2014 AIA Institute Honor Awards recipients - Interior Architecture

Our next list for the American Institute of Architects' 2014 Institute Honor Awards features the winning projects in the Interior Architecture category. The AIA Institute Honor Awards recognize the best projects in Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Regional & Urban Design.

Check out the Interior Architecture winners below.

K&L Gates at One New Change; London, United Kingdom
Lehman Smith McLeish International law firm

"K&L Gates’ London office is seamlessly integrated into Land Securities’ complex and iconic One New Change, which was designed by Jean Nouvel. Commanding views of St. Paul’s Cathedral are a backdrop to technologically advanced meeting spaces and collaborative work areas that enhance the provision of integrated global services. The design responds directly to the dynamic and irregular building envelope, with enclosures, ceiling treatments, lighting, and site-specific art that define space and reflect K&L Gates’ physical and strategic brand."

Knoll Flagship Showroom, Offices and Shop; New York City
Architecture Research Office 

"Architecture Research Office’s design of Knoll’s New York showroom, offices, and shop reflects intelligent planning, sensitivity to craft and joyful materiality. A choreographed path draws visitors from the ground floor shop through the showroom and offices. Colorful textile layers define the space, including a vibrant 55-foot wall that showcases 2,400 material samples. Two steel stairs display felt and leather and promote connectivity in the offices, where clients experience open plan, private office and activity spaces in use. This mix of spaces supports a variety of work styles - formal, informal, public and private."

Marc by Marc Jacobs Showroom; New York City
Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects PC; HLW International

"The Marc by Marc Jacobs Showroom is housed within the Manhattan headquarters of the global fashion house Marc Jacobs. The showroom is a reinvention of the client’s original space and addresses the challenge to maximize the use of daylight within the building’s deep floorplate, while simultaneously addressing the need for areas of relative privacy. The design solution employs a central curvilinear glass form as an organizing element of the space which is used to filter natural light while creating subtle visual screening to delineate the private zones."

SoHo Loft; New York City
Gabellini Sheppard Associates LLP

"This 8284 square foot interior renovation enhances the SoHo-Loft typology while creating multi-level garden roof terraces. The design emphasizes lightness, openness, spatial fluidity and permeability. Light, considered as a tangible material, is the premise on which the program and spatial organizations are based on, with the creation of light apertures helping to organize the uninterrupted space. Influenced by the client’s requests to blur the lines of separation between public and private, children and adult areas, thresholds are defined by sliding translucent doors, acting as light filters, while providing flexibility of use."

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust; Los Angeles, California
Belzberg Architects

"The interior architecture at The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust employs natural light and the morphing of space to open and lift or darken and compress the user’s experience at key points. The lighting of the interior galleries dim as the visitor steps deeper into the earth and subsequent rooms, while limited natural light serves as a companion to each patron’s unique experience. The final ascent up is filled with sights and sounds of unrestricted park land. The exhibition design incorporates educational content that is synthesized with all aspects of the design via innovative technology using integrated interactive design methods."

Bar Agricole; San Francisco, California
Aidlin Darling Design 

"This project is a 1,400-square-foot restaurant and bar located in San Francisco’s industrial South of Market district. A wooden “hull”—constructed of reclaimed whiskey-barrel oak, milled into thin strips, and suspended from the ceiling—creates a sense of intimacy in the long, tall interior of the former warehouse building. Above the hull, three existing skylights, fitted with delicate glass sculptures formed from warped Pyrex cylinders, filter natural light throughout the space. Designed to complement the restaurant’s seasonal menu, the interior palette balances warm textures with the use of durable, sustainable materials. Two bars, made of board-formed concrete and old barn beams, anchor the space. Inch-thick ribbons of ductal concrete form the high-backed banquettes."

Odegaard Undergraduate Library; Seattle, Washington
The Miller Hull Partnership 

"The interior renovation of the Odegaard Undergraduate Library re-imagines the learning experience for 21st century students through the astonishing transformation of space in an outmoded 1970s building; accomplished in two years by state mandate. Updates to the massive 165,000 square foot library, serving 10,000 students, 24 hours a day, include removal of an imposing atrium stair, and a 'kit of parts' approach supporting key learning behaviors in a bright, open setting. New seating, individual and group workstations, and Active Learning Classrooms further enhance the academic experience for a collaborative and tech-savvy student body."

The Pierre; San Juan Island, Washington
Olson Kundig Architects 

"A secure and unexpected retreat nestled into a rocky outcropping, The Pierre celebrates the materiality of its Pacific Northwest site. The house—composed of concrete, wood, steel and glass, and topped with a planted roof—visually and physically merges with nature. Inside, rugged surfaces of rock periodically emerge into the space, contrasting with the refined textures of the furnishings. Antique and vintage furniture is complemented by custom-designed pieces, while contemporary works of art are displayed inside and outside the house."

Venture Capital Office Headquarters; Menlo Park, California
Paul Murdoch Architects; Kappe Architects Planners 

"Gardens, transparency and wood finishes create a warm, intimate work environment for this office headquarters of a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. To reduce on-site construction, the two-story office building is made of prefabricated steel modules set by crane on a concrete parking podium. The building interior is designed to temporarily house and incubate young companies, adapting to their changing needs. Strong, accent-colored glass expresses the company’s reputation for risk taking while fine, wire-brushed wood finishes form an elegant and understated feeling in keeping with the firm’s market sophistication."


The 2014 AIA Institute Honor Award for Interior Architecture jury included: David Montalba, AIA (Chair), Montalba Architects, Inc.; Casey Jones, GSA Office of Design and Construction; Mary Morissette, AIA, 4M Design; Robert H. Quigley, AIA, Architectural Resources Cambridge and Josh Shelton, AIA, El Dorado, Inc.

See the winners in the Architecture category and Regional & Urban Design.