CHICAGO, Jan. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has conferred its 2013 Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design to Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (Cities Initiative) for their work to create a vision for an international region that contains the largest source of surface fresh water in the world. Known as "The Great Lakes Century – a 100 Year Vision," the work highlights the many challenges faced in the region and defines a future that takes full advantage of the water resource in a way that is sustainable in the long term. The 100 Year Vision sets out ideas on many themes such as agriculture, energy, transportation, water, urban areas, higher education, and more to give the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence community a much better sense of what is possible for the region.
