October 29, 2019
Dawn Finley, associate professor, Rice Architecture, and Lonnie Hoogeboom, director of planning and design, Houston Downtown Management District
Dawn Finley, associate professor, Rice Architecture, and Lonnie Hoogeboom, director of planning and design, Central Houston Inc., the Houston Downtown Management District, and the Downtown Redevelopment Authority.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Houston chapter last week honored Rice Architecture Associate Professor Dawn Finley with the Educator of the Year Award and Rice Architecture alumnus and longtime Rice Design Alliance (RDA) supporter Lonnie Hoogeboom (M. Arch. ’96) with the Civic Vision Award during the organization’s annual awards ceremony on October 22.

Finley, who is also the director of graduate studies at Rice Architecture and founding principal of Interloop—Architecture, was recognized for her many years of excellence in teaching.

Finley currently teaches a graduate core design studio; teaching students to think conceptually and analytically, gain expertise in analogue and digital techniques, take positions on a range of important architectural questions, and suss out alignments between their individual ambitions and architecture's potentials. In the fall, she will lead an advanced seminar, Pliable, that foregrounds experimental fabrication with textiles, a campus-wide interdisciplinary workshop, and guest speakers.

Finley’s work at Interloop—Architecture has been recognized through awards and exhibitions, attracted international attention, and has been published widely in leading industry publications such as Dwell, Architectural Record, Architecture, I.D Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. In 2016, Design Intelligence named Finley one of the world’s 25 Most Admired Educators.

Hoogeboom received the Civic Vision Award in recognition of his work for the Houston Downtown Management District, where he is director of planning and design. He is also the director of planning and design for Central Houston, Inc., and the Downtown Redevelopment Authority.

An accomplished architect, Hoogeboom joined the Downtown District in March 2010, contributing his leadership and vision to urban projects such as the renovation of Market Square Park; the Main Street Improvements; and the Downtown Living Initiative, a residential development incentive program that will result in as many as 5,000 new residential units in downtown. As a champion for RDA, Hoogeboom co-founded the annual RDA Spotlight Award, which recognizes the work of exceptionally gifted national and international architects in the early stages of their professional career.

About RDA

Rice Design Alliance is the public programs and outreach arm of Rice Architecture. We curate public programs, architecture tours, design competitions and publications that communicate the importance of design in our everyday lives and its ability to make our lives better. We are based and work from within the Rice Architecture school as an advocacy group that believes that multidisciplinary and research-based design can improve our cities and the way we live in them.

RDA was established within Rice Architecture in 1972 by a group of faculty and civic-minded community members who believed that quality design thinking should be available to all in our community and that Houston’s citizen’s – experts and non-experts alike – should feel empowered to act and transform our city through design.