AIA Seattle played host to more than 900 people at the city’s Benroya Hall during the chapter’s annual gala to honor designer and client teams who produced this year’s most outstanding architecture. Winners this year included three institutional projects by NBBJ and five residential projects.

Honor Awards

Chicken Point Cabin, northern Idaho, by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen for an anonymous client.

“This ‘little machine of a house’ makes big moves with a small palette. It begins with a framed view and an idea and holds on to them without compromise, handling entries and access rigorously and yet with interesting complexity and texture,” the jury commented. “The architect has drawn on the picturesque, such as the tilt-up door, but without falling into nostalgia. We see here an order of perfect relationships, but with humor.”
Photo © Benjamin Benschneider

University of Washington Bothell/Cascadia Community College by NBBJ for the Washington State Department of General Administration.

The jury commended this massive set of buildings for maintaining human scale. They said it recalled a collection of sheds in a field, “drawing together the learning community and protecting their communal experience while retaining its connection to the world outside. . . . We particularly admired the integration of interior and exterior spaces highly responsive to available light, just what we seek in the Northwest.” The jury noted that architects most likely would appreciate the second-generation (or third) references to the Modernist language of Charles Moore and Edward Larrabee Barnes.
Photo © Tim Griffith

The Point House, Polson, Mont., by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson for an anonymous client.

“We commend the architect’s sophistication that also knows when to stop—aptly demonstrating why one hires an architect!” the jury noted. They were particularly taken with the project’s masterly use of materials, detailing, and “the capture of views and light—separately and cumulatively, they create a wonderful experience of a special place.” Age and rust will only improve the building, according to the jury.
Photo © Dan Bibb

Reeve Residence, Salmon Point, Lopez Island, Wash., by Cutler Anderson Architects for Tom and Sally Reeve.

The jury referred to this project as “a collection of structures [that] respond in a beautifully refined way to the site. The forms combine with strength and clarity, connecting the internal and the external experiences to create a reverie of the landscape.”
Photo ©Art Grice Photography

MERIT AWARDS

Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion, by Miller/Hull for the City of Seattle.

At the heart of a community center, this transformational project provides a new below-grade pavilion that opens a series of processional outdoor spaces at the heart of a community center. “By its placement and form, it enlivens the spaces, structures, and activities that surround it. Internally, it rigorously yet modestly asserts a design language, giving meaning and credibility to details yet standing back and giving center stage to the people and activities it contains,” the jury enthused. “Thus it embodies civic responsibility in design, from site plan to structural detail.”
Photo © Steven Keating

Seattle Center Harrison Street Entry Screen Wall, Seattle, by r-b-f architecture for the Seattle Center.

“The architects have successfully taken on a piece of civic structure, creating a ‘splendid distraction’ that makes this space work,” said the jury. “They’ve achieved a structure light enough to coexist with the EMP. We find this structure delightful both horizontally and vertically, from afar and up close.”
Photo © r-b-f architecture

Keystone Building, University of Washington Tacoma, by LMN Architects for the University of Washington

The Keystone Building not only makes full use of a tight urban space, it also maximizes transit connections that lend vigor and vitality. “With its muscular trusses, it participates in the character of the site, adding a contemporary response to traditional building forms and adapting their vocabulary to new uses,” the jury commented.
Photo © Ed LaCasse and Doug Scott

Bremerton Naval Hospital Clinic Addition and Renovation, Bremerton, Wash., by NBBJ for the Southwest Division, Naval Facility Engineering Command, Department of the Navy.

The design of this addition brings humanity to the serious function of the existing clinic. “Here we see a large program activated by the effective mixture of space uses, with clarity of plan unusual for a hospital of this size and complexity,” the jury opined. “The texture and scale of detail make for a lively and light experience, pleasant and conducive to the health of those who visit and work here. We especially admire the adjacency of clinical spaces to the outside, and the concern for healing that brings these together.”
Photo © Farshid Assassi, Assassi Productions

COMMENDATIONS

Cle Elum House, Cle Elum, Wash., by Lane Williams Architects for an anonymous client.

The jury admired the composition of architectural elements in both plan and section in this house. They noted that “the basic building blocks [are] distorted just sufficiently to create objects of compelling visual presence. A commendable solution to an unusual site opportunity.”
Photo © James F. Housel, Benjamin Benschneider

Seattle Academy of Arts & Sciences Gymnasium, Seattle, by Miller/Hull for the Seattle Academy of Arts & Sciences

The jury found the Seattle Academy of Arts & Sciences Gymnasium to be a model of architectural integrity. “We commend here the skillful use of exterior rhythm and texture and the thoughtful use of grade and setback that allows successful insertion of a large monolithic structure into a neighborhood, making a contribution rather than a ‘woeful large project,’” they said. “This project also shows us that good clean contemporary architecture can coexist with anything!”
Photo © Lara Swimmer, Benjamin Benschneider

River Residence, Mt. Vernon, Wash., by Weinstein Copeland Architects, for an anonymous client.

The jury thought that this house brings a wonderful quality of light into the created spaces, with a pleasing tactile mixture. “The architect demonstrates the ability to marshal construction materials playfully but purposefully to create a comfortable and comforting place for the enjoyment of home and family,” they said.
Photo © Lara Swimmer Photography

Swedish Cancer Institute, Seattle, by NBBJ for the Swedish Medical Center

This project evidences the client’s willingness to invest in quality that enhances the institute’s mission and the architect’s ability dissolve the “typical clinical antiseptic vibe,” the jury noted. “The addition brings a well-conceived change in texture and scale that welcomes and lends humane character to the whole building. Admitting light and a sense of the outdoors into the working spaces brings natural forces to bear on the communal experience of healing.”
Photo © Farshid Assassi/Assassi Productions, Jerry Yin, Wayne Hiranaka

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.