The first annual DIGGY Awards!

Last week, SERA held its first annual DIGGY Awards, an event that celebrates the firm’s culture of design and innovation. Project teams from across the firm put together submissions representing their best work from the previous year, and the entire firm voted on the winners.

Organized by SERA’s Design Initiative Group, a collective of designers and subject-matter experts from every SERA studio and discipline, which holds year-round design-focused initiatives that enhance SERA’s design culture and excellence, the DIGGY’s goals were to:

• Celebrate our commitment to design and the impacts it has on our community
• Encourage individuals, teams, and studios toward design excellence
• Strengthen our design culture and spark creative inspiration
• Showcase how experiential design enhances the sustainability and equity in our work
• Recognize individuals and teams for their design achievements
• See what everyone is working on!
• Award categories encouraged broad participation.

LIVE: Places we call home, including neighborhoods, single-family, and multi-family residences.

WORK: Places we work, including corporate offices, campuses, downtowns, and master plans.

PLAY: Places we entertain ourselves, including hospitality, outdoor spaces, and parks.

CONNECT: Places we meet, including civic institutions, streetscapes, and projects in the public realm.

WILD CARD: This category was open to any project that didn’t fit the above categories.

Managing Principal Joe Pinzone said, “What a fantastic opportunity to come together and celebrate the remarkable design work that is happening across the firm. I’m so proud of all the submissions and the talented SERA teams that champion design in their work every day!”

The event itself was a fun, celebratory evening with a delightfully campy Oscars vibe, including witty banter between award presenters, star-studded fashion, tearful acceptance speeches, and paparazzi-like photo ops.

It was an enormous amount of fun and gave everyone at the firm a chance to appreciate work that they don’t always get a chance to see, including the winning projects below.

LIVE: The Hattie Redmond Apartments

WORK: 1265 Borregas

PLAY: Crooked Goat Brewery

CONNECT: Lake Merritt AIDS Memorial

WILDCARD: B43 Lobby

Project Designer Brendan Post played host and helped plan the event. “Collaboration and communication are so important to our design culture here at SERA. The Inaugural DIGGY Celebration & Awards Show was an opportunity for our offices in Portland and Oakland to meet up, party down, and revel in the amazing work we’ve done together over the past three years. Staff members in both offices worked hard together over the past months to make this event a reality, and it showed as the laughter and good vibes flowed on what turned out to be a magical evening.”

Congratulations to the winners and all the participants! We can’t wait to see what you come up with next year!