Peter Miller
TRADITIONAL BUILDING’S 2024 Palladio Awards program is still open for submissions.
Palladio is an annual national competition and its winning projects are published in TRADITIONAL BUILDING'S July issue, posted on traditionalbuilding.com, and celebrated during a ceremony and dinner during the Traditional Building Conference in June.
Even if a project does not win, all projects submitted are considered for publication throughout the year. Many of the project submissions have been published in TRADITIONAL BUILDING'S sister magazine NEW OLD HOUSE.
The Palladio Awards are very competitive and attract numerous entries—more than any other traditional awards program in the country. I have juried several awards programs and some of the submissions I have seen twice—in ICAA's regional chapter awards programs and the Palladio awards. Once you have done the work to assemble a submission, it’s a good idea to enter it in more than one appropriate awards program.
Last fall I served as the jury chair for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of ICAA’s Jacques Benedict Awards. Thanks to excellent leadership from chapter president Steve Ekman, chapter coordinator Ashley Jacobs and awards committee chairman Bill Miller, the Jacques Benedict Awards jury process was well run.
In their jury information packet, the Jacques Benedict Awards included a mission statement that also applies to TRADITIONAL BUILDING’S Palladio Awards as well as all other classical design award programs:
"To acknowledge, support, and advance traditional concepts in craftsmanship and design. To support the belief that the universal language of classical proportion and design will add to our culture, built environment, and environmental consciousness."
Their jury packet goes further to outline “core values of the classical language,’” which is useful for any traditional building professional:
- Order
- Rhythm
- Symmetry
- Scale
- Proportion
- Tectonics
- Ornament
- Decorum
- Craftsmanship
- Rule and Invention
- Beauty
For more information and inspiration about entering Palladio 2024, listen as Michael Imber, Michael Franck, and Jean Carroon talk about their own winning approach to entering design award competitions including Palladio. Good luck.
Peter H. Miller, Hon. AIA, is the publisher and President of TRADITIONAL BUILDING, PERIOD HOMES and the Traditional Building Conference Series, and podcast host for Building Tradition, Active Interest Media's business to business media platform. AIM also publishes OLD HOUSE JOURNAL; NEW OLD HOUSE; FINE HOMEBUILDING; ARTS and CRAFTS HOMES; TIMBER HOME LIVING; ARTISAN HOMES; FINE GARDENING and HORTICULTURE. The Home Group integrated media portfolio serves over 50 million architects, builders, craftspeople, interior designers, building owners, homeowners and home buyers.
Pete lives in a classic Sears house, a Craftsman-style Four Square built in 1924, which he has lovingly restored over a period of 30 years. Resting on a bluff near the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., just four miles from the White House, Pete’s home is part of the Palisades neighborhood, which used to be a summer retreat for the District’s over-heated denizens.
Before joining Active Interest Media (AIM), Pete co-founded Restore Media in 2000 which was sold to AIM in 2012. Before this, Pete spent 17 years at trade publishing giant Hanley Wood, where he helped launch the Remodeling Show, the first trade conference and exhibition aimed at the business needs and interests of professional remodeling contractors. He was also publisher of Hanley Wood’s Remodeling, Custom Home, and Kitchen and Bath Showroom magazines and was the creator of Remodeling’s Big 50 Conference (now called the Leadership Conference).
Pete participates actively with the American Institute of Architects’ Historic Resources Committee and also serves as President of the Washington Mid Atlantic Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. He is a long-time member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and an enthusiastic advocate for urbanism, the revitalization of historic neighborhoods and the benefits of sustainability, including the adaptive reuse of historic buildings.
