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Remembering Fay Jones | |
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California AIA Awards 2004 | |
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American Landscape Awards 2004 | |
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California AIA Awards 2004 The Finn Center exterior expresses the structure's complexity, using wood siding as a visual and tactile contrast to the concrete. After unanimously selecting this project for top honors, the jury reported: "The school is an example of the elegant handling of materials: the richness is beautiful. Its plan is very controlled and made to look simple, which it is not. The interior of the auditorium is magnificent." Housing, Public and Private Among the 19 AIACC merit awards, several are residential. The Northside Community Center and Mabuhay Court in San Jose, California, by David Baker Partners, combines low-income-senior housing units with a community center. This mixed use gives seniors easier access to meals, socializing, and other services provided in the center. The apartments are a mix of studio, one-, and two-bedroom units, all adaptable for persons with disabilities. The apartments have private balconies and porches linked to walk-up stoops, mimicking the privately owned houses in the neighborhood. Contrasting with Northside in many respects is another award recipient, "Hilltop Studio" in Pasadena, by Marmol Radziner and Associates. This is a renovation of a rectangular 1950s-era studio on five acres with dramatic views out to Catalina Island and the San Fernando Valley. The restoration included enclosing the terrace with sliding glass panels, integrating a traditional Japanese influence with contemporary design. Patterned trellises, screens, and tiles compose light and shadow, and a variety of "outdoor rooms" extend out from the interior spaces. Equally innovative, though sited on a more pedestrian site, is a design-build project, "745 Navy Street" in Santa Monica, by Joel Blank and Susie Tashiro Architects. The renovation of a small 1926 bungalow on a narrow street in an unassuming neighborhood now has a new life. Despite a low budget and modest material selections, the architects were able to reduce feelings of confinement. They removed all existing interior walls to eliminate physical delineations between spaces. They further extended perceived interior spaciousness by installing large expanses of glass with views into the front, rear, and side yards. Adapting for Reuse Many of the AIACC merit awards went to projects that brought new life to structures that had seen better days. One is the 1898 Beaux Arts San Francisco Ferry Building in San Francisco, revitalized by the firms of SMWM, Baldauf Catton Von Eckartsberg, and Page & Turnbull. Now, as 100 years ago, the building serves as an iconic San Francisco landmark. The "grand nave," once for ferry passengers, is now lined with small shops and restaurants. Another adaptive reuse project is Apple SoHo in New York City, by the Berkeley office of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, with associate architect Ronnette Riley Architect, FAIA. A clear glass construction has been erected inside a 1920s neoclassical post office. Both ferry building and post office hold historical significance, but equally ingenious adaptive reuse projects occur in rehabilitated warehouses and other structures with little apparent architectural merit. One such "silk purse made from a sow's ear" is El Centro del Pueblo Philanthropic Youth Service Center, by O.N.E. Company and Fernando Vazquez/Studio. From a rundown, windowless office building, the architects fashioned a recreation center to attract and serve at-risk youth in Los Angeles. Now, natural light enters from above and through "solar tubes." Bright colors, inside and out, reflect the vibrancy of the Latino neighborhood. Another Los Angeles silk purse is "Jigsaw" which Pugh + Scarpa transformed from a rough warehouse space into a facility for a film editing company. The interior was designed to suit the dual needs of film editors: for both social interaction and seclusion. Screens filter the daylight, creating a moody twilight. A different approach to revitalizing a warehouse is evident in the award-winning California College of the Arts Graduate Center in San Francisco, by Jensen and Macy Architects. In forming individual work studios for fine arts graduate students, the architects transformed the dark building into a daylight-filled art studio. They built a new skin of corrugated, twin-wall polycarbonate that provides light for the artists while fitting into the industrial neighborhood. From the outside, it looks opaque during the day, becomes a mirror at dusk, and glows at night. Blending new and old materials was the strategy of John Friedman, Alice Kimm Architects for the Los Angeles Design Center and Cisco Brothers Showroom. On the ground floor, the main entrance is identified by a door of stainless steel plates woven together to resemble a piece of fabric. Textured concrete welcomes visitors in the atrium space. The architects' attention to design is fitting for a building with a role not only as a furniture design center but as a model for further redevelopment of the surrounding environment. Ten more projects (shown on the next page) also received AIACC merit awards. The annual "Firm Award" went to Marmol Radziner and Associates and the "Maybeck Award" to Daniel Solomon, FAIA. Two "Lifetime Achievement Awards" were given to Donlyn Lyndon, FAIA and Daniel Dworsky, FAIA. The AIACC design awards jury included Hugh Hardy, FAIA; Sally Harrison, AIA; Mark Horton, AIA; Robert Hull, FAIA; and Eric Naslund, FAIA. >>> Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...
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