Wing Luke Asian Museum Wins Two Design Awards

The Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle, WA, designed by Rick Sundberg, FAIA LEED AP of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects has received awards in two major national design competitions: a Great Places Award given by the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), Places: Forum of Design for the Public Realm, and Metropolis magazine; and the International Interior Design Association’s (IIDA) prestigious 36th Annual Interior Design Competition.

The 2009 Great Places Awards honored seven exemplary projects in architecture, planning, landscape architecture, and urban design. Wing Luke Asian Museum received a Place Design award, for a built project that demonstrates excellence as a human environment. The jury praised the skill with which the restoration was completed, especially the way much of the building’s patina was retained.  The insertion of new program elements on lower floors and structural members throughout was also well and carefully attended to.  The result today is a sensitive setting for the evocation of the immigrant experience and the continued vitality of Asian-American communities in the city.

The other Great Places Award winners were Snohetta AS for The Norwegian National Opera, Oslo, Norway (Place Design); the University of Texas, Dallas Urban Laboratory for Vision 2030: West Dallas Gateway, Strategic Framework Initiative (Planning Award); CJ Lim, Studio 8 Architects for Guangming Sustainable Park, Shenzen, China (Planning Award); Takako Tajima for Resuscitating the Fez River: Procedures to Create New Public Space in the Medina of Fez (Planning Award); University of Minnesota, and Ann Forsyth for Design for Health (Research Award) and Daring to Look: Dorothea Lang’s Photographs and Reports from the Field, by Anne Spirn; published in 2008 by the University of Chicago Press (Book Award). Click here for images of the other Great Places Award winners.

Awards will be presented in May at EDRA’s 40th annual meeting, in Kansas City, Missouri.  Winning projects and commentary will be published in the Fall 2009 issue of Places. The jurors were: David Lake, Principal, Lake/Flato Architects, San Antonio, Texas, Elizabeth Macdonald, Professor of City and Regional Planning and Urban Design, University of California, Berkeley, Rahul Mehrotra, Professor of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Principal, Rahul Mehrotra Associates, Mumbai, India, Lawrence Speck, Professor of Architecture, University of Texas, Austin; Principal, PageSoutherlandPage, Austin, Texas, William Sullivan, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architect’s design for the Wing Luke Asian Museum is one of six winning projects in the International Interior Design Association’s (IIDA) prestigious 36th Annual Interior Design Competition.

The six winners in the 36th Annual Interior Design Competition were chosen from nearly four hundred projects submitted in the following practice areas: Commercial, Education/Institutional, Government, Healthcare, Hospitality, Residential and Retail.

In addition to the Wing Luke Asian Museum, the other winners were: Greenhouse Nightclub – New York, NY (Bluarch Architecture + Interiors), Nishimura Restaurant, Shangri-La Hotel – Beijing, CHINA (CL3 Architects Limited); Museum of Tolerance – Los Angeles, CA (Cannon Design); Fornari Headquarters – Milan, ITALY (Giorgio Borruso Design); Cathedral of Christ the Light (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP). Gallery More North in New York, a gallery/exhibition space devoted to the best of contemporary Nordic art and design, designed by KOKO Architecture + Design was chosen as the winner of the 17th Annual Will Ching Design Competition, which honors outstanding commercial design by firms of five or fewer individuals.

“We were pleased to see so many entries this year from which our distinguished panel of judges selected a globally diverse group of winners representing multiple areas of practice,” stated Viveca Bissonnette, IIDA, CID, LEED AP, IIDA Vice President of Communications and Associate at Carrier Johnson + CULTURE. “The winning projects range in size and scope but all exemplify IIDA’s mission to enhance the quality of life through innovation and excellence in interior design.”

Judges for the competition included Suzanne Tick - President, Suzanne Tick Inc.; D.B. Kim - Principal Designer, D.B. Kim Inc.; and Erla Dogg Ingjaldsdottir, Associate IIDA - Principal, Minarc. The judging took place February 28, 2009 in Chicago.

All winning projects not previously published will be featured in the NeoCon issue of Interior Design Magazine, the publishing partner for the competitions. The judges’ selection for Best of Competition will be officially revealed and all winners will be celebrated at COOL, IIDA’s NeoCon Gala to be held Sunday, June 14.

Wing Luke Asian Museum also recently received a Special Merit Award in the Historical Restoration category by ABC (Associated Builders and Contractors).

Images: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects; all photographs by Lara Swimmer