The IES Boston Section is excited to announce 3 new awards this year and invites you to apply:
Due Date (EXTENDED): March 14th
Submission Fee: $50 per entry. Register using the link below. Email instructions on how to submit an entry will be sent upon registration.
Sustainability Award
The project should consider environmental and social factors, promote sustainable practices and ethical design choices, and showcase how the team minimized material waste and utilized sustainable materials.
- Inclusive Design: Demonstrate how the team considered the needs of diverse users, such as accessibility, affordability, and culture.
- Sustainable Design: Highlight the use of eco-friendly materials or energy-efficient design.
- Social Impact: Share how the team collaborated with community members to create a design solution that addresses their needs, health, and well-being.
- Environmental impact: This includes factors such as energy efficiency, material selection, waste reduction, light pollution prevention (including the use of amber color temperature), or other resiliency methods.
- Economic impact: This includes cost-effectiveness, job creation, and long-term viability.
- Innovation: This includes factors such as originality, creativity, and new technologies or other approaches.
Community Award
The project effectively addresses a specific community need or challenge. It is well-integrated into the surrounding environment and respects the community’s history and culture.
- Community Engagement: The project involved significant community participation and input and effective collaboration between stakeholders.
- Social Equity: The project promotes social equity and inclusivity.
- Economic Impact: The project contributes positively to the local economy.
- Measurable Impact: The project has a quantifiable and positive impact on the community.
- Long-Term Sustainability: The project is designed to have a lasting impact on the community.
- Scalability: The project’s design and implementation can be adapted to other communities.
Collaboration Award
The project should showcase effective collaboration between different teams and stakeholders, demonstrating how diverse perspectives and skills contributed to the final successful design. The submission should effectively communicate the design process, challenges, and outcomes of a collaborative effort.
- Innovative Approach: The project team should demonstrate a unique approach to design, pushing boundaries and introducing novel concepts and new ideas, tools, or techniques in collaboration.
- Educational Value: The project has the potential to educate and inspire future designers’ collaboration.
- Process: The project uses collaborative methodologies to streamline the design process, including conflict resolution, facilitation of communication, and iterative design feedback.
- Shared Vision: Collaborators share a vision and project objectives, which motivates the team and fosters a positive and productive team environment.
- Reduced Development Costs: Collaborative decision-making results in production cost-saving measures or efficient resource allocation.
Submission Criteria:
Each team should submit one digital board in PDF format demonstrating compliance with the above criteria. The board can include any combination of text, images, and data the team feels demonstrates compliance with the award criteria. The board should comply with the below criteria:
- Proof of payment must be attached to submission email, as well as the name of the team and award being applied for.
- Title of PDF should not include any identifying information about the design team or the name of project.
- Anyone involved in the project, with the exception of manufacturers, IES Staff and IES Board of Directors may enter a project for an Illumination Award.
- The design team should be based in the area of the IES Boston and Rhode Island Sections, projects may be located anywhere.
- Permanent and temporary installations can be submitted for awards consideration.
- The installation must have been completed during the 24 months preceding the January 2025 program date listed.
- The project submitter must inform the owner, and all others involved or associated in the project design, of participation in the program and that the entry may be published by the IES Boston Section.
- Projects may submit for multiple award categories; a separate entry fee must be paid for each category.
- The names of the designers, the name of the design firm, equipment manufacturers or specific brands are not allowed anywhere on the board. Any reference or endorsement of a commercial product is not allowed. Submittals with this information will be disqualified. However, proper names of places (i.e., Waldorf Astoria, Verizon, Target) in the narrative is admissible.
In the email submission, please list all team members, their firm and role. This information should not be included on the board. This is the group that will receive recognition should the project win an award.
At least one listed project team member must be a member of the IES Boston or Rhode Island Section. Please note which team member this is in the submission email.
