Why is this Corpus Christi woman the architecture world's equivalent of an Oscar winner?

What could be bigger than an Oscar?

Why ask? Because of an honor conferred recently upon Corpus Christi architect Elizabeth Chu Richter. She was named a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, which has existed since 1908 and has been allowed to call itself "royal" since 1909, the year William Howard Taft became president of the country to the south. This institute predates the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  by 19 years, if you're counting.

Check out the company she keeps

The other four architects named by the institute along with Richter are a clue as to how big a deal this is. Their names — Renzo Piano, Denise Scott Brown, Ivenue Love-Stanley and Vishaan Chakrabarti — won't mean much to the architecturally uninformed, i.e. most of us. But they are a who's who of what's what in 20th and 21st century architecture.

Piano and Scott Brown are among the most influential architects of the 20th century. Love-Stanley is the first African-American woman to become a registered architect in the U.S. Southeast. Chakrabarti is an influential architecture professor at Columbia University/

Where does Chu Richter fit in?

That's an easy one. In addition to her award-winning design work, she is an influential voice in explaining the value of architecture to non-architects. For 11 years she did two-minute radio segments for NPR stations, titled "The Shape of Texas." In 2015 she served as president of the American Institute of Architects. Not the Corpus Christi chapter. The whole organization.

Chu Richter received the AIA's Young Architects Award at age 51, which made perfect sense to architects but took some explaining for a general audience to understand, so here goes: She met her husband David in architecture school but postponed her career until age 40 to stay home with their children until their youngest turned 6. So she was young, career-wise, at 51. Also, famous architects are known to do a lot of their best work long after they're eligible for full Social Security benefits. The Richters are no exception in that regard.

The list of noteworthy projects by Chu Richter, her husband and their firm is long, even if you don't stray out of Corpus Christi. She incorporated one of the Port of Corpus Christi's first buildings, a cotton warehouse that was there on opening day in 1926 and that the port hadn't gotten around to knocking down, into what now is the thoroughly modern Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center. It is a favorite venue among those who attend lots of highfalutin banquets and such.

And it hardly scratches the surface of what Chu Richter and her husband have done. Their work is a feature of the campuses of Del Mar College (East and West campuses) and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, including the show-stopping Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. They have designed ports of entry along the border, bus stops, rest stops and an eye-catching visitor center outside Amarillo designed to look like a mold of the Palo Duro Canyon, inverted.

Stopping the list here leaves a lot unmentioned. But the point is made that Chu Richter deserves this honor as much for doing architecture as talking about it.

Why care about what the Canadians' opinions on architecture? First, consider Canada's climate and terrain. Now, consider that its architects have fit a so-called built environment into that country's overwhelmingly beautiful but challenging natural environment. Their opinions on architecture should count for something.

What makes their award better than an Oscar? It recognizes work that lasts like steel-reinforced concrete.