The Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects has announced the recipients of its 2007 Distinguished Service Awards.

• Lori Healey, chief of staff for Mayor Richard Daley and former commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, was instrumental in numerous tax increment financing initiatives and the Emerging Neighborhoods program, which uses public works to spur private development.

She has been a member of the Chicago Housing Authority Board of Commissioners since 2002 and is a founding member of the Illinois Executive Women in State Government.

• Paul Lurie has been involved for years in the AIA Chicago Foundation and provides educational opportunities to architecture students.

A partner at the Schiff Hardin LLP law firm in Chicago, he has provided legal counsel for property owners, developers, architects and design and construction firms for more than 40 years. Over the past 10 years, Lurie has given numerous presentations about ethics, mediation and arbitration in the construction practice at national and international conferences.

• Donna Robertson is in her sixth year as Dean of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and has helped return IIT to a center of design excellence.

Since 1986, she has also been a partner at Robertson McAnulty Architects in Chicago, where she has led design teams for projects at DePauw University in Indiana and Charter Atlantic Corp. in New York. She regularly contributes to the architecture field as a key lecturer at exhibitions, as an expert source for several publications, and by serving on the Board of Directors for AIA Chicago.

In other news, Chicago-based David Woodhouse Architects will be presented with this year’s Firm Award. Martin Felsen of Chicago-based UrbanLab will receive the Dubin Family Young Architect Award.

Established in 1990, Woodhouse has won more than 20 awards in the past 10 years, including a Design Excellence Award from AIA Chicago in 2006. Its projects include the Buckingham Fountain Pavilion, Morton Arboretum Visitor’s Center and the renovation of the Lincoln Park Conservatory.

Felsen, 39, co-founded UrbanLab with Sarah Dunn in 2000. As principal, he has managed several Chicago assignments including the Encyclopedia Britannica Lobby and Hannah’s Bretzel, a project that was honored with an AIA Chicago Design Excellence Award in 2007.

St. Louis Apartments Honored for Responsibility

St. Louis-based Trivers Associates has won the John M. Clancy Award for Socially Responsible Housing for their design of the 6 North Apartments in the city’s Central West End.

The design of 6 North Apartments reportedly features the country’s first large scale housing development to incorporate the principles of Universal Design. All 80 units, the common spaces and corner coffeehouse are fully accessible by both the able bodied and the disabled, including barrier-free entries, open floor plans, front-loading washers and dryers, adjustable-height counters and rollout shelves, along with several other Universal Design features.

Trivers Associates President Andrew Trivers and Senior Architect Greg Zipfel said the UD process was an exciting opportunity to think creatively and flexibly about how to design spaces that are comfortable, attractive and easily used by all.

The award, administered by the Boston Society of Architects and the American Institute of Architects, recognizes excellence in planning, design, construction and maintenance of socially responsible urban housing.

29 Projects Get ALA Recognition

The sleek interior design of a jazz club in Chicago’s River North. The LEED certified renovation of a historic Marine Station. The design of a premier wellness center in one of the United States most well known clinics.

The recent ninth annual Association of Licensed Architects’ Design Award Program recognized excellence in architectural design and celebrated artistic diversity in a wide array of categories.

Geoffrey Baer, Emmy Award-winning producer for WTTW-TV and host of programs on architecture of the Chicago area, emceed the evening attended by architects, contractors, owners/developers and guests at the Medinah Country Club.

Winners were selected from 78 entries from six states and were awarded Gold, Silver and Merit Awards in the categories of Commercial, Institutional, Interior Architecture, Religious, Renovation, Residential and Unbuilt Projects.

The winning projects and images can be seen on the Internet, www.licensedarchitect.org.

The prestigious Don Erickson Presidential Award was selected from among winning entries as the best of the design competition. This year’s Presidential Award was given to Paul Harding of Chicago-based Harding Partners for Broadview Missionary Baptist Church in west suburban Broadview.

Judging criteria included program solution, site and space planning, overall design solution and construction system and details.

Renovated Indiana School To Get Energy Star

The renovated Decatur Central High School is reportedly the first school in central Indiana designed to earn the Energy Star rating from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The renovation of Decatur Central High School is in progress and will be completed during the 2009-2010 school year. The Energy Star designation is based on the school’s renovation plans; after the renovation has been completed for a year, the district can apply for a designation based on energy usage.

Commercial buildings account for nearly 18% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings earn the Energy Star rating by scoring in the top 25% on EPA’s national energy performance rating system.

Decatur was one of 23 office buildings, schools, hospitals and public buildings in the country designed to receive a rating in the 2007 Energy Star challenge for architects.

Plans for the school renovation call for a design rating of 87 on a scale of 100. System efficiency that high is expected to reduce carbon dioxide production by 28%.

Decatur Central High School’s renovation was designed by Schmidt Associates of Indianapolis.

JETS and Motorola Champion Girls

Encouraging and inspiring females to pursue engineering careers has become a focus in the pre-college engineering education community.

A non-profit organization dedicated to educating the nation’s young people about engineering and technology careers, Alexandria, Va.-based JETS has announced it received a $50,000 Innovation Generation Grant from the Motorola Foundation to support a girl-focused initiative through a collaborative effort with the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools.

JETS connected with three female-focused engineering groups, The Society of Women Engineers, Extraordinary Women Engineers Project and Techbridge, to provide material that promotes engineering and technology and encourages participation in programs that show how engineers make a difference. Packets were distributed in December and will include:

• The Engineers Can Do Anything DVD.
• One copy of EXPLORE magazine, JETS latest career resource publication.
• Information about a girls only Web site, www.engineeryourlife.org.
• Career brochures.
• One complimentary copy of ASSESS, JETS academic diagnostic tool.
• Program information about the JETS TEAMS and competitions with complimentary registration for one team from each school.
• A copy of Techbridge’s green design curriculum and resource guide.