(Sacramento, California) April 11, 2023—The American Institute of Architects California (AIA CA) announced the recipients of its AIA CA Awards today: architecture firms and individuals that have produced meaningful work and influenced the field over an extensive period of time.
The 2023 Firm Award recipient is internationally-based Steinberg Hart; Distinguished Practice Award recipient is San Francisco-based Mark Jensen, FAIA; while Lifetime Achievement Award for Healthcare Facility Design recipient is Linda Taylor, AIA.
“It is an honor that AIA California is recognizing Steinberg Hart, Mark Jensen, FAIA, and Linda Taylor, AIA, during my tenure,” said AIA CA President Scott Gaudineer, AIA. “The work of each has contributed to the field in unique ways, but both firm and individuals have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to both those working within the built environment and those inhabiting it.”
2023 Firm Award – Steinberg Hart
Throughout seventy years of architectural practice, and three distinct leadership eras, Steinberg Hart has implemented its commitment to design, culture, and evolution. Its adherence to these core values aligns with the Firm Award’s multi-pronged criteria: that recipient firms realize distinguished architecture for a period of at least 10 years, and, equally important, foster the next generation of architects and designers, and actively promote Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
In addition to numerous mentoring programs, and practices that drive EDI, Steinberg Hart’s JEDI group, founded in 2020 by employees, has had a measurable impact on the firm’s operations, community involvement, and educational partnerships. 54% of staff identify as BIPOC.
In making the award, the 2023 AIA California Board of Directors noted design “quality” was embedded throughout Steinberg Hart’s extensive retinue of completed commissions and the firm’s “dedication to sustainable design with verifiable outcomes.”
Distinguished Practice Award – Mark Jensen, FAIA
Awarded to an individual, the Distinguished Practice Recipient shall demonstrate a career of dedicated commitment to the built environment and innovation through a variety of tactics, from design to education, mentorship to collaboration.
Mark Jensen, FAIA, founder of Jensen Architects, is such an architectural figure.
Jensen has pursued architecture as a positive cultural force, one that shapes buildings and environments grounded in culture and place, and crafted in dialogue with the future. The cumulative impact of his work—from nonprofit art spaces and a museum addition to creative workplaces and private homes—illuminates the role small practices can have in fostering culturally vital and dynamic communities.
The AIA California Board of Directors recognized Mark Jensen’s career as “exemplary” and the work of his practice “consistently at a high level of design excellence and sensitivity toward landscape and human habitation—all executed with the utmost care. He’s taught, he’s mentored, he’s impacted [a multitude] of people throughout his career.”
Lifetime Achievement Award in Healthcare Facility Design – Linda Taylor, AIA
The recipient of the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award in Healthcare Facility Design founded her firm, Taylor Design, in 1979, in excess of thirty years in advance of the current wave advocating equal opportunities for women in the profession of architecture.
Taylor served as the practice’s president for 25 years, chairman for 12 years, and continues to serve on its Board of Directors, developing a firm that has grown to five California offices.
The Lifetime Achievement Award in Healthcare Facility Design is awarded to her in recognition of a career of dedicated commitment to the built environment and in recognition of significant contributions and accomplishments toward the design and development of healthcare facilities in California.
Taylor’s influence continues to propel Taylor Design, today. Building on her foundation of an inclusive and diverse employee culture and a mission of “Design That Empowers People,” Taylor Design is increasingly recognized as an industry leader with expertise in Architectural Design, Interior Design, Planning, Data Analytics.
“Linda Taylor deserves enormous recognition in regards to the work she did when others didn’t,” the AIA California Board of Directors observed. “As well as the kind of practice she created and then led. She is an early example of a woman leading on her own. Not only did she create an ESOP, a firm with an Employee Stock Owned Plan, but her practice thrive.”
About AIA California
AIA California is dedicated to serving its members, and uniting all architecture professionals in the design of a more just, equitable and resilient future through advocacy, education and political action. It celebrates more than 75 years of service and, today, is composed of more than 11,000 members across the state.
