White House Redux, a contest to build a fictional White House updated for 2008 sensibilities, announced the jury selections for its designs last week. But the jury is still out on who will win the popular vote, as is the prize that the winner will receive.
The original White House design, by James Hoban, was the result of a competition held in 1792. Storefront for Art and Architecture and Control Group have run with that concept and called on designers in January to envision what the structure would look like if that contest was held today.
White House Redux garnered 487 entrants, and its five person jury awarded prizes to four finalists last night. But the competition is not over.
J.P.
Maruszczak, Ryan Manning, and Roger Connah were awarded $5,000 last night for winning the jury prize, but Storefront and Control Group are leaving the size of the popular prize up those fickle online viewers.
When viewers come to the site,
vote, look at the different entrants, and — most importantly — click on the ads at the bottom of the page, they are contributing to site's earnings. And 100 percent of those profits are going to the winner of the popular vote on November 3.
Currently, the size of the prize is currently a petite $87.75, but whitehouseredux.org has only been live for a week, and that sum will only grow in the coming weeks.
"The site has a lifespan of five weeks," says Campbell Hyers, President and Partner at Control Group. "We're enjoying looking at something with such a short existence and watching it grow." The website currently features a shortlist of about 40 designs chosen by the jury and gives viewers the opportunity to pick their favorite.
Hyers says that most of the viewership to the site (which peaked so far on September 22 when the winners were announced at around 10,000 views) is due to the teams checking in on their projects and telling friends about their work. As media outlets (like this one) mention the project and contenders continue to publicize their work, that number will only go up.
Considering what a small percentage of click-throughs contribute to payment (somewhere between $.001 and $.005 per thousand clicks), Hyers was quite impressed that the prize money was near $90
when we spoke. "I was almost as excited to see that the popular vote prize would be something like $9. If it goes to 10,000 we’d have a ridiculous situation going on."
Just like in the presidential election, there can be discrepancies between the candidates chosen by those in charge and those who win the popular vote. Currently the first prize jury winner, Revenge of the Lawn, has only 54 votes, while an unranked design by Jorge Rocha Antunes, which envisions an artificial organism growing around and protecting The White House, is currently winning the popular vote with 4305 votes.
By next week, all of the 487 entrants will be online, and popular sentiment may shift again.
But one thing will definitely change — the size of the prize the winner will receive.
Photo: White House Redux Project 397, by Alex Fuller and Sam Spratlin
