This year 2010, the award is presented to architect Ahmad Awad Al-Jihayem who made a significant impact on how Kuwait City is portrayed. Through his vision as an architect and his knowledge of the people and the culture, he was able to translate the needs of his clients in design and functionality into monumental forms.

These forms contribute to, and in instances dominate, the picturesque modern city of Kuwait.

Ahmad Awad Al-Jihayem was born in 1942 in Shuaiba, Kuwait. Formal education was not established in Shuaiba, so he studied reading in the local mosque, In 1950, formal education reached Shuaiba. Students in the mosque, including 8 years old Ahmad joined Al-Shuaiba School for boys and for being a model student, the school principal used to take Ahmad to visit parents to persuade them to commit their kids to go to school.

Ahmad completed his middle school classes and moved on to the Shuwaikh high-school, which was the only high-school in Kuwait at that time. He lived on Campus, until graduation in 1962, then went on to study Architecture in the United States of America and graduated at the end of 1968 from Montana State University.

On advice from Arch. Hamid Shuaib, Arch. Ahmad Al-Jihayem joined Kuwait Municipality's Planning Department, working with Eng. Fahd Al-Hasawi and near the end of 1969, Arch. Ahmad was appointed Assistant Manager, the Building Department at the Kuwait Municipality, working on the planning phases of Kuwait.

In 1971, Arch. Ahmad was delegated by the Municipality to visit Poland to learn from their experience in re-building their country after the world war II. He returned from Poland with experience along with a diploma in Urban Planning from Szczecin University.

In October 1972, Arch. Ahmad was promoted to the rank of Managing Director of the Building Department at Kuwait Municipality.

In 1978, he established Al-Jazera Consultant, and that has grown to become one of the leading consulting offices, currently employs 200 people in their Kuwait office, and has also offices in Lebanon. In 1983, he was appointed to the Municipal Council.

Member of

• Kuwait Society of Engineers (Board Secretary)
• National Real-estate Co. (Board of Directors)
• Real-estate Investment Group (Board of Directors)
• Municipality Committee
• Higher Council for housing (Board of Directors)
• Council housing Authority (Board of Directors)
• Compensation Committee

Some of his unique and distinctive landmark achievements in Al-Jazera Office

• Al-Hamra Tower
• Al-Tijaria Tower - Recipient of the 2009 ACI-KC Award of Exc.Al-Asima Tower
• Al-Dhow Tower - Recipient of the 2007 ACI-KC Award of Excellence KOTC Headquarters
• Legal Advice Headquarters
• Kuwait Chamber of Commerce - Recipient of the 2002 ACI-KC Award of Excellence
• KUFPEC Headquarters
• KISR Headquarters
• Arab Open University
• KGOC Headquarters
• KGOC Al-Khafji Office