Bowdeya Tweh

btweh@enquirer.com

Members of Greater Cincinnati’s design community want to call out development projects with poor or boring design.

The Cincinnati Design Disaster Awards are intended to highlight the “less than stellar achievements in local architecture, interior design, graphic design and landscapes.” The awards, which will be announced Friday, are intended to coincide but not compete with the Cincinnati Design Awards happening the same day.

The award is intended to channel the Golden Raspberry Awards, or “Razzies” which has been an annual event for more than 30 years highlighting poor acting, directing and songs in cinema.

The Cincinnati Design Awards Eighteen, which convenes four design organizations including the Cincinnati chapter of the American Institute of Architects, will be hosted at the Contemporary Arts Center. The design awards are intended to promote the vitality of Greater Cincinnati’s design community and honor great design work and the creative people behind it.

With the Design Disasters, Eric Avner says people aren’t trying to be hurtful. Instead, it’s good-natured, “tongue-in-cheek” encouragement to push developers, designers and owners to pursue better projects, says Avner, who helped organize the event.

“People from all parts of town are starting to recognize the city isn’t in a position where we have to beg for development,” says Avner, who is vice president and senior program manager at the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./US Bank Foundation. “The time of ‘all development is good development’ is past. The city is in a resurgence. There’s a heightened awareness of walkable, quality environments and people are starting to be encouraged to demand a little better from investments that are in the public realm and built environment.”

Area residents and people from Cincinnati’s design community raised concerns this summer about the aesthetic quality of The Banks development and other new projects.

Avner said the announcement of the award winners will be done at a separate site to not detract from the more prominent awards celebration.

To nominate a project or development as a “Design Disaster,” visit tinyurl.com/cdda2014. The deadline for submissions is Thursday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m.