Cover story: Housing industry honors year’s best with GALA

The housing market in the Washington area is showing some signs of recovery, but that alone wasn’t the reason marketing, design, real estate and building industry professionals celebrated on Sept. 29 at the Ritz Carlton Tysons Corner. As part of the 2009 Great American Living Awards (GALA) event, they gathered to recognize and honor each other’s successes during a tough year for the housing industry.

The big winner of the evening was Brambleton, a master planned community in Ashburn with lakes, wooded areas, fitness trails, swimming pools, tennis courts and recreational activities, along with entertainment, shops and restaurants at Brambleton Town Center. The Loudoun County community by Soave Real Estate Group won a grand award for community of year in addition to GALAs for best community landscaping, best sales office, best Web site and marketing director of the year, Kim Adams.

EYA was also a big winner with Terry Eakin and Bob Youngentob accepting the 2009 GALA lifetime achievement award. In addition, EYA won awards for innovative land planning, green building and interior design for Capitol Quarter in the District.

The GALA event was presented by the Washington Metropolitan Sales and Marketing Council (WMSMC), Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association (MNCBIA) and the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association (NVBIA).

This is the first year for the GALA, which are the result of combining the former Major Achievement in Marketing Excellence (MAME) awards program of the WMSMC and the former Monument awards program of the MNCBIA and the NVBIA.

The GALA program celebrates excellence in new home architecture and building, interior design, and sales and marketing. The volunteer judges ranked the entries in more than 30 categories by carefully considering each sales and marketing entry along with visiting the homes and communities in the design and architecture categories. Criterion for judging the homes and communities included a combination of design excellence, value and the overall quality of living. Green building awards were scored on their ability to reduce environmental impact during development, resource efficiency, energy-efficient design and indoor environmental quality.

The following is a listing of GALA winners. For more information, visit www.greatamericanlivingawards.com.

Design and architecture

Home of the year: Detached - winner, Maymont Innsworth, Basheer & Edgemoore Homes LLC, Lessard Architectural Group Inc.; multifamily - winner, Maple Lawn, Sugar Maple, Bozzuto Homes Inc., LRK Architects Inc. and Carlyn and Co. Interiors + Design

Community of the year: Condominiums - winner, Silo Point, Lyons & Sucher, Carlyn and Co. Interiors + Design, Turner Development Group; planned community - winner, Brambleton, Soave Real Estate

Best design and architecture, detached home

Less than 2,500 finished square feet: winner, Lady Smith Village, Lessard Architectural Group Inc., Christopher Cos.; award of merit, Snowden Bridge, Brookfield Homes Corp., Sutton Yantis Associates Architects

2,500 to 3,200 finished square feet: winner, Saranac, Brookfield Homes Corp., Sutton Yantis Associates Architects

3,201 to 3,800 finished square feet: winner, Green Acre, Building Group, Lessard Architectural Group Inc.; award of merit, Tysons Chase, Marquis Homes, Lessard Architectural Group Inc.

4,801 to 6,000 finished square feet: winner, Brambleton, Gulick Group Inc., Sutton Yantis Associates Architects

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