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MEET OUR 2025 JURY!
CRAIG BERGMANN, OWNER + LANDSCAPE DESIGNER CRAIG BERGMANN LANDSCAPE DESIGN, INC
With a passion deeply rooted in the harmony of design and nature, Craig’s award-winning work is a testament to his skill, innovation, and commitment to sustainability. At the heart of his practice is a profound respect for the natural world, seamlessly integrated with the architectural heritage of each space.
Bergmann’s award-winning work has been featured in several books including Rosemary Verey’s The American Man’s Garden, Mary Riley Smith’s The Front Garden, Susan McClure’s Midwest Garden Design, and Page Dickey’s book Inside Out: Relating Garden to House, as well as in such periodicals as Garden Design (Golden Trowel Winner in 2007), House Beautiful, House & Garden, Traditional Home, Midwest Living, Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Chicago Magazine, Forest & Bluff Magazine and Chicago Tribune Magazine. Bergmann and his own garden was featured on the PBS television series The Victory Garden in 1998 and on HGTV’s Gardener’s Journal. His own gardens and others of his design have been included on The Garden Conservancy Tours for many years. Bergmann is the editor of the book Midwestern Landscaping, a comprehensive and practical guide to gardening in USDA Climate Zone 5. He serves as an Honorary Board Member of the Elawa Farm Foundation, which he has graciously contributed to over the past decade. He has received numerous awards for his preservation installations.
Craig’s landscape design business has been headquartered at 900 North Waukegan Road in Lake Forest since 2011. The coach house and two gatehouses were designed by the famous North Shore estate architect David Adler in 1917 for A. Watson Armour. Bergmann and interior designer Paul Klug have completely renovated two of the three buildings and reinvigorated the property with the garden installation. Keeping the original Armour Garden plan in mind, Bergmann used much of the plant material from the Country Garden display gardens and recycled historic materials to create similar border gardens with statuary. Beyond that he has re-imagined the entire two-and-a-half-acre property, installing additional garden rooms, a pool area with espalier apple trees, revitalizing the orchard with a dove cote, and restoring the motor court with borders containing Mrs. Armour’s original irises.
An animal lover, Craig is the proud owner of Pepper, Watson, and Cherry, three Norwich terriers, who preside over the property and design studio.
THOMAS CALLAWAY, OWNER THOMAS CALLAWAY ASSOCIATES, INC
Thomas Callaway Associates, Inc. (TCA) is an interior design and residential design practice. Tom Callaway, owner and principal designer, has designed and renovated residences locally and across America, including projects in Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica, Santa Fe, Jackson Hole, Chicago, Wisconsin Lake Delevan, New York City, Natchez, Miami, and Southport, Connecticut.
Based in Los Angeles, California, Tom has been a respected leader in the Los Angeles design community since 1989. Initially an interior design service, TCA soon developed into a comprehensive practice that includes architectural design and planning, construction supervision, landscape design, interior decoration, and a line of custom furnishings and textiles.
In the past 36 years of business, Tom and his team have completed over 100 plus residential projects, including those for numerous film and television actors, directors, writers, producers, musicians, agents, and studio executives in the entertainment industry. This work has brought his firm national acclaim and distinction in many shelter books and well known design magazines. On multiple occasions Tom has been included in “Top 100 designers in America”. He has appeared from time to time on BRAVO and the HG TV Network.
In 2012 Tom opened an art and antiques and furnishings gallery called “Stuff Tom Likes” which can be visited by appointment and can be viewed online at 1stDibs.com. He has also designed and licensed a collection of textile prints “The Left Bank Collection” by THOMAS CALLAWAY PATTERN WORKS for Holland and Sherry that was launched in London in 2015. It will soon be joined by a ‘The Arroyo Collection” based on Tom’s love of indigenous art of the American Southwest, Mexico, Central and South America.
BARBARA SALLICK, CO-FOUNDER WATERWORKS
Barbara Sallick is the co-founder of Waterworks, a noted speaker in the global design community, and the author of several acclaimed books, including The Ultimate Bath (2022), The Perfect Kitchen (2020), The Perfect Bath (2016), and Waterworks: Inventing Bath Style (2001). She has also contributed to books by Phillip James Dodd and Don Ruggles, renowned experts in classical architecture and design.
Barbara served on the board and as Chair of the Wheelock College Board of Trustees where she received the President’s Award for outstanding contributions and exemplary service. After Wheelock’s merger with Boston University, she became chair of the Dean’s Advisory Board of BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development.
She has served on the national board of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, and is on the board of the Decorators Club Education Fund which awards scholarships to high school students with demonstrated financial need, allowing them to enroll in pre- college courses at one of its five partner credited design schools.
Barbara is also a board member at The TileWorks of Bucks County, the historic artisanal tile factory; the honorary chair of Rooms With A View, New England’s premier annual design event; and a former director of Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation. She received Cottages and Gardens’ Innovator of the Year Award in 2015; House Beautiful named her one of its 2020 Visionaries. In 2024, she was inducted into the New England Design Hall of Fame.
Barbara has two sons—Peter, Waterworks CEO and Creative Director; and Dan, a founding partner of Subject Matter, a creative advocacy firm based in Washington D.C.—and five grandchildren.
LEAD JUROR & EMCEE
M. DAMIAN SAMORA, PARTNER FERGUSON & SHAMAMIAN
Originally from Colorado, Damian received his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame and started his career in London at Demetri Porphyrios & Associates. At the encouragement of his University of Notre Dame schoolmates and fellow Partners, Stephen Chrisman and Tom McManus, he joined Ferguson & Shamamian in 1999. Raised in the Rockies, educated in the Midwest and having practiced in London and New York, Damian has been exposed to a diverse range of building traditions and lifestyles. He brings this experience to each of his varied projects across the country including most recently in Washington, D.C.; Telluride, Colorado; St. Louis, Missouri; and the Northeast. Damian’s project leadership led to the firm’s 2022 McKim Mead & White Award for Architecture. A Fellow Emeritus of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, Damian is also Chair of the office Practice Committee. In this role, he helps to ensure the firm best utilizes its assets for design, documentation, and resources, while also fostering an environment of learning and mentorship for the firm’s young architects. Damian and his family live in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and enjoy holidays with family in Colorado and Lake Michigan.
LAUREN VERDINE-PAN, ASSOCIATE AIA, OWNER STUDIO MAKETTE
Lauren Verdine-Pan, Associate AIA, is an architectural designer based in St. Louis, Missouri. She holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Colorado Denver and a Bachelor of Arts in the History of Art & Architecture from Harvard College. Her work draws from both Western Classicism and Asian/Pacific Islander traditions.
Lauren is the founder of Studio Makette, a design practice she launched in 2025 to celebrate architectural traditions and vernaculars from around the world. She is passionate about helping clients express their stories, cultures, and histories through the spaces they inhabit.
Lauren contributes to the architectural community through the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA), serving on the Missouri committee under the Chicago-Midwest Chapter to develop programming in St. Louis and Kansas City. She also serves as a guest juror for graduate architecture studios in the Classical Studies Program at the University of Colorado Denver.
NOTIFICATION OF WINNERS
Winners of the 2025 Jacques Benedict Awards will be notified personally prior to the event but will not be announced publicly until the award gala on September 19, 2025. The winners are highly encouraged to attend or send a representative in their place to receive the award. The winning entries will be displayed on the ICAA Rocky Mountain website and in print and digital media.
Please contact ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter Administrator Ashley Jacobs at info@classicist-rmc.org with any questions.