Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
When the Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence began in 1967, there were few architecture awards in Canada. The Massey Medals, which later became the Governor General?s Medals in Architecture, started in 1950, and a scattering of other awards recognized exemplary built works. 
Fifty-five years later, that picture has changed dramatically: according to research by the Université de Montréal, there are now over 70 organizations in Canada offering architecture awards. This explosion of awards is uniquely North American and relatively recent, according to lead researcher Jean-Pierre Chupin, who notes that architecture awards programs in Europe are more limited in number.
Adding to the complexity of the awards landscape is a shift in procurement criteria, in which many clients are now requesting lists of awards. This comes from a good-faith attempt to value architectural quality in their selection processes?although it also points to the awkwardness of squaring the often qualitative measure of what constitutes ?good architecture? with the quantitative metrics and scorecards of standard procurement practices.  On one hand, this has resulted in a field day for ?pay-to-play? awards programs, which thrive on receiving large numbers of entries?and in turn, delivering large numbers of accolades. On the other hand, many organizations whose reputations are tied to high-quality awards are going though a soul-searching exercise. What are the righ...