by ArchitectureWeek

In July 2004, the California Council of the American Institute of Architects (AIACC) chose this year's recipients of its annual design awards. Projects cited range from single-family houses to high-tech laboratories, and from adaptive reuse of modest structures to cutting-edge contemporary design. These buildings demonstrate many ways to insert design excellence into the loftiest or humblest of sites.

Heading the AIACC line-up is the Finn Center, the sole recipient of an honor award. This is a community school for music and arts in Mountain View, California, designed by Mark Cavagnero Associates. As were some of the other projects cited by this statewide awards program, the Finn Center was previously featured in an ArchitectureWeek article about the metropolis-wide San Francisco Bay Area awards announced earlier this year.

The Finn Center houses classrooms, private music studios, visual arts studios, administration space, a recital hall, and outdoor performance space. The two-story structure allows for tall daylit classrooms, and the forms help to buffer the interior spaces and courtyard from nearby traffic noise.

The recital hall was designed to enable most musical presentations to occur without amplified sound. The room is acoustically and visually lively, with its exposed concrete walls partially covered with screens of wood that project the music emanating from the stage.   >>>

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Recital hall of the Finn Center, by Mark Cavagnero Associates, which received the honor award for design excellence from the AIACC. Photo: Tim Griffith Northside Community Center and Mabuhay Court in San Jose, California, by David Baker Partners. Photo: Michell Peckham   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.