As a member of a nine-person jury that chose this year’s National Design Awards, Fritz Steiner, dean of the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin, will head to the White House Wednesday, July 21, for an awards ceremony and luncheon hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama.
Introduced at the White House in 2000, the annual National Design Awards celebrate design in various disciplines. The awards are accompanied each year by a variety of public education programs, including special events, panel discussions and workshops.
Candidates are nominated by a national committee of more than 2,500 design professionals, educators, critics and patrons. Jury members then review hundreds of submissions to chose winners in 10 categories: Lifetime Achievement, Design Mind, Corporate and Institutional Achievement, Architecture Design, Communication Design, Fashion Design, Interaction Design, Interior Design, Landscape Design and Product Design.
Steiner, with several of the award winners and other jury members, will take part in a Teen Design Fair in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. The fair introduces high school students to careers in design. The students will meet with leading designers in the fields of fashion, industrial design, architecture, multimedia and graphic design.
The 2010 jury was composed of a diverse group of designers and educators from around the nation, including Ayse Birsel, co-founder and creative director, Birsel + Seck; Linda Boff, global director, marketing communications, GE; Mark Breitenberg, provost, California College of the Arts in San Francisco and Oakland and president, International Council of Societies of Industrial Design; Karin Fong, founding partner, Imaginary Forces; Peter Hudson, vice president of footwear design, Nike Inc.; Jenna Lyons, creative director, J.Crew; Sergio Palleroni, professor and fellow, Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices, Portland State University, and founding director, BASIC Initiative; Lauren Rottet, founding principal, Rottet Studio; and Steiner, dean of the School of Architecture and the Henry M. Rockwell Chair in Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin.
