Architizer is hosting the world’s definitive architectural awards program, with 50+ categories and 200+ jurors. Alanna Okun, Assistant Editor -Shift at Buzzfeed, will be covering relevant stories and news relating to the jury, the categories, and latest updates related to A+. To learn more about the awards, visit architizerawards.com.

Evan Sharp has taken a fairly unexpected path for an architecture alum: soon after completing his degree at of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), he co-founded Pinterest, the explosively popularimage-curation site, along with partners Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra. Just two years later, the platform boasts over 23 million monthly unique visitors. Sharp took the skills he developed in architecture school and applied them to the web and tech, and in the process, changed how millions of moms, wedding planners, and design fans curate their lives. Continue.

It’s easy to make fun of Pinterest; exactly how many people in the actual real world need that much melted-crayon art, or Mason jar light fixtures, or ombre hair as part of their day-to-day? But what Sharp’s site undoubtedly does is give its users the power to curate. No longer are you restricted by a beauty editor’s list of what products you should buy, or a magazine’s photo spread of beautiful homes. Now, you can make your own boards, with images brought in from a seemingly infinite range of sources.

Sharp’s own Pinterest boards reveal his vast array of interests. He has ones with names like “Interesting Maps” and “Architectural Moments,” of course, but also “Crazy Mario Sh*t” and “Musicians Doing Funny Things During The Holidays” (although the latter, sadly, only has two pins so far.) He’s a quintessential “pinner”, juxtaposing the highbrow and lowbrow content he cares about in a single platform. Not that there’s anything remotely lowbrow about a baby onesie covered in pictures of Princess Peach. “Above all else, I consider myself an information designer,” Sharp writes in his Architizer bio. “Someone who empowers people through design.”

Sharp just signed on to serve on the jury for the A+ Awards, which recognize innovation in architecture and aim to break the field out of its echo chamber. By that, we mean serving up architecture to the public and opening it up to other cultural and creative industries. That also means a lot more web chatter, aggregating, memes, and yes, pins about architecture. Buildings do belong next to brownies, and cantilevers can be just as fun as cats (well, almost). That’s what the A+ Awards wants to help do, and with the help of tech developers, thought leaders, creative professionals and adventurous architects like Sharp, we’ll achieve that goal.

by Alanna Okun

posted in A+ Uncategorized

tagged A+ jury, Architizer A+ Awards, evan sharp, innovation, memes, pinning, Pinterest, super mario

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