The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal, established in 1907, is a lifetime achievement award presented to architects. Each year, it selects one individual worldwide who has contributed significantly to architecture. Whether living or deceased, as long as the board approves, they will be awarded the “Gold Medal.” Every recipient’s name is engraved on a granite wall in the AIA headquarters’ lobby in Washington!
The AIA was founded in 1907, while the first Pritzker Prize was awarded in 1979 – AIA predated Pritzker by exactly 72 years! However, within less than 10 years of its establishment, the Pritzker Prize dominated the architectural world with its sharp and precise selection criteria. Like a newcomer trying to steal the spotlight, this gave AIA, the big brother, quite a headache – after all, they’re both in America, doesn’t AIA need to save face?
One highly praised aspect of the Pritzker Prize is its foresight in selecting winners. Those who receive the Pritzker are naturally contemporary masters, but they receive the award before reaching their career peak. This means that after winning, they continue to produce even more impressive works that astound the architectural world, proving Pritzker’s remarkable foresight!
This probably irritated AIA. Since Pritzker claims to have foresight, why not compete in that arena? Thus came their attempt at the AIA Rising Star Award for architects under 28 years old. Given AIA’s significant influence in the global architectural sphere, such an initiative naturally drew international attention.
Architects under 28? As Kissinger said, at that age, simply moving beyond grunt work in a major firm is already quite an achievement! While there might be some independent works from architects this young, truly outstanding independent projects are rare.
AIA has always been an inclusive architectural award – the “Gold Medal” isn’t restricted to Americans, and naturally, this new “Rising Star Award” for architects under 28 follows the same principle. As long as someone applies and passes the board’s review.
Kissinger found this award interesting. While it might not match the prestige of the AIA Gold Medal, who would complain about winning too many awards?
“Xia Xiaolan from GMP New York Office has won the first AIA Rising Star Award—”
Who would refuse such an honor? Kissinger directly submitted Xia Xiaolan’s theater renovation project. He hadn’t even told her about it yet – typical of his personality, he wouldn’t brag before everything was settled. He planned to tell her after she made the shortlist, while simultaneously criticizing her foolish rejection of GMP’s invitation – see? Without GMP, how could a Chinese student have the chance to win such an international award?
Xia Xiaolan could see right through Mr. Kissinger’s little scheme. She didn’t think Kissinger was bad – after all, she had forced a respectable GMP senior partner into such a position, which made her quite apologetic.
But something unexpected happened. Kissinger’s intended moment of triumph turned into fury. This wasn’t just about Xia Xiaolan losing the award opportunity – GMP’s New York office would become a laughingstock!
“…So, Dawson Monde, as the vice chairman of the AIA Rising Star Award jury, rejected my work’s eligibility because he claimed this project wasn’t independently completed by me?”
“Yes, he accused GMP of fraud in the application, saying the theater renovation project was led by Lisa, and you were just an insignificant intern!”
Why would Dawson target an intern? Coming from Dawson, no one would doubt this claim. Dawson had casually mentioned: that during a Broadway visit with his daughter, they happened to enter the renovating theater and had a conversation with architect Lisa – what a brilliant design…
Just like that, the theater renovation became Lisa’s work! Xia Xiaolan was reduced to Lisa’s assistant intern.
For GMP to nominate an intern for the inaugural AIA Rising Star Award was deemed an absurd attempt by their New York office to grab this honor, with intern Xia Xiaolan collaborating in this scheme… With Monde Dawson’s statement, Xia Xiaolan was immediately disqualified from the competition.
Without even making the shortlist, how could she win? By Kissinger’s calculation, this essentially meant Monde Dawson had cost them the AIA Rising Star Award!
Xia Xiaolan grasped the key point, “GMP won’t let this slide, right? Winning the award is now secondary – these vague accusations have damaged GMP New York’s reputation. What about Lisa? How did she react?”
Kissinger sneered: “Lisa accepted credit for the theater renovation design. Though she’s too old to compete for the ‘AIA Rising Star Award,’ she now has her signature work. After I spoke with her, Lisa chose to resign from GMP. Now people think I threatened Lisa and wronged her – I heard Monde privately expressed incomprehension at GMP’s actions, saying talented architects shouldn’t be buried, and he’s inviting Lisa to join the Dawson Studio!”
So that’s how it was. Everything made sense now.
“No, Lisa didn’t receive Monde’s invitation after resigning from GMP – the invitation came first. It’s because Lisa wanted to switch firms that she acted this way.”
Monde’s move was effortless – just offering Lisa a position was enough to exclude Xia Xiaolan from the AIA Rising Star Award competition.
Both Xia Xiaolan and GMP were left speechless. The architectural world had already been convinced that GMP had tried to promote a Rising Star architect by falsely claiming the theater renovation was Xia Xiaolan’s project.
It would be extremely difficult for Xia Xiaolan to prove herself now. Monde had tied GMP and Xia Xiaolan together, stripping GMP of its credibility as a witness.
Between Lisa, an architect with years of experience, and an undergraduate from Cornell University, it seemed obvious who led the project. Xia Xiaolan simply didn’t have the credentials!
The only person who could prove she had the credentials was Mrs. Wilson, the client who specifically requested her… but Mrs. Wilson would probably be delighted to see her fail, and would be showing restraint by not actively trying to hurt her further.
The whole situation was quite ridiculous – even if Xia Xiaolan drew the design plans herself, what difference would it make? Lisa could still claim Xia Xiaolan was just an assistant, and assistants drawing plans were perfectly normal.
In a major project, multiple architects are involved, working as a team. Normally, when a renowned architect leads a team to complete a project, the honor still belongs to the renowned architect. Despite others doing much of the detailed work, they can’t claim the credit – and even if they did, the industry wouldn’t acknowledge it.
If Lisa had claimed this herself – saying she led the project and Xia Xiaolan was just an assistant – it would have been laughable, and GMP could have easily crushed her. But having Monde Dawson make the revelation, especially during the “AIA Rising Star Award” selection, the timing and venue were perfect.
Xia Xiaolan laughed bitterly: “A Pritzker Prize winner with such pettiness – winning or losing the award isn’t important anymore. By throwing this mud at me, he’s essentially trying to prevent me from ever establishing myself in the international architectural community!”