Kamphoefner Prize

Katherine Hogan, AIA, and Vincent Petrarca, partners in life and in the award-winning Raleigh firm Tonic Design, were honored to receive the 2017 Kamphoefner Prize at the AIA North Carolina Design Conference held in Wilmington September 13-15.

Named for the founding dean of NC State University’s School (now College) of Design, Henry Kamphoefner (1907-1990), the $10,000 Prize is one of the highest honors for practicing architects in the state.  This marks the first time the Prize has been awarded to a husband-wife partnership.

“Everything we design, we design together,” Petrarca stressed. “So the only possible way we could receive this incredible honor or any other award is together.”

“It is an honor to be recognized among those who are dedicated to forwarding the modern tradition in our place,” Hogan added. “We have many mentors on this list of past recipients, who we have followed and been inspired by over the years. We are honored to be recognized as part of this group.”

Among past Kamphoefner Prize recipients are AIA Fellows Arthur Cogswell, Frank Harmon, Jeffrey Lee, Kenneth Hobgood, Ellen Weinstein, Phil Szostak, and Roger Cannon.

The Path Leading to The Prize
Over the past decade, Hogan and Petrarca have amassed an array of awards and honors:

• They’ve already received 41 design awards, including 27 awards sanctioned by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
• Their work has been published over 40 times in magazines, professional journals, architectural websites, and blogs.
• They’ve lectured at architecture schools and design conferences since 2007, including the AIA National Convention.
• They’re served their profession in various capacities through AIANC, AIA Triangle, and both NC State and Syracuse universities. They’ve also served on numerous professional awards juries.
• Since 2011, they have been adjunct professors at North Carolina State University’s College of Design and Visiting Critics at Syracuse University. They’ve also served as guest jurors for architectural studios at five different universities, including the University of Illinois in Chicago.
• In 2013, they were named Residential Architect magazine’s “Rising Stars” out of all young firms in the nation.
• In 2014, Hogan received Triangle Business Journal’sWomen In Business “Future Star” award.

Kamphoefner Prize winners must be currently practicing in North Carolina and must have consistently contributed to the development of modern architecture for at least 10 years “without yielding to any of the undesirable current clichés, neo-modernistic mannerisms or artless historicism that have flawed the building culture of today,” as Dean Kamphoefner wrote when he and his wife, Mable, established the Prize in the 1980s.

Attesting to the Tonic duo’s consistent contributions, Will Bruder, FAIA, of Will Bruder Architects, Phoenix, AZ, wrote in his Letter of Support, “Their design solutions have become both distinctively original and memorably relevant. Their work exemplifies not only the best traditions of modernism but also an abiding respect for the clients and communities they serve,” he wrote. “Katherine and Vinny both honor the architectural tradition that Dean Kamphoefner envisioned,” Michael Speaks, Ph.D., Dean and Professor, Syracuse University School of Architecture, noted in his letter. And J. Patrick Rand, FAIA, a Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the NCSU College of Design, asserted his belief that their work “transcends necessity and moves toward poetry, but does so with a language that is the fusion of conceptual ideals and practical circumstances. [Their] buildings show that proportion, materiality, space and experience are the essential contents of architecture.”

For more information on The Kamphoefner Prize, visit www.aiancawards.org.