The 2013 Life of an Architect Playhouse Competition is officially begun!! The playhouse designs were technically due exactly one minute ago (11:59 pm Central Standard Time although I know of some that will be coming in a little late. It’s for charity so I’m not going to kick anybody to the curb and since I will most likely (hopefully) be asleep when the deadline rolls around, anything that’s in my email ‘Inbox’ when I check it in the morning is good to go.
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As you know, this is the second year of the Life of an Architect Playhouse Competition and the bar was set ridiculously high last year. Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure that we could top it … but I must have been crazy!! The involvement in this years 2013 Life of an Architect Playhouse Competition was amazing and far surpassed 2012. Last year, we had around 250 registrations and around 60 entries. This year, well … I let you see for yourself. Let’s go to the chart –
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Whoop!! In total, there 480 registrations and as of 9:00pm (with three hours until submission technically ends) 133 actual playhouse submissions. I’ll have to update this post once all the entries have come in but even if I don’t receive another entry, I am so grateful for everyone’s participation. I know that I originally said that there would be two winners – everyone is already a winner in my book *eye wink pistol fingers* but I think there should be more to it than that. We are not going to build 2 playhouses this year, but don’t be sad … we are going to build at least THREE!!! That means, if you submitted a playhouse design, your odds of winning just got better by 50%
Amazing! I am also trying to confirm a 4th playhouse that will be built but haven’t received confirmation yet. That will need to be squared away by April 26th because that’s when the winning entries will be selected.
So what happens next??
April 19th (Friday) – initial round of judging by celebrity judges not yet selected to bring number of entries to be judged to manageable number. The finalists will be announced here on the Life of an Architect website on Monday, April 22nd. This year there will be ten finalists for each playhouse that we build. That means at least thirty (and possibly 40) lucky entrants will move onto the final judging round. I need to get busy and secure my initial celebrity judges!! Full disclosure – since I am so intimately familiar with the requirements of these playhouses, I will participate in this initial judging round, supplying information and insight to the judges.
April 26th (Friday) – the final judging round will be completed and the winners will be announced here on the Life of an Architect website on April 29th. There will be more celebrity judges (and most likely beer) and I will not be one of them. At this point, all the playhouse will have already ben vetted out as worthy candidates so my role a this point will be “host” (meaning I will serve the beer).
Once the winners are announced, they will need to hope to it and prepare construction drawings for their playhouse.
May 27th – Winners are required to prepare construction drawings (with possible value engineering considerations) for their entries and submit final construction drawings to the designated contractors. In the possibility that you are unable to prepare your own construction drawings (because you don’t know how, not because you get busy with other things) with a little heads up, I have people who have offered their time and skills to prepare constructions drawings on your behalf. Seriously?!? How many competitions have that offer on the table?
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Legal Stuff – By submitting a design to this competition, you have agreed to allow Life of an Architect, Bob Borson, and Dallas CASA the rights to use and display your design for the purposes of construction and promotion. Your will still retain the rights to your design and you will receive full credit and recognition for your effort. Just a reminder that this is a charity event and if things go well, your playhouse will be selected and we will build it … but we also might have to modify your design to make it a) within budget and b) buildable within certain parameters such as time constraints, material availability, etc. As the designer of the playhouse you will be involved in this process.
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you
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Cheers,
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