34th ANNUAL INTERIORS AWARDS WINNERS

This morning, the 34th Annual Interior Awards, presented by Contract Magazine honored Michael Graves with the 2013 Legend of the Year Award and Joey Shimoda the 2013 the Designer of the Year Award and 11 Firms Honored for Design Excellence. Contract's Editor in Chief John Czarnecki, Assoc. AIA emceed the prestigious award breakfast at New York's Cipriani 42nd Street. Projects ranged from public spaces to offices to adaptive reuse.

MICHAEL GRAVES , 2013 LEGEND AWARD

Michael Graves is an iconic architect who also engages interiors and product design. He looks at furniture and objects as references to inform architecture and draws with a purpose. I admire his work and his marvelous sketches. He teaches us, "sketches express the interaction of our minds, eyes and hands and create an emotional connection with the work."

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JOEY SHIMODA, 2013 DESIGNER OF THE YEAR AWARD 

“The process of making meaningful and beautiful spaces is a

fragile and precarious journey. By receiving this honor, I am fortified in believing that all of our effort inspires excellence in design.” 

 Shimoda Design Group is a talented 10 person firm that designs memorable architecture. In Mr. Shimmoda's  Steelcase Work Cafe he goes beyond its design program -  it touches the personal lives of their employees. 

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The 2013 Interiors Awards jury selected one winner in each of 13 categories. 

The 2013 jurors were: 

Stephen Apking, FAIA, interior design partner, SOM; 

Dina Griffin, AIA,IIDA, NOMA, president and partner, Interactive Design, 

Nancy Keatinge,president and partner, Felderman Keatinge + Associates; Alan Ricks, cofounder,MASS Design Group; 

Margaret Sullivan, director of interior design, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture.

ADAPTIVE REUSE

Confidential Multimedia Entertainment Company by FXFOWLE Architects

New York, New York

'FX FOWLE Architects expertly transformed the historic New York armory building from the 1900s into a space where remnants of its past life co-exist with modern design.'

(image by Frank Oudeman)

EDUCATION

Cranbrook Art Museum Renovation and Collections Wing by SmithGroupJJR

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

'The Crankbrook Art Museum shows that renovation goes hand in hand with

preservation. The design team added 31,000-square-feet of space and made vital upgrades to the existing structure while maintaining the integrity of Eliel Saarinen's original design. '

(image by James Haefner)

ENTERTAINMENT

Wuhan Pixel Box Cinema by One Plus Partnership

Atlanta, Georgia

'For this 95,000-square foot cinema in Wuhan, China, One Plus Partnership selected a single motif—the pixel—and used it as the fundamental element throughout their design, creating the most avant-garde movie house in the city.'

(images by Ajax Law)

HEALTHCARE

Randall Children’s Hospital by ZGF Architects

Portland, Oregon

'When designing this 334,000-square-foot facility that consolidates previously separate healthcare services, ZGF Architects had one goal in mind—to combat the fear and anxiety of patients and their families.'

 (images by Hedrich Blessing)

 HOTEL

Grand Hyatt New York by Bentel & Bentel Architects/Planners

New York, New York

'Over a two-year period, Bentel & Bentel Architects/Planners transformed the public areas in one of New York's busiest hotels into a functional yet sophisticated urban public space.' 

(images by Eduard Heuber)

LARGE OFFICE

Microsoft Vienna by INNOCAD

Vienna, Austria

'Microsoft's Austrian headquarters in Vienna challenged INNOCAD to create a space that would entice mobile workers to come into the workplace, so the designers strove to create an environment that would give employees the feeling of being on a 'working holiday.'

(images by Paul Ott)

PUBLIC SPACE

Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum by HGA

Minneapolis, Minnesota

'Melding beautifully into the cemetery landscape, the Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum commemorates life and legacy with contrasting yet subdued textures and circular motifs.'

(images by Paul Crosby)

RESTAURANT

Untitled by Rockwell Group

New York, New York

'Untitled—the latest addition to New York's Whitney Museum of American Art—is an architecturally flexible café that is remarkable for its ability to transform into a variety of spaces to suit the museum's ever-changing programmatic needs.'

(images by Paul Warchol)

RETAIL

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Store by Marlon Blackwell Architect

Bentonville, Arkansas

'Functional, tactile, and a clear extension of the Moshe Safdie-designed museum building: this was the challenge presented to Marlon Blackwell Architect for the design of the 3,040-square-foot curved, concrete space that was to become the museum store. The design team drew inspiration from Mark Niehues' unique basket weaving style to provide the space with a character that reflected the regional pride and identity of the Ozark Mountain Range.'

(images by Timothy Hursley)

SHOWROOM

Chongqing Mountain and City Sales Office by One Plus Partnership

Chingqing, China

'Taking inspiration from the mountain profiles of the Nanshan District, the Chongqing Mountain and City Sales Office reinterprets nature in high chic style. This idea materializes in the interior architecture's terrain of "valleys" and "caves." The 19,375-square-foot, two-level sales office is unlike any other real estate showroom: its various rooms are accessed by journeying through a topography of slanted, triangular masses of grey marble.'

(images by Ajax Law)

SMALL OFFICE

XAL Competence Center (XALcc) by INNOCAD

Graz, Austria

'For this 20,500-square-foot renovation of an aging 1950s warehouse, INNOCAD focused on lighting and acoustics to set a tone and create an ambiance conducive to productivity and innovation. The large, open volume was divided into three zones that preserved the warehouse's industrial quality while turning it into a modern space with daylight.' 

(images by Paul Ott)

STUDENT

'For her Senior Capstone Project at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design,Architecture, Art & Planning, Nicole Germano chose to design a learning environment for children. "As a child, I felt like the learning environment suppressed my imagination,"she recalls. Her thesis project, Play Lab, cultivates "controlled chaos" by balancing structured activities within a stimulating and flexible environment.' 

SUSTAINABLE

22 squared by Gensler

New York, New York

'22 squared's Atlanta headquarters—originally a dark space with walled-off offices and segregated departments—was at odds with its innovative cross-disciplinary business model. To increase collaboration among workers and departments, Gensler designed spaces that encourage run-ins, replaced walls with glass panels, and coated most of the remaining walls in a writeable finish, so nearly every square foot is a potential work surface.'

(images by Michael Moran)

(all images courtesy of Contract magazine)