or who might be experiencing a hardship. We recently put in a sidewalk and flowers for someone,” Sauer said.
Sauer was drawn to the study of architecture at an early age.
“I grew up in Dayton and I always loved the historic buildings. I would think about the way things were constructed – so I naturally came into the career,” he said.
He said AIA recently invited people with an interest in architecture to vote on photos that are online at the Facebook site.
The overall goal of the contest event is to increase the public’s awareness of the significant architecture in the nine-county area. The public architectural photography contest in May will be held in conjunction with Urban Nights, a free Downtown Dayton Partnership event that showcases downtown’s dining, nightlife, art, music, retail, urban living options twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall.
The event will have its own Web site and e-mail where the public can interact, submit photos and vote for their favorites. In the initial phase, only AIA members made nominations of their favourite photos, which were to be not necessarily the largest project by the most renowned architects.
“Some photos are already submitted and we hope to add some more from those submitted in the public contest,” Sauer said.
Contest rules
Architecturally themed photos become eligible to win cash and prizes. Winners also will see their photos in print on a 2012 AIA Dayton calendar. The top entries will be exhibited during Urban Nights in May. In the summer the public will be able to vote on the architecture with results to be announced in September at the AIA Ohio Valley Regional Convention in Dayton and at the fall Urban Nights.
The subject matter must have an architectural theme or must contain some element of the built environment. The architectural work may be a residential or commercial building with some special design or historical interest; it may be a bridge, tower or monument which has some particular merit. The location of images is restricted to the area within AIA Dayton’s nine-county geographic region.
Contest guidelines and entry forms can be accessed through the competition website http://greatdaytonarchitecture.com. Entry fee is $10 and allows for up to two different images to be submitted, with an unlimited number of entries accepted.
Entries must be submitted by Friday, April 29. If submission is by mail, entries must be postmarked no later than Monday, April 25.
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