This year’s 2004 Honor Awards projects range in scope from a new church to an old church transformed into a culture center, from an exhibit for an architect’s retrospective to a tent-city and shipping-container warehouse cum office. Seven of the 2004 interiors awards projects are located in the continental U.S. and one is in Rotterdam. California takes top place with striking projects in Santa Monica, Encino, and L.A.

American Meteorological Society—Editorial Offices, Boston, by Anmahian Winton Architects, for the American Meteorological Society
This project is an expansion of the American Meteorological Society’s historic mansion in Beacon Hill, built in 1806 by Charles Bulfinch. The program called for new editorial office space for 13 editors in an historic carriage-barn shell. The architects recognized the need to introduce a mezzanine to accommodate everyone and thus established a project built on the relationships among the existing shell, new steel beams and perimeter plates, and an object-like mezzanine. As an object, the mezzanine serves as a container for the workstations above and provides lighting and a sense of enclosure for the workstations below. In keeping with the original character of the barn, the palette of materials is simple and direct: plywood, structural lumber, fiberglass panels, and raw unpainted steel. “The building archetype is respected and the new architectural gesture is clearly inserted, and the both are better for it,” said the jury. “Love of detail is celebrated; it looks like it was built by a master carpenter.” Photo © Peter Vanderwarker Photographs.

Co-Op Editorial, Santa Monica, Calif., by Pugh + Scarpa, for Co-Op Editorial
“The clarity of material use and simplicity of form is appreciated; the love of material—wood, glass, concrete, steel—helps transcend the project,” enthused the jury. “The use of color, light, and the manipulation of all the elements create an interesting juxtaposition.” The design of this 4,700-square-foot tenant improvement evolved from the challenges of remodeling an early 1963 Frank Gehry-designed commercial structure in the heart of downtown Santa Monica. The design examines the tension among materials, form, and experience. Of particular interest to the architects was transcending traditional craft and elevating humble materials without trying to make them into something other than what they really are. Two basic materials, wood and plastic, are transformed from benign surfaces into sculpted space. A 100-foot-long wood wall was created by a direct transfer method. In contrast to the carving method of the wood construction, 1/8-inch colored acrylic panels were layered to a thickness of 1 inch for the facades of the adjacent lead-lined offices. The panels are backlighted from large skylights located within the interior of their respective offices. The movement of light and people engages and actives the entire space, giving it a quality of time and movement. Photo Credit: Marvin Rand.

Academic Center for Student Athletes at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, by Trahan Architects, A.P.A.C., for Louisiana State University
The architects approached the renovation/adaptive reuse of this historically significant 1930s gym/armory by maintaining the original look and feel of the exterior skin while respecting the original volumes of the interior, all while designing an optimum learning environment. They used a simple, consistent color and materials palette and clean, uninterrupted spaces, with subtle variations and depth becoming more apparent and appreciated over time, They also minimalized the visual impact of new mechanical, electrical, and fire-protection systems, leaving only simple volumes and materials. The facility now provides more than 55,000 square feet of state-of-the-art academic facilities, including a 1,000-seat auditorium, a hall of champions, and an academic hall of fame. “So much technology and structure is included and integrated beautifully, the project made the building better than it ever was,” according to the jury. “There is an appropriateness of the interior gesture that shows a sophistication of the reading of the original building.” Photo © Art Gray.

Carol & Carl Montante Cultural Center, Buffalo, by Cannon Design, for Canisius College
Dedicated in 1926, this 20,000-square-foot decommissioned church is a historic landmark and a rare example of Byzantine-Lombardic architecture in the U.S., replete with a Gustavino-tiled dome on its interior. While preserving the form and architectural integrity of the church, the architects transformed the building into a cultural center on a 2,500-student liberal-arts college campus. The program called for a 600-seat, multipurpose space suitable for a variety of performance types, plus additional space for small performances and meetings. Infrastructure systems were in need of upgrade, and, most importantly, the acoustics of the space—historically, very poor—needed to meet the performance criteria of this $3.4 million, multiple-use facility. The solution led to the overall concept of establishing new constructed pieces as an “insertion” within the existing, undisturbed fabric of the building. “The respect for the original architecture is clear, and the lightness of the gesture helps to create the soaring feeling in the space,” said the jury. “The technology becomes the new ornament in an old ornamented space.” Photo ©Tim Wilkes/Tim Wilkes Photography.

NAI Exhibit—Silent Collisions: Morphosis Retrospective Rotterdam, The Netherlands, by Morphosis, for the Netherlands Institute of Architecture
This exhibition came at a significant moment in a continuous transition within the Morphosis studio: a shift from the use of direct, physical materials and modes of expression—drawing and traditional architectural modeling—to the use of digital technologies that increasingly blurred distinctions between built form and process, the architect reports. This project, thought of as an exhibit armature, represents a “horizontal layering of space” that enables a temporary reworking of the permanent main gallery. The visitor entered directly into a luminous fabric fold suspended within the volume of the permanent building. The fold changes almost imperceptively over the course of an hour, symbolizing the architects’ fascination with motion within the architectural realm. From the fold, the visitor could move down into a catacomb-like structure in which two decades of architectural drawings and models were presented. “This is a dynamic interior space able to change and invite interaction,” noted the jury. “High-tech materials are used poetically in this truly sophisticated design.” Photo © Kim Zwarts.

NYC Public School 42 Queens Library, Arverne, N.Y., by Weiss/Manfredi Architects, for NYC Public School 42
“The best interest of the child is represented in the bookworm wall and elements,” the jury concurred. “This project makes reading fun. The screen looks like reading into a child’s imagination as they are reading.” This new library, organized and funded by the Robin Hood Foundation and built by the Board of Education, is part of a pro bono, 10-school pilot study. Located on the fourth floor of the school and accessible only by stairs, the original library was remote, invisible to students, and not conducive to community activities. This project relocates the library to the first floor, adjacent to the school’s main entrance and cafeteria, and is visible from the street. Conceived as an occupiable bookworm, the library is defined by a curvilinear wall that winds through the library, shaped by lapped plywood. A series of deployable elements encourages reconfiguring the library for different uses. A transparent theater curtain silk-screened with large words can be drawn shut to create an enclosed story-telling area or partially opened to form a backdrop for performances. For school events, the rolling bookshelves stack to