Chair of Undergraduate Architecture Stephen Slaughter served as a juror for the SOM Foundation 2024 Robert L. Wesley Award and the ACSA Collaborative Practice Award.
The Robert L. Wesley Award
The SOM Foundation established the Robert L. Wesley Award in 2020, naming it in honor of the first Black partner at SOM. The award supports BIPOC undergraduate students enrolled in architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, urban design, or engineering programs in the United States. Each year, three students receive a $10,000 award along with a yearlong mentorship program that connects them with leading BIPOC practitioners and educators. The awards are unrestricted in their use, allowing students to allocate the funds based on their needs. Additionally, students receive support from Black Spectacles as they work toward architectural licensure.
Slaughter reflected on the experience, stating:
“This was the most difficult jury I have ever participated in. I found myself deeply moved by both the students’ essays and videos, wavering between the value of merit and the value of need. Seeing how accomplished, compelling, and beautiful the work was only made my deliberations more challenging. In all honesty, if every applicant were awarded the prize, I would be overjoyed. However, I am satisfied with the shortlist we settled on and content knowing that this prize will make a meaningful difference in the lives—and possibly the careers—of the recipients.”
The Collaborative Practice Award
Established in 1997 by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), the Collaborative Practice Award honors best practices in university-based and community-engaged programs. This award was proposed by Thomas Dutton and Anthony Schuman as a means to recognize ACSA’s commitment to community partnerships in which faculty, students and neighborhood citizens are valued equally and that aim to Schuman issues of social injustice through design. As Tom Dutton’s work in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati demonstrates, collaborative and community-engaged design education can have transformative impacts upon both students and citizens. The Collaborative Practice is awarded annually to innovative and sustained initiatives that extend design education beyond the classroom and into communities.
This ACSA award recognizes programs that demonstrate how faculty, students, community groups, and/or civic clients, can work to realize common objectives. Participation by professional practitioners and colleagues from other academic disciplines is encouraged.
•Architecture •Landscape •Interior •Planning •Industrial •Urban
Collaborative projects and practice can encompass a variety of endeavors, including but not limited to: new construction, rehabilitation, open space planning, zoning and regulatory reform, community-engaged research initiatives, and the development of new institutions or social processes.