Now in its second year, the 2022 HMC Lance Hosey Impact Awards takes place during HMC Design Week, October 11-13, and sets a standard that our designers can aspire to.

Within our firm of over 300 employee-owners in six offices, the annual program brings in outside judges to evaluate our work in relation to our mission to have a positive impact on the communities we serve. For 82 years, we’ve pursued that mission in work with direct ties to the community through education, health, and civic projects.

Once again, we have lined up a powerhouse jury from outside HMC to get expert feedback, hone our storytelling skills, and identify projects that deserve more celebration, internally and externally. To what degree is our work embodying our values? How consistent is this ethic across our work?

Each year, the projects selected for the Impact Award recognition must pass through an internal vetting process before they make it to the judges. Then a shortlist of projects is critiqued by a jury of industry experts composed of architects, designers, academics, business leaders, and editors from outside the firm. They deliberate over which projects to recognize and share their insights during a virtual group deliberation.

The jurors are measuring our projects on how well they fulfill HMC’s mission, and aesthetics are secondary. “Everything we’re doing right now is to shore up that mission,” said James Krueger, AIA, NCARB, director of design. “We’re a design firm, and the first signal of good design here should be whether it serves that mission in demonstrable ways.”

When deliberations are complete, Impact Awards will be given during three lunchtime presentations on Tuesday, Oct. 11, Wednesday, Oct. 12, and Thursday, Oct. 13. Award categories include the best-built project, best-unbuilt project, best interior architecture project, and The Shape of Green award for sustainability, which is named after Lance Hosey’s 2012 book The Shape of Green. Merit awards may also be given in each category.

HMC is kicking off its design week with keynote speaker Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, FAIA, Dean Emerita, Founder W-Road, who was one of our esteemed jurors last year, to give a talk on community impact.

The awards program is named for HMC’s former Chief Impact Officer, Lance Hosey, who passed in August 2021.