We donned our party dress to join 700 of you at AIA's annual gala. Above, we snapped Glassman Shoemake Maldonado Architects receiving the firm of the year award. Ernesto Maldonado and Carrie Glassman Shoemake met in '92 when their sole practitioner offices were next to each other. They realized they shared a background in art history and a common philosophy toward their practices and merged in 1997. (A water-cooler merger.) They split their efforts between single-family and affordable housing projects, including designing award-winning Brays Crossing for New Hope Housing.

Karen Lantz won the 2013 Ben Brewer Young Architect award; we found her with her mentor FAIA/UH prof Donna Kacmar. Karen came by architecture naturally--her grandmother was an interior designer and her father was an engineer. She has been married to her high school sweetheart for 18 years and designed his dental office, which won a national interior design award. The gala also celebrated three Houston AIA members named to the College Fellows: gala co-chair Kendall/Heaton's Larry Burns, WHR's Anthony Haas, and FKP's Cynthia Walston.