AIA Interior Architecture Awards: seven projects distinguished with top honors

After announcing the Regional & Urban Design Award winners last week, the AIA now unveiled seven projects to be recognized with the institute's 2021 Interior Architecture Awards. 

Submissions were judged based on design achievement, including sense of place and purpose, ecology and environmental sustainability, and history. The award jury this year included Carol Bentel, FAIA, Chair, Bentel & Bentel; Michelle Watanabe, AIA, Leo A Daly; John Harrison, FAIA, GreenSlate; Venesa Alicea, AIA, NOMA; and Heather Rose-Dunning, IIDA, Yellow Dog Studio. 

A Historic Shipyard Reincarnation, San Francisco, CA
Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects

Project excerpt: "This project is centered on the adaptive reuse of six buildings in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood, where some of the most important naval innovations of the 19th and 20th century once emerged. The cluster of buildings, all constructed sometime between 1885 and 1941, is located on the site of the former Bethlehem Shipbuilding yards, one of the best-preserved industrial complexes west of the Mississippi River. Faced with the challenge of shaping new homes for burgeoning tech companies, the team benefited greatly from the existing structures' solid bones and the abundant natural light streaming in from sizable windows and skylights. All of the buildings have been carefully refurbished to accommodate a vibrant range of interior architectural concepts." ~ Read more about this project here.

Coca-Cola Stage at the Alliance Theater, Atlanta, GA
Trahan Architects/APAC

Project excerpt: "At the heart of a celebrated arts center campus in Atlanta, the Coca-Cola Stage at the Alliance Theatre has been transformed, demonstrating what is possible when a multidisciplinary team works in concert. Perfectly tuned acoustically to deliver world-class performances to its patrons, the project also moved the 650-foot chamber 10 feet closer to the stage and challenged historic notions of segregation and discrimination by removing the separation between the balcony and orchestra. As an additional unifying feature, all seating zones are accessible from every entrance within the chamber." ~ Read more about this project here.

CO-OP Ramen, Bentonville, AR
Marlon Blackwell Architects

Project excerpt: "In this new fast-casual ramen restaurant located in the bustling 8th Street Market in Bentonville, Arkansas, seemingly unrefined materials help create a quiet oasis. The simple materiality has been handled with care to shape a composed and richly textured space that focuses inward while creating a compelling dissonance between new and old. The market opened in 2016 inside a former Tyson Foods plant. Where processed chicken tenders were once churned out daily, a food hub now offers shoppers and diners exciting opportunities to share meals and build community. CO-OP Ramen provides a social and comfortable space, presenting ramen, a humble yet elevated dish, in surroundings that reflect its nature and popularity. While the food provides an intense culinary experience, the surroundings offer moments of seclusion from the commotion of the surrounding market." ~ Read more about this project here.

High Desert Retreat, Mountain Center, CA
Aidlin Darling Design

Project excerpt: "Perched on a rocky plateau near California's Palm Desert, this retreat embraces the rugged climate and offers captivating views of the Coachella Valley and the San Jacinto Mountains. Informed by a simple brief that called for a modest home to serve as a retreat from the owners' busy urban lives, this abode quietly contrasts with the surrounding landscape's lighter palette. Many camping trips on the site allowed the team to better understand the climate's nuances, including the significant temperature swings between day and night and the positioning of the site's pinyon pines and sculpture-like boulders. Enhanced by the power of the ever-changing light conditions, these trips shifted the thinking around the house, leading to a vision of it as a simple framing device through which to observe the dynamic terrain." ~ Read more about this project here.

Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences Middle School, Seattle, WA
LMN Architects

Project excerpt: "By embracing its tight urban context and vertical organization, the Seattle Academy of the Arts and Sciences has taken the next step in the evolution of the school’s campus. At the corner of Union Street and 13th Avenue in Seattle’s vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood, this six-story academic volume reflects the scale of its mixed-use commercial surroundings. A lower volume dedicated to the pursuit of athletics mirrors the residences that line 13th Avenue. The school’s core academic spaces are found on the upper floors of the nearly 70,000-square-foot building. Leveraging often-overlooked rooftop space, the team placed an outdoor playfield there to provide opportunities for physical activity." ~ Read more about this project here.

Tanglewood Linde Center for Music and Learning, Lenox, MA
William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc.

Project excerpt: "The Linde Center for Music and Learning at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s longtime summer home in the Berkshires, was envisioned as a place where new ideas around music could commingle with cultural enrichment. Against the backdrop of a captivating landscape, the center is a cluster of four new buildings that help bridge Tanglewood’s acclaimed music festival and its summer music academy, which provides no-cost fellowships to some of America’s most talented professional musicians. Connected by a serpentine pathway, the center’s four buildings house Tanglewood’s educational programs, recitals, and lectures, including the Tanglewood Learning Institute. The recently launched program provides classical music patrons extraordinary access to top-tier musicians as they work to hone their craft. Through all of its programs, the center aims to immerse audiences deeper into the process of creating music." ~ Read more about this project here.

Vilcek Foundation, New York, NY
Architecture Research Office

Project excerpt: "This extensive restoration has transformed the Vilcek Foundation's new five-story New York headquarters, furthering its critical work of raising awareness of immigrants' contributions in America and broadening appreciation for the arts and sciences. With new space for exhibitions and administrative functions, the project unites an original 1919 building with its mid-1960s renovations at a pivotal moment in the foundation's history. Outside, the team's renovation strategy merged the original masonry building along Central Park designed by William H. Rogers with later modifications handled by Carson, Lundin & Snow. The cohesive composition is defined by its refined proportions, materials, and details." ~ Read more about this project here.