The Performance of Recognition: On the Honorary AIA Fellows

The 2023 AIA Fellowship Award Ceremony. A visual testament to the institutionalized journey of architectural recognition. From the audience, this scene underscored the carefully curated path to the College of Fellows.

Chairing the Honorary Fellows Committee, part of the Committee on Design with the American Institute of Architects, looks like a privilege, but it functions more like a scheduled performance, part of a rigorously defined process.

Excellence is not discovered here - it all took place years before, while scouting through publications, lectures and award ceremonies. The process is validated through a heavily curated application that must fit a specific template - for a very good reason. A standardized application is arguably the most impartial way to judge the applicants.

The applicants that I directly worked with - Tatiana Bilbao, Kerstin Thompson, Jun’ya Ishigami, and Li Hu - signal avant-garde credibility and leading design credentials. 

Update: The Class of 2025, elevating 93 new Fellows, walks a fine line between recognition and dilution. The AIA announcement reads less like news and more like a ledger of those who have successfully navigated professional bureaucracy, and eventually, the effort to compile a comprehensive application, which quite often takes months to prepare - if not years… Congratulations to the new Fellows!