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2008 RESULTS The seventeenth annual Inform Awards, assessed by a jury of New York architects and critics, proffered twelve outstanding projects in the categories of interiors, exteriors, and objects. Dozens more were certainly very good, but in a particularly tight competition nine submissions were premiated with Merit Awards and only three with Honor Awards. The jury, itself an eclectic mix of designers, seasoned judges, and thoughtful observers, reflected the programmatic diversity of the projects that follow. As one juror remarked about a memorable submission, "This is a single great idea." In surveying the winners, the jury valued each of these projects as singular in their ingenuity and craftsmanship. The Jury Linda Pollak, AIA, ASLA Affiliate, is an architect, educator, and a principal in Marpillero Pollak Architects, part of the NYC Department of Design and Construction Design Excellence Program. She has taught at Harvard University, the Rhode Island School of Design, and currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. Pollak has received numerous grants and fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Graham Foundation, among others. She is co-author of Inside Outside: Between Architecture and Landscape (1999), and author of essays in Lotus International, Praxis, Daidalos, Appendx, Landscape Urbanism Reader (2006) and Large Parks (2007). Oliver Freundlich is a principal at the Brooklyn-based design/build firm MADE. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Vassar College and a Master of Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture, where he was awarded the Janet Cain Sielaff Award and the Enid Storm Dwyer Scholarship. Prior to founding MADE, Freundlich worked at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners on the restoration of Grand Central Station and as a project manager for Michael Haverland Architects. The Awards Town House Previously commercial space on all three levels, this Washington, D.C. town house is only 18 feet wide. Getting light to the center of a town house remains the building type's most enduring problem, and it's one that the architect resolved with acuity. Remarked Linda Pollak, "This is so opened-up in the middle, which makes the section powerful and functions to integrate the spaces." Oliver Freundlich was also interested in the "decomposition" of the traditional town house plan. "It's got this restored façade, but an unexpected interior. There's some real vertical connection through this space and it's very tactile." All of the jurors appreciated the finishing on every aspect of the interior, from the blue epoxy floors to the use of galvanized steel to the glass. Smithsonian Institution To accommodate 18 different divisions within this venerable Washington institution, the architects had to meet a wide variety of needs including research facilities for visiting scholars, archives, and office space for 800 employees. The new offices at Capital Gallery include nearly 220,000 square feet of public space that jury chair Jayne Merkel called "a real virtuoso." She went on, "there's a consistency without small-mindedness, hints of color that hold your attention, and a real rhythm to the spaces." Pollak agreed, "A lot of office interiors were submitted, and it's clearly a challenge to do something bright and light and airy, but this project succeeds." The jury went on to praise SmithGroup's subtle treatment of the seams that run between surfaces and planes. "It's a very thin edge," Pollak noted, "and it helps to make the space so light." Recording Industry Association of America Headquarters The RIAA may represent the business and legal interests of its members, but as these spaces attest, it doesn't have to be a stuffy affair. "We've seen a lot of lobbyists in the judging today, and these are the fun lobbyists," Merkel noted with a smile. "There's a real spareness here, but also an over-the-top quality that's wonderful and proportionate." Freundlich added that the use of super-graphics to mark different parts of the program was useful. "It draws your attention to the things that are designed and the things that are inherited elements of the space," which occupies the top floor of an early twentieth-century department store. Speaking about the relationship between new and old, Pollak concluded, "There's something about it that's just so resolved and integrated." John Paul Jones Arena Landscape The designers employed a hydrologic infrastructure as a means of collecting and cleaning run-off and, uniquely, as a program for the landscape. Different textures, custom seating, native plants, and a series of retention walls mediate site flows of water and people, both of which have their functional and poetic ways of moving. The jury agreed that in addition to its textured and thoughtful design, the firm's project went a long way towards improving an area that was formerly a parking lot. "It crafts the landscape in terms of striations and there are a lot of different things going on," noted Pollak, to which Merkel replied, "Yes, and most importantly, it's a place that people can use." M2L Collection One of three American showrooms, the M2L Collection's new Georgetown location contrasts with its gritty, industrial neighbors along the C&O canal. White terrazzo and white oak flooring, aluminum and Wenge paneling, and details like the black painted window muntins make the space stand out. "The use of materials and the detailing is incredibly fine, and it was notable for that," said Freundlich. "There's a lot of craft that goes into the execution of such refined details." The subtle interplay among planes and surfaces in the nearly white-washed interior gives visual