CHICAGO, IL.- World-renowned architect Adrian Smith will be presented a special award on August 10, 2009, during BLUEPRINTs, an annual event by the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents (SOAR).

BLUEPRINTs, in its fourth year, will celebrate the anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago by honoring a current architect who has made significant contributions to Chicago and developing cities worldwide.

As one of the world’s foremost experts in supertall towers, Adrian Smith is the creator of such masterpieces as the NBC Tower and Olympia Center in Streeterville, the Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago and the soon to be completed Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest structure, located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (each of these projects were completed while Smith was a partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill). A native Chicagoan, Smith graduated from the University of Illinois – Chicago, and in 2006 co-founded Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, and international practice focused on performance based architecture.

SOAR will present its Vision Into Reality Award to Smith at the BLUEPRINTs event. Held at the Museum of Contemporary Art beginning at 6 PM, the event will also feature live music, food by Puck Café, and a silent auction. The award, inspired by the vision of Daniel Burnham one-hundred years ago, honors individuals whose contributions will guide the city through the next one-hundred years.

“The residents of Streeterville take great pride in the architecture that surrounds us. SOAR’s goal is to have Streeterville become the ‘greenest’ neighborhood in Chicago and by recognizing architects that are leaders in this field, SOAR hopes to encourage more environmentally focused development. We are honored to have such beautiful structures in our neighborhood and this award is one way of letting individuals, such as Adrian Smith, know how their work positively impacts the lives of Chicagoans” said Gail Spreen, President of SOAR. “The BLUEPRINTs event allows us to bring together residents, business leaders, and development teams to celebrate all that our world-class neighborhood has to offer.”