Possible ArchBoston.com Awards?

[statler]

I have been tossing this idea around in my head for a while and I think it has been brought up in threads once or twice.
What do you guys think of doing a ArchBoston.com Awards contest?
I'm not sure exactly how it would work, but what I am thinking is this: Two 'sections'. The AB Awards and the AB Meta-Awards.

The AB Awards would have the following categories:
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.
Worst New... -Same as above except for worst. Might be a bit negative for some folks but I think the stick is as important as the carrot.
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.
These awards would, of course be specific to Boston/Cambridge. We could also do Best New England... and Best Outside of New England...Awards.

The AB Meta Awards will be as follows:
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.

How will this work?
I'm not sure but here is an imperfect idea.
Each Award gets it's own Nomination Threads. In that thread, people will nominate whatever project(s) they think should get on the ballot. The top X number of nominations will get a spot. The nominations will run through November.
The Ballot Threads will run through December.
None of this is set in stone. There are many, many flaws with this as is. I welcome any and all suggestions. What categories should be added, what should be dropped? Is there a better way of doing the nominations/balloting? Any other ideas?
BTW: If this thread gets fewer than five posts from different members, I'll assume this was stupid idea and we'll forget it ever happened.
(NOTICE: PLEASE DO NOT PUT NOMINATIONS IN THIS THREAD! THANK YOU.)

[vanshnookenraggen]

I think awards are a great idea, though I'm not so sure about awards for board members (I can just see that going really poorly and getting nasty.)

[kennedy]

That's an awesome idea. I think it would be cool to have member awards, but the nomination would be difficult, and KZ basically has photos all locked up.

[kennedy]

We could have an awards banquet. And invite important people. And not let any neighborhood development haters to come. And have a slideshow. And little plastic trophies...alright I'm getting carried away.

[Suffolk 83]

Sounds like a nice idea, I'd support it.

[Beton Brut]

Originally Posted by vanshnookenraggen

...I'm not so sure about awards for board members (I can just see that going really poorly and getting nasty.)

My sense of humor is pretty much pitch black, so this could also prove to be hilarious, as long as the insults are creative and rise above the pedestrian and sophomoric.

[vanshnookenraggen]

Unfortunately you know they won't

[BarbaricManchurian]

Trash the AB meta-awards, the architecture awards are fine though. What one percieves to be the best post is subjective, and it can get very nasty, as vansh said. Best pic is fine, we have some competition now with multiple pic posters now, probably should have our pic-taking members try to do some artistic shots .

[ablarc]

This is a really good idea, but it has to be done right.

The award has to be coveted.

Coveted for what it stands for: publicity and prestige through media coverage.
Coveted for what it is: a fancy, frameable piece of paper, like a diploma.

Prizes should be awarded at a ceremony in fancy surroundings with prominent citizens in attendance.

A company that trades in prestige through design should sponsor the awards by covering the cost: Louis Vuitton?

The annual Louis Vuitton/ArchBoston Awards?

[kennedy]

lets do it, tell them wed give them positive spin on our board of 535 possible LV customers...

[kennedy]

I agree with picture and a hall of fame or seniority award of some sort. People over X number of posts go in a top contributors hall of game.

and, can someone design us a new logo? i mean, i like the current one...but maybe since we got a new board we should get a new logo. (and i know you added the .org).

[BostonSkyGuy]

I like the idea of handing out awards to architectural projects, not so sure about some of the member awards though.

I think having awards for best picture wouldn't be bad, and maybe something having to do with information regarding projects, but some of the other ones up for personal interpretation might get a little out of hand.

Having awards for projects and specific architecture would be fun, and I'd love some how to get it sponsored and have it in a hotel or ballroom somewhere with actual developers and designers present, but that might be getting a little too "dreamy".

[czsz]

I'd love to see the forum follow through on this. Anyone remember the Boston Design Museum?

[Chris]

I think reducing the awards down to something a little more manageable and sensible would work. I can see the "in-development" awards becoming complicated as many projects are multi-year and I think the point shouldn't be to have one development running through the awards every year. So I think just having "best development" is sufficient.

Also, regarding meta-awards, I think Best Photo is a good one, but the others can go.

Finally, I wonder if we should qualify who can vote, say limit it to people with 100+ posts or something (i.e. established members)?

[kz1000ps]

I agree with the consensus, in that a distilled list to what Statler posted would be best -- no need to give "awards" to every dink category we can come up with. Best photo is a great idea, although I wonder how we'd go about sorting through the thousands of pictures spread across hundreds of pages of threads to find the best one. Perhaps people already have ideas in the back of their minds as to what ones they'd choose. Still, it seems like a daunting task.

As for post of the year, may I thump my own chest and nominate myself for this post, which Van said "might just be the best single post ever on archBoston." Although I'll say pelhamhall's recent post in the Fan Pier thread on the way how things "work" in this city may deserve top billing.

[statler]

Well, I guess it is safe to say there is some interest in this.

I'll start with ablarc.

Originally Posted by ablarc

This is a really good idea, but it has to be done right.

The award has to be coveted.

Coveted for what it stands for: publicity and prestige through media coverage.
Coveted for what it is: a fancy, frameable piece of paper, like a diploma.

Prizes should be awarded at a ceremony in fancy surroundings with prominent citizens in attendance.

A company that trades in prestige through design should sponsor the awards by covering the cost: Louis Vuitton?

The annual Louis Vuitton/ArchBoston Awards?

A good idea. A great idea, actually. Wish I could make it happen. Too much for my feeble capabilities. I have a hard enough time organizing a birthday party for my wife at the local Applebees, let alone a gala for Boston's architect/development community at the Four Seasons. Besides, I think the BSA already has this covered. However, if someone wants to pick up the ball and run with it I'll help out where I can. Maybe we can make it The People's Choice Award to the BSA's Oscar's?
Until then, will you be satisfied with a simple online poll of archBoston members? I know it won't carry the same weight but it might still be fun and interesting.
Sorry to disappoint.
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Other points and suggestions
Personally, I like the idea of the meta-awards. I think it would encourage people to post more, post more thoughtful essays, encourage lurkers to join and post and reward though who do put thought and effort into their posts. That said there doesn't seem to be too much support for them (except Best Photo) and Van is right, it could (and probably would) get ugly. Which is fine, but I'm not the one who has to clean up the mess, Van is. So in fairness I'll drop that idea. And Chris is probably right about the multi-year in-development projects. It could get messy. As for only allowing people with so many posts to vote, I think that would require tweaking the forum software, something I can't do. Sorry.
I guess the best way to handle this is to have poll to vote on what we want to vote on. I'll put all the categories on for now, just too see.

The poll is now up.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.