primacy to the products, "making them look fabulous," concluded Merkel. Ten Year House Lasting over ten years, the project was a renovation of a 102 year-old structure with two newer additions and was executed in stages as budget would allow. Despite its long gestation period, the house emerged as a unified whole. "As a model of a process, it achieves real integration as a project," noted Pollak. Freundlich agreed that "the interiors are very balanced, and it could only come from a relentless attention to proportion through time. There is a complexity to it." The jury agreed that the space is composed of crisp lines and finely crafted details, but did not represent an austere volume. "The space is sculpted," Freundlich went on, "and it holds your interest." The jury agreed that the design approach, steadfast in its attention to holistic growth and sensitive to budgetary concerns, gave the project real integrity. BTR House The Burning Tree Road house was a project conceived as a renovation and addition. The reality, however, is a careful meditation on the relationship between interior and exterior space. "The continuity of the ground plane and the relevance of the ground plane are beautifully addressed," noted Pollak. The jury was also interested in BTR's plan, essentially two volumes that appear to be slipping past each other, which established different relationships inside the house. "The strength of the entire composition impacts the interior by creating these points of view," continued Freundlich. "The way the fenestration frames different views, the subtle details in the millwork, and the furniture-like finishes make the spaces feel very crisp." WTCC Bus Shelter Prototype The new bus shelter at Wake Tech Community College's Main Campus anticipates the growth of the school's public transportation system and satellite campuses. Concrete cast on site, an aluminium frame fabricated off-site, a laminated polycarbonate skin, slate panels, and a simple wooden bench offer a rich, if simple, material palette for the only winner in the Object category. "This, as a bus stop, is nicely done," offered Pollak. The jury felt that the project was a rare example of a well-conceived public amenity, but its achievement was how well it was executed. Pollak went on, "Pieces of streetscape that are spatial and make an environment should be rewarded, and we should be making more of them." Jigsaw Jurors appreciated the architect's play on inside, outside, and connectivity in this project. It is, at first glance, a courtyard house that turns inward from its busy corner lot. All of the jurors were impressed with the way that the notion of "jigsaw" worked in terms of composition (a jigsaw puzzle of a fractured image) and light (as the jigsaw cuts a box, it admits light into the center). "There is a real intimacy here," Freundlich offered, "and light is the most prominent element in all of this." Pollak agreed and noted how "the pieces fold together and apart produce openings. The way the gaps work, they’re like light volumes in and of themselves." Old Frederick County Courthouse Drawing the incredulity of the other jurors, Jayne Merkel's first reaction to the restoration of this 1840 landmark was "It’s very modern. It's a space-driven environment that's very restrained, very symmetrical, and in a building that was beautiful to begin with." The principle space driving the program, of course, is the court room on the first floor, which doubled as a hospital operating room during the Civil War. A warren of second floor offices, once a prison for Union and Confederate troops, has been cleared to create a gallery for exhibits. On permanent exhibit is what Freundlich called "a literal archaeology" of crudely-rendered graffiti from those troops, framed through the gallery's walls. For Freundlich, though, "the centerpiece of this whole project is the courtroom," in which clean, white, newly painted columns, moulding, barrister's bookcases, and newel posts contrast with the warmth and richness of the restored wooden floors. Black's Bar and Kitchen Fighting a darkened, shotgun plan, the architects' biggest challenge was bringing light into the back of the restaurant. Opening it up to the street was the obvious decision, but materiality and imagery was also employed as a way to enhance that experience of openness. "They’ve used a very light wood," remarked Merkel, "and it's a disciplined use of the material." Pollak agreed insofar as, "The different uses of the same wood is so integrated. It's an interesting strategy to have one material and max-out its potential, and there's a real elegance about it." Using the imagery and pallet of a vineyard, the designers transformed what were once featureless, dim surfaces through texture and super-graphics. One wall features a panorama image of a vineyard at sunset while another features over a hundred bottles of wine, like so many stubby branches waiting to be grabbed. Sweetgreen The design challenge for this salad, yogurt, and wrap place was its size. 500 square feet had to contain food storage, food preparation, and circulation space for the health-conscious, Georgetown-area patrons that pass through its doors. "It's so small and modest, so restrained, but also spatially complex," remarked Pollak, who emphasized the clean lines of Sweetgreen's surfaces and how they signal parts of the program. "The wrapping surface of the wood holds your view," she continued, meaning the customer area that is clad in wood and directs you to the menu on the back wall upon entry. "It's strategic and gives the space its scale." Scale and proportion, the jury agreed, was something that this entry demonstrated well. 2007 Inform Award Winners |
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