The San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) received five awards from the American Institute of Architects California Council (AIA-CC) at the 2010 Awards and Installation Celebration held at the Solage Resort in Calistoga, Calif. Among the awards, three of the firm’s projects received merit awards for design while the firm’s Structural Engineering Studio earned an achievement award for research and technology. SOM San Francisco was also awarded the 2011 firm award.

Projects that were recognized included the US Embassy in Beijing, which received the Merit Award for Architecture; Parkmerced Vision Plan, which received the Merit Award for Urban Design; and the Tianjin Financial City Vision Plan, which also received the Merit Award for Urban Design.

The SOM San Francisco Structural Engineering Studio received the Achievement Award: Research & Technology Honor Award. The studio is under the direction of Mark Sarkisian, PE, SE, LEED® AP. Sarkisian and his team have created seismic structural systems that allow buildings to behave mechanically during seismic events without sustaining damage in order to reduce the carbon footprint associated with repairs. They have devised a method to utilize post-consumer waste as a building material. And have developed a tool to quantify carbon emissions of structures and the potential positive impact of using the enhanced structural systems and post-consumer inclusion systems they have invented.

Finally, SOM San Francisco received the 2011 Firm Award, the highest honor the AIACC can bestow on an architecture firm. This award recognizes firms that have consistently produced distinguished architecture that transcends a specific area of expertise.