Annual Awards Dinner Night of Celebration

February 21, 2010

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AIA New Jersey held its Annual Awards Dinner in January at the Thomas Edison State College in Trenton. The evening started in the atrium space with presentations of AIA-NJ Presidential Citations to a number of individuals and the AIA-NJ Service Awards.

After attendees were seated for dinner, Regional Director David DelVecchio, AIA, installed the 2010 officers. Past President Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA, spoke about her year as president and presented the gavel to incoming President Jason Kliwinski, AIA.

The evenings celebrations continued with the presentation of the honors to the 2009 Design Awards recipients. Capping off the event, The Michael Graves Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed upon Eleanor Pettersen, FAIA, posthumously.

The first citation of the evening was presented to David Gibson, AIA, of DFGibson Architect, for the design of the space that was used for the evenings event and for the assistance with engaging the use of the space for the night. The unique space of Thomas Edison State College, is created by the atrium designed to connect multiple historic building a merge the varying buildings into one linked space. A showcase of sustainable design and historic preservation the space was a unique environment for a gathering of architects. A direct connection to AIA-NJ and the space was also celebrated as this was a project personally worked on by incoming president Jason Kliwinski, AIA, when he was employed with DFGibson Architects.

Dr. James Hsu was honored with a Presidential Citation for his many years of service to the architectural community in New Jersey while serving as Executive Director of the New Jersey State Board of Architects. Dr. Hsu recently retired after 15 years on the state board, and a career dedicated mostly to public service, including serving on the Certified Landscape Architects Committee, the Board of Professional Planners, the Real Estate Appraisers Board, The Joint Committee of Architects and Engineers and the Interior Design Committee.

The last two Presidential Citations of the evening were presented to AIA-NJ Committee Chairs, Robert Barranger, AIA, and Kimberly Bunn, AIA, for their dedication to AIA-NJ through their committee work over the past decade. Robert has chaired the Public Awareness Committee, and has lead a number of initiatives to increase awareness of AIA New Jersey and architecture in general.

Kimberly has chaired the Communications Committee which has evolved to encompass a wide range of media and publications, including many sustainable initiatives to transition tradition print media to electronic versions and create an environment for paperless AIA-NJ meetings. The two committees have worked closely in recent years to achieve a successful media campaign to both the public at large and AIA-NJ membership.

Regional Director David DelVecchio installed the 2010 Officers, and presentations were made to outgoing 200 President Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA and incoming President Jason Kliwinski, AIA. Your 2010 AIA-NJ officers are: President Jason Kliwinski, AIA; President-Elect Michael Hanrahan, AIA; 1st Vice President Laurence Parisi, AIA; 2nd Vice President Jack Purvis; Secretary Kurt Kalafsky, AIA; Treasurer Justin Mihalik, AIA; Past President Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA; Associate Regional Director Lauren Thomson, Assoc. AIA; and Regional Director David DelVecchio, AIA.

The 2009 Service Award winners who were honored, for more information on the Michael Graves Lifetime Achievement Award and Service Awards, including details on each of the winners, go to the Events & Programs section on the AIA-NJ website. The posthumous award to Eleanor Pettersen, FAIA, will be forwarded to her archives at the International Archive of Woman in Architecture at Virginia Tech.

By WeSpeak Easy | Posted in AIA-NJ News, NJ Architect Newsletter, Uncategorized | Tagged: NJArchitect, ServiceAwards | Comments (0)