Arch Boston Awards Category Nominations

[statler]

Which of the following categories do you think we should vote on in the ArchBoston Awards?
These awards would, of course be specific to Boston/Cambridge.

Best New Development of 2008 -Open to any development that has been completed and opened in the calender year of 2008.
Best New Development Under Construction of 2008 -Open to any development that is under construction but not expected to be completed or opened in 2008
Best New Development Proposal of 2008 -Open to any development that was proposed during 2008, no matter how unlikely it is to be built. (This will need some tweaking)
Best New Transit or Infrastructure Project of 2008 -The picking will be pretty slim on this so I don't think it should be broken up, but it will need some guidelines.
Existing Development Hall of Fame - I think there are enough good buildings in Boston that we can probably pick three a year for quite a while. I'm open to narrowing it down to one a year though.
Worst New Development of 2008 - Same as above but worst rather than best.
Worst New Development Under Construction of 2008
Worst New Development Proposal of 2008
No Best New Transit or Infrastructure Project of 2008 because SLIII has that alllll wrapped up.

Outside Boston/Cambridge:
Best New Development Project in New England
Best New Development Project in the US
Best New International Project


The AB Meta Awards most likely won't happen (except best photo), barring any unforeseen circumstances but I'll include them here just to gage interest.

Best New Member of 2008 - Open to any member with a join date in 2008
Best Thread of 2008 - Open to any thread that was started in 2008
Best Post of 2008 - Open to any post posted in 2008
Best Photograph of 2008 - Open to all photos posted in 2008
Best Member of 2008 - I could see this getting ugly, but it might be fun. Also if this continues we could probably have a Lifetime Achievement Award or Hall of Fame, so the same members don't keep getting this award over and over again.
Not doing a Worst of... Meta Award, no good can come of that.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Arch Boston Awards Catagory Nominations

My only issue with awards for projects outside of New England is that they don't get covered here as much as projects in the Boston area. Other than Portland and Manchester there really isn't that much New England love; where is CT and Western Mass? There is stuff in General Architecture but it isn't as extensive as it could be.

But maybe this awards thing could be a way of seeing where the board could grow.

 

[kennedy]

Re: Arch Boston Awards Catagory Nominations

idk about the rest of new england, and anyhow, i doubt there are many projects out there that would have a good shot at pushing projects from the city out. and hey, it is archBOSTON.org

 

[statler]

Re: Arch Boston Awards Catagory Nominations

Damnit, I spelled category wrong in the title. The one thing I can't edit. Argh.

 

[Lrfox]

Re: Arch Boston Awards Catagory Nominations

idk about the rest of new england, and anyhow, i doubt there are many projects out there that would have a good shot at pushing projects from the city out. and hey, it is archBOSTON.org

This is true, and even if it's best in New England OUTSIDE of Boston (and Cambridge), it's only going to be between Portland and Providence as there is little representation from anywhere in Connecticut, Springfield, Worcester and many other New England cities.

 

[briv]

Thanks Statler. This is something I've thought about before but never got around to. I'm glad someone took the initiative on this.

I say keep the "... under construction" categories for the subsequent year. I'd also like to see a Hall of Shame Award.

I think youre right about the Meta Awards. Best photo is a good idea. If Best Post makes it and endures, I'm sure it will eventually come to be known as the Ablarc Award.

 

[kennedy]

I can hear it now, "The Chase for the Ablarc Cup, live on archBoston.tv"

 

[statler]

Here's the deal.

I'll let this be until after Thanksgiving and then I'll open an 'official' nominations thread. You can nominate whatever you like (I'll set up a template in that thread) but most likely, the final balloting will be on the Best/Worst projects and Best Photograph. If someone else wants to open a meta award ballot thread, the consequences are on them.

BTW, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to handle the Best Photograph nominations. Should people be limited to only one nomination? A few? As many as they want? Does every photo nominated get on the ballot? The first x-number nominated? Any thoughts would be appreciated. I feel like I'm missing an obvious solution.

 

[czsz]

I think users should submit what they feel were their best photos to appear on the forum over the last year in a designated thread and members can vote on nomination.

 

[ablarc]

^ Good idea.

Statler, it's important to include both Best Project Completed in the Year and Best Project Proposed. You can influence and maximize potential realization of the latter by calling attention to its goodness. You can't influence something that's finished; you can only praise it.

Prizes for Best Project Proposed should include a short blurb highlighting its best features and gently pointing out further opportunities for improvement.

There should also be a sentence or two for the other prize awarded.

 

[statler]

^^The only problem I can see with czcz's idea is we might end up with about 17 nominees and 17 people voting, each for their own nomination. We are a pretty small crowd, only 22 people have voted in this poll so far.

I was planning on including the Proposed category. What are you thoughts on Under Construction? I'm leaning against it right now. Might as wait for it to finish and vote then.

Lastly...Project or Development? Does it matter?

 

[czsz]

The nomination thread should allow for something like a top five choice allocation - that way votes for one's own work won't be dispositive.

 

[BarbaricManchurian]

Here's the deal.

I'll let this be until after Thanksgiving and then I'll open an 'official' nominations thread. You can nominate whatever you like (I'll set up a template in that thread) but most likely, the final balloting will be on the Best/Worst projects and Best Photograph. If someone else wants to open a meta award ballot thread, the consequences are on them.

BTW, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to handle the Best Photograph nominations. Should people be limited to only one nomination? A few? As many as they want? Does every photo nominated get on the ballot? The first x-number nominated? Any thoughts would be appreciated. I feel like I'm missing an obvious solution.

I think any member can nominate up to 5 of what they think to be the board's best pics, regardless of who took the pic. That will probably eliminate most bias, which inevitably will occur when one nominates one's own pics (it's the opinion of the group that matters in this situation, not the individual and sometimes the group may choose a pic that the individual doesn't realize is great).

 

[statler]

That makes sense but may lead to new problem.
Say we have a Best Photo nomination thread and each member is 'allowed' to nominate five photos. Say 10 people all nominate 5 different photos each. (There will probably be some overlap, but there will also probably be more than 10 people nominating photos.) That's 50 nominations. I'm not even sure we call do a poll with fifty options.
We could narrow it down through 'in thread' voting rather than a poll, but I'm not sure how that would work.

I'm over-thinking this.

 

[kennedy]

I'd think it would be easier to organize if each person who wanted to run in the Best Photo category selected their two best photos, and find someone willing (should be easy) to nominate them. And no more than five entries.

My guesses are KZ, Castevens, Vanshnook, the Desolate Metropolis guy, and someone whos name is escaping me right now.

 

[BarbaricManchurian]

That makes sense but may lead to new problem.
Say we have a Best Photo nomination thread and each member is 'allowed' to nominate five photos. Say 10 people all nominate 5 different photos each. (There will probably be some overlap, but there will also probably be more than 10 people nominating photos.) That's 50 nominations. I'm not even sure we call do a poll with fifty options.
We could narrow it down through 'in thread' voting rather than a poll, but I'm not sure how that would work.

I'm over-thinking this.

50 options can be made in a poll, but ok, 5 options are too much, make it 2 per person. Twenty options doesn't seem too much, and I doubt we'll even reach there, since most people would nominate the same 5 pics that are undoubtedly the best. Anyway, this is just the first attempt, of course next year's awards will be even better .