This year’s 2003 Honor Awards projects range in size and scope from a single room to a new building for the New York Public Library. All of the 2003 interiors awards projects are located in the continental U.S. New York City tops the list of locations with the most projects (four), with other winners in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas, and suburban Washington, D.C. “The broad range of work that has been selected is striking,” said the jury. “The projects we selected really separate themselves by their own inventiveness from the MOCA exhibit to the chapel in Louisiana. Some are really striking in their immediate impact, while others require you to look closer—like the floor in Lutece—to find subtle detail. The projects represent the spirit of something new, but in the freshest ways.”

Collins Gallery, Los Angeles, by Patrick J. Tighe, AIA, for Michael H. Collins. Photo © Art Gray.

This project, a remodel of an existing structure in West Hollywood, Calif., questions the tenets of traditional residential architecture by combining the public function of an art gallery with the domestic components of a house. The new building accommodates the needs of residents as well as large gatherings. Its major architectural challenge was to create a spacious gallery space within a relatively small building envelope. The existing site condition consisted of a 1,400-square-foot residence of substandard construction and no architectural significance on a 4,000-square-foot lot. City regulations required that the square footage and footprint of the existing structure be maintained, along with a minimum of 50 percent of the existing walls. The architects created a scale-appropriate solution that is in keeping with the neighboring buildings. They introduced a new load-bearing wall that bisects the building on the diagonal, creating two distinct zones and therefore separating the public from the private functions. They also induced a forced perspective within the gallery by allowing the space to taper in plan and section out to the garden courtyard. A 20-foot-long reflecting pool extends the gallery-floor plane beyond the building envelope. The domestic zone consists of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen, all of which can be accessed from the main gallery space. Sliding partitions of glass close off the rooms from the gallery. “The unusual geometry of the plan works beautifully for living among the works of art,” commented the jury. “The home shows an intensity about the care in the making and an attention to detail and craft.”

Global Crossing Corporate Headquarters, New York City, by Lee H. Skolnick Architecture, for Global Crossing, Inc. Photo © Peter Aaron/ESTO.

Global Crossing, Inc., acquired several floors of office space as their new headquarters within an award-winning office building designed in the 1970s by I.M. Pei. The company’s vision was to project an extremely forward-looking identity embodying the baseline tenets of the company: connectivity, speed, security, and cutting-edge technology. The architects responded with a design solution that strips all extraneous information from the space—partitions, hung ceilings, standard lighting, and floor coverings—and adds back only what was needed to provide appropriate workspace for the spirit and function of the client. The result offers a pronounced juxtaposition of a 21st-century, process-oriented enterprise in a classic 20th-century corporate envelope. Responding to the spectacular top-floor New York City views and the immediacy of communication that forms the core of Global Crossing’s mission, the project became a laboratory for exploring notions of transparency and translucency, openness and enclosure. The attractiveness of what this company achieved and the success of the work environment in interpreting its core qualities led up to its merger with a communications giant. “Of all the corporate interiors, this was the most successful in creating spaces versus developing work stations,” the jury concluded. “It meets the requirement for collaboration in a way that allows it to be memorable.”

Craft, New York City, by Bentel & Bentel, Architects/Planners LLP, for Foodcraft LLC. Photo © Eduard Hueber, Arch Photo.

Foodcraft LLC firmly believes that cooking of any kind is a craft, not an art. For this restaurant, it planned to use the highest form of “uncomplicated culinary craftsmanship to explore the full flavor of each artisan-raised ingredient on the seasonal menu” and serve “these ingredients unadorned on separate plates placed at the center of each table for all to share.” The owner’s approach motivated the architect to experiment with a limited set of materials and the most suitable craftsmanship required to join them. The goal became to shape a simple yet texturally and spatially rich interior that integrates with the food and service both functionally and metaphorically. The resulting restaurant includes 130 seats, 3,500-bottle wine vault, and a 2,200-square-foot kitchen spread over a 2,975-square-foot first floor and 2,450-square-foot cellar. Five distinct elements—the rectilinear steel-and-bronze wine vault, a curved Brazilian-walnut and leather-paneled wall, a space-expanding triptych, existing terra-cotta-clad columns, and amber-hued, bare-bulb chandeliers—modulate the scale of the 14-foot-high space of the first floor as patrons move through the 80-foot-long room. All furnishings and fittings, including the cherry dining tables and bronze bathroom sinks and hardware, were designed to celebrate their materials and the simple craftsmanship used to assemble them. “You don’t normally see brick, wood, steel, and leather work together this well; the subtle contrast between raw and refined materials creates a subtle tension in all the details,” said the jury. They thought that the space dealt very effectively with its acoustics and pronounced the overall scheme “very, very romantic.”

Kate and Laurance Eustis Chapel, New Orleans, by Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, for Ochsner Clinic Foundation. Photo by Neil Alexander of New Orleans.

A large medical institution commissioned this small chapel to serve the spiritual needs of the hospital’s patients, families, and staff. The new space replaces an existing hospital chapel that was subsumed within the larger institutional environ-ment and essentially became invisible to the public. Remodeling for expansion of the existing building’s critical-care functions allowed the hospital to identify a new site that offered an opportunity to resolve many of the deficiencies inherent in the facility’s existing religious space. As an interdenominational facility, the new chapel could not rely on specific religious symbols or iconography to assert its claim as a sacred space. The design alternatively introduced more universal themes of healing and reconciliation to engage its visitors. Seen from the main hospital corridor, the chapel manifests a mysterious, luminous presence. The darkened entry begins to establish the ritualistic sequence of spaces that typically anticipate places of prayer. Light emanates from within the chapel through a stained-glass wall that narrows to an entry door. On the opposite wall, a list of donor names glows in backlighted relief, appropriately shining additional light on the entry. In contrast to traditional religious space, this small chapel deals more with personal meditation and individual reflection. “There is a slipping and sliding of planes and the use of cool blue tones as a nice metaphor for release,” according to the jury. “The layering in such a small space is done in a very sensitive way, making you feel protected; the architecture comforts you and lifts your soul.”

Gardner-James Residence, New York City, by Valerio Dewalt Train Associates Inc., with Associate Architect Interior Group Searl Blossfeld, for Tracy Gardner and Dani James. Photo © Steve Hall, Hedrich Blessing.

This project transformed an ordinary, white drywall apartment in a six-story industrial loft building, with the clients moving in one month after they closed on the property. Instead of thinking of “homestead” as a construction, the architect considered it as a line of appliances that would be installed in this perfectly ordinary house. And just like the kitchens in the tract homes of the 1950s, the entire home’s appearance would mimic the line of Hotpoint appliances being used, including the stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher. The architect brought back old appliances to “connect the apartment together with their worn and abstract visage.” The appliances define the place and separate one function from another. Yet, they still have purpose: “Open the vegetable drawer and find the home office, open the oven and find the kitchen.” All in all, the architect says, they are an old idea that still works. “This project is clearly a different way of living,” the jury said. “It’s a simple idea with a great deal of richness in its solution . . . It provides an architecture and language to a calm and simple space.”

ImageNet, Oklahoma City, by Elliott + Associates Architects, for BMI Systems, Inc. Photo © Robert Shimer, Hedrich Blessing.

“This project really tells a story about graphics that are normally thought of in two dimensions, but have been translated into a real 3D experience,” explained the jury. “Lots of metaphors, like the stacks of paper and the paper walls that blend with the graphics story, offer a rich layering of meanings from a number of perspectives.” This project developed because BMI Systems, Inc., was to move from its parking-garage home to new space within the parent company’s corporate headquarters. The architecture team had several goals: Share the history of the company through design, create economic and recruitment benefits with consolidation, instill efficient work flow and employee pride, and create a sales tool that will add value and create an advantage over and above pride and service. The team introduced the company’s history and the development of the photocopy process through the use of historic and rare typewriters as art objects surrounded by walls of copy paper (390,000 sheets) to represent the end product. The wall panels of text describe the invention and history of the copy machine, and the smaller ceiling panels add company history. Two months after the project completion, a major law firm with a large scanning/imaging job, which already had interviewed BMI’s competitor, agreed to a tour of the new facilities, during which they learned about the BMI history, philosophy, and approach to the design of the building. One hour after the presentation, the law firm called to tell BMI they were hired for what proved to be the single largest job in company history. “The whole story of the business is embedded in the design,” said the jury. “The design is the business.”

Lutece, Las Vegas, by Morphosis, for Ark Restaurant. Photo © Farshid Assassi.

The design for this Las Vegas restaurant developed as both an architectural suggestion of, and a foil to, the chaos and immutable movement of the casino environment. The architect aspired to create an oasis that would be free of the noisome, frenetic qualities that threaten to encroach from the casino’s strategically planned insular and disquieting environment. Through a small portal, serving as “a reverse Alice’s looking glass,” the diner leaves the chaotic to arrive at the serene and finds a refuge created through a restrained articulation of materials. “The space’s geometry emanates from an abstraction of the classical formal dining room, finding its generative source in the massive chandelier above the main dining space and evolving through a fluidity of forms to mediate between the adjacent dining and bar areas,” according to the architect. A bronze wall in the form of a conical ellipse wraps around the main dining room, anchored by an elliptical sculpture set in the floor and composed of 19,000 PVC-cast human figures placed by hand in the translucent resin base. “Looking at this project in the context of Las Vegas, this is a wonderfully subtle, sophisticated place in the midst of chaos; it is a ‘pause’ in a 24-hour city,” the jury explained. “The simplicity of the elements—the stark white, the wonderful wood, and the deep black—sets up the contrast and the enveloping feeling.”

Martin Shocket Residence, Chevy Chase, Md., by McInturff Architects, for Patricia Martin and David Shocket. Photo © Julia Heine.

