Architecture’s Jiménez honored in Mexico

Carlos Jiménez, a Rice professor of architecture and principal of the Houston-based Carlos Jiménez Studio, was presented the Lider Academico 2010 (Academic Leader 2010) award by the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Queretaro, Mexico, last week. Jiménez, a tenured professor at Rice since 2000, participated in final project reviews with graduating students and delivered a keynote lecture to the entire school.

“The award is especially meaningful to me,” said Jiménez. “Last fall I received the AIA Houston Educator of the Year Award and now receiving this award from Mexico creates a balance for me, as I am both a Houstonian and a Latin American at heart. It feels good to be honored in the two cultures integral to my life.”

Jiménez lectured students on the “universal value of the local, not as resistance to the global forces that shape our world, but as a charged and insightful opportunity to build better,” he said, citing projects in Houston and Europe to elaborate on how architecture, if fully engaged with its locality, makes a profound difference in the value of the built work. “Otherwise architecture turns into another frantic rush of global opportunism at the expense of everything else,” he said.