AIA Chicago to Honor Geoffrey Baer with 2014 Distinguished Service Award
11.13.2014
The AIA Chicago board of directors has selected Geoffrey Baer as the recipient of the 2014 AIA Chicago Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes individuals and organizations who have given outstanding service to the Chicago architectural community as a whole, including service to the profession, public service or education.
Baer, an award-winning television producer, writer and host, is one of the most visible faces in the world of Chicago architecture. A constant on local public television station WTTW, Baer is a vocal champion of Chicago's architectural history, having produced and starred in documentaries such as Chicago's Loop: A New Walking Tour, Chicago's Lakefront, Chicago by Boat, among others, and in his weekly segment on the program "Chicago Tonight," where he fields questions about Chicago's architecture and history. More recently, Baer hosted the national PBS special Ten Buildings that Changed America and is currently working on a three-part series about the homes, parks and towns that changed America. Baer also contributed the preface to the recently released third edition of the AIA Guide to Chicago.
Baer is a board member of The Art Institute of Chicago's Architecture + Design Society and an emeritus board member of the Lookingglass Theater Company. His numerous awards and honors include recognition from the National Association of Broadcasters, U.S. International Film and Video Festival, Society of Architectural Historians, American Society of Landscape Architects, the CPB Gold Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Emmy Awards.
Baer will be presented with the AIA Chicago Distinguished Service Award at AIA Chicago’s joint holiday party with SMPS, on Monday, December 8, 5pm, at Studio Paris, 59 W. Hubbard St. During the program, he will engage in a lively Q&A.