After the clients bought their 1920s four-square catalog house in an older suburb of Washington, D.C., they turned their attention to a one-story building of equal footprint in the backyard. Built as a photographer’s studio, it was connected from the house by a “hyphen” room that resolved a half-story level change. The architect set out to integrate the former studio into a family room, first by opening up the connection between the two spaces and then orienting the studio-turned-family-room to a wide side-yard garden. A spare Modern aesthetic contrasts with and complements the existing house. Steel and glass-block windows offer privacy from neighbors, and a column-free porch adjusts the room to its various orientations. The room’s generous dimensions allowed the architect to articulate walls and ceiling by projecting surface planes into the space without sacrificing function. Reveals between the planes conceal lights and blinds. The sparsely furnished room houses a television behind rolling doors, fireplace, and pool table. A cantilevered bench on a glass block wall invites repose while the owner runs the table. “The achievement is remarkable in its transformation from a single characterless room; every square inch has been thought through, from the wood columns to the sliding screen of the fireplace. An elegant and refined solution indeed," said the jury.

“The Architecture of R.M. Schindler” exhibit at MOCA, Los Angeles, by Chu + Gooding Architects, for the Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo © Linda Pollack.

The architecture team assembled to design and build this exhibit had a number of objectives. First, under an extremely modest budget, they strove to create a tactile and spatial backdrop to view various formats of Schindler’s work without mimicry. Of utmost importance was the exhibits’ ability to evoke the spirit of experimentalism in Schindler’s work without the use of overt references. Second, the team committed to creating a display system that would bring a sense of coherence to the variety of formats of works on display while resolving the conflict between the overwhelming scale of the gallery and the relatively small-scale artwork. Another challenge for the team was the need to create a first space within 20 feet that would prepare the viewer to focus on small-scale and subtle drawings. The jury agreed that “the project’s detailing is in the spirit of Schindler but not overbearing. It represents the tradition of Schindler without overtaking the exhibit. The details—integration of illustrations and models—are handled with intense care.” They found the quality of assembly of materials to be remarkable and were impressed by the project’s quiet and appropriate inventions. “The designer captured Schindler’s technique of playing vertical against horizontal planes . . . big shooting planar surfaces moving from one gallery to another,” the jury concluded. “This exhibit can really be pulled off wonderfully in any gallery space because it’s quite separate from the space. It’s very tactile—playing soft against hard, smooth against rough.”

South Court, New York Public Library, New York City, Davis Brody Bond, LLP, for the New York Public Library. Photo © Peter Aaron/ESTO.

This project, a new, 42,500-square-foot, three-story structure, resides in the open south courtyard of the New York Public Library, a national landmark building. The new $29 million building accommodates the library’s public education program as well as administrative/staff support, plus an electronic teaching center, auditorium, administrative offices, and an employee lounge located on the glass-walled top floor. The original building, completed in 1911, has earned its place as a remarkable and historically significant New York City structure. In designing a new building within this space, the architect acknowledged the importance of creating a modern structure respectful of its historic Beaux Arts elder, yet one that offers an important contemporary addition to the institution itself. Consequently, the new structure contains a level of detail comparable to that of the original. Skylights adorn the entire structure, while the floor, set back from the existing stone walls of the courtyard, reveals the façade to the public for the first time. The original foundation walls are exposed at the bottom of a glass staircase, which descends from the first floor to the auditorium. The upper floors are cantilevered, held back from the original walls by glass partitions, thus adding to the feeling of transparency. “The new building is really a non-building that subdues itself in order to highlight and reveal the beauty of the existing historic building,” the jury noted. “This is a very good way to give the space ‘air’ and openness. It is an elegant resolution.”

Central Synagogue, New York City, by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, LLP, for Central Synagogue. Photo © Peter Aaron/ESTO.

This is a “fabulous building made outstanding,” the jury enthused. “It’s more than one would expect in a restoration project.” The architect believed that of all late-19th century New York City structures, none conveys greater optimism in the future of America than this synagogue. Designed by Henry Fernbach, often cited as the first Jewish architect in America, it cues off of a traditional basilica plan and is remarkable for its high-Victorian, Moorish-inspired design. In 1998, a fire severely damaged the building, as did the thousands of gallons of water used in its rescue. Miraculously, the Ark, while damaged, remained largely unscathed. Rather than start from new, the congregation decided they would rather rebuild within the historic walls, and thus the architect met the charge to create a detailed restoration that celebrated the synagogue’s historic character while making the building a more functional contemporary space for worship. To bring the synagogue into the 21st century, the architect updated the building systems; installed state-of-the-art audio and video systems; reconfigured the sanctuary, foyer, and entrance stair; and led extensive excavation and renovation of the lower levels so that they could become a multipurpose hall and mechanical room. The jury loved the project’s exuberance and care not to be too flashy. “There are challenges in restoration with the infrastructure—air and telecommunications—and yet there’s no sign of this,” they remarked. “These challenges never interrupt the restoration and beauty.”

Copyright 2003 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.