As I blogged about earlier this year, I was asked to be one of four judges for Marvin Integrity’s Red Diamond Achiever Awards program. Earlier this summer, along with fellow judges Lou Manfredini, Christine Marvin, and Shawn McCadden, I sifted through hundreds of submissions from architect and builders, judging the following:

• Why they choose Integrity Windows and Doors for the project.
• Challenges they overcame during the design or building phase of the project.
• Unique materials or functionality incorporated in the project.
• Unique requirements for this structure (energy efficiency, performance in extreme weather, etc.) and how they met these needs.
• Exceptionally creative or out-of-the-box thinking that solved a challenge.
• And, of course, photos of the homes.

I have just a couple of quick comments, before getting to the winners. First, judging was fun. I am, after all, the design editor at Fine Homebuilding, and I enjoy looking at homes of all styles, from all around the country, and in all different price ranges. And the folks at Marvin make the work of judging pretty easy with a contest management system where we rate each project on a simple numbered scale and have the opportunity to make comments. The system then tallies the points given by each judge, adds them together, and the winners are identified.

I won’t say which of these projects I was more or less in favor of, but I will say that of the six, there’s an even split—a couple that I felt strongly about, a couple that I felt lukewarm toward, and a couple that I’m not fond of at all. I can’t help but to think that if part of the process had been a discussion of the finalists, I could have swayed my fellow judges toward some other excellent projects. But who knows—maybe I would have been persuaded in surprising directions too. Either way, the debate would have been fun, and I’ll be sure to suggest that we do that next year if I am invited back as a judge.

Last thing: If you enter next year’s awards—and you should—take the submission process seriously. From one project to the next, the effort put toward entry varied from nothing more than a couple photos to photos of a higher quality in addition to a few paragraphs about each of the criteria listed above. I was much more inclined to consider a project with thorough responses than one with just photos, even when they were beautifully shot by professional architectural photographers. The truth is that it’s not that hard to design a stunning house when there are no constraints. But tug on that design a little bit, and it often falls apart. On the other hand, even a design that leaves an odd first impression can become interesting and smart when the challenges and their solutions are understood.

So, without further ado, here are the six winners.

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