The Root Awards

Celebrating Portland innovation, creativity, and craftsmanship— both professional and DIY

Judge Biography Karrie Jacobs

Architecture writer and critic Karrie Jacobs has written for the New York Times, New York, Metropolis, I.D., and Fortune. She is the author of the book The Perfect $100,000 House: A Trip Across America and Back in Pursuit of a Place to Call Home. Jacobs was the founding editor in chief of Dwell and founding executive editor of Benetton's Colors magazine. She is currently a contributing editor at Metropolis magazine, where she writes a monthly column. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Judge Biography Katherine Lambert

A leading advocate of ecological design practices, Katherine Lambert is the founding principal of Metropolitan Architectural Practice, a firm that encompasses architecture, environmental design, product design, and digital media design. She is chair of the interior design program and professor of visual studies at the California College of the Arts. Her design projects have been published in such periodicals as Architecture, Progressive Architecture, Architectural Record, I.D., Metropolis, and Interior Design, among others, and her work resides in the collections of Canada's Banff Centre for the Arts and the Canadian Centre for Architecture and at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Dia Art Foundation, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Judge Biography Iris Harrell

Iris Harrell is the founder and president of Harrell Remodeling, an award-winning design-build company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Founded in 1985, the firm now has more than 500 clients. She has taught design and remodeling courses throughout the Bay Area and is a regular speaker at national building conventions, including those hosted by the National Association of Home Buildings (NAHB) and the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI). Harrell Remodeling is a certified green business in Santa Clara County's Green Business Program, having met the program's standards for preventing pollution, conserving resources, and minimizing waste. Harrell lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Judge Biography DennisAllen

As the founder and president of Allen Associates, a green construction company, Dennis Allen is a nationally recognized authority on environmentally conscious building practices. He chairs the Dean’s Council of the Donald Bren Graduate School for Environmental Sciences and Management at the University of California-Santa Barbara and has taught college courses on sustainable design and construction for over 30 years. Allen has spoken on green-building issues before the Policy Advisory Board of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, and a variety of community groups. Allen is also active in community organizations in and around his hometown of Santa Barbara, California, including the Sustainability Project, the Green Building Alliance, the Santa Barbara Contractors Association, and the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects. For eight years, he has served as a member of Santa Barbara County’s Innovative Building Review Program, which encourages energy efficiency and sustainable practices in building projects.

Judge Biography ChuckMiller

Chuck Miller is Fine Homebuilding magazine’s special issues editor, in charge of creating two of its popular annual issues, “Houses” and “Kitchens & Baths.” A former remodeling contractor in Berkeley and San Francisco, Miller joined Fine Homebuilding in 1980. Since then, he has been instrumental in its success, serving as senior editor, managing editor, and executive editor prior to his current role.
Miller studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and won the Sea Ranch Design Award for a house he designed in Sea Ranch, California. He also has worked as an illustrator and photographer. Miller makes sculptural furniture and enjoys playing the guitar in his spare time. He lives in Newtown, Connecticut.

Please direct additional questions to Xylia Buros, Design Awards Coordinator:

Logos-static