AIA Michigan - Awards and Showcase

Award Description

May 5 - Detroit, Michigan - The American Institute of Architects Michigan has selected Birmingham architect Robert L. Ziegelman, FAIA for its prestigious Hastings Award. He will be honored at the annual Celebration of Architecture on May 6 at the Royal Park Hotel in Rochester.
The Hastings Award was established to recognize a specific outstanding contribution to the architectural profession. Twenty-one years ago Ziegelman proposed the establishment of a AIA Fellows Committee whose mission would be to seek out and assist worthy candidates for the National AIA College of Fellows. Out of a total membership of over 80,000, there are fewer than 2,700 distinguished with the honor of Fellowship. The Fellows Committee, under Bob’s leadership, has sought out and nurtured 40 candidates.
When Bob is not chasing down new Michigan Fellows, he has managed to sustain an architectural practice that has received wide recognition with more than 90 design awards from various components of the American Institute of Architects. Bob’s architecture derives from his commitment to create a sustainable environment that is always responsive to human values. Ziegelman has shown a consistent ability to synthesize design from philosophical, economic, technological and aesthetic principles that were developed while apprenticing at the office of Eero Saarinen.
Bob invented a universal building system, which uses prefabricated modular construction to enable the widespread use of permanent, transportable buildings. The system has been used extensively. Presently, he is on the final list of architects and suppliers for prefabricated housing in Haiti. This International Competition attracted 1500 submissions. He is now preparing a model duplex unit to be completed on an exhibition site in Porte-au-Prince. There will be approximately 15 model units built and the government will then choose 10 venders to place large orders with. The system will be featured at the Massachuset Institute of Technology Museum in 2011.
Bob has been an active participant in the National, State and Local components of AIA. He is a Gold Medal winner for Michigan and Detroit. He chaired the Recognitions Committee for both chapters and established the Charles Blessing Award in 1992. He received the award from AIA Detroit last year. He was President of AIA Detroit and his firm, Luckenbach | Ziegelman Architects of Birmingham and Ann Arbor was Firm of the Year.
Bob received his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Michigan and Master of Architecture from M.I.T.
Robert Hastings, FAIA was a Detroit architect who rose through the local, state and national components of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and became national president in 1970. AIA Michigan created the award in 1978 in his honor.
The American Institute of Architects Michigan, headquartered in the historic Beaubien House across from the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit, established its awards program to bring to public attention the value and importance of architectural excellence and to recognize those whose notable achievements encourage all to make excellence in architecture the standard.