Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects will receive the Firm of the Year Award, and Adele Naudé Santos, FAIA, will be honored with the 2009 Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education.

Outsiders say that architects spend too much energy giving each other prizes, but when Glenn Murcutt won the Pritzker Architecture Prize this year, you could almost hear the cheers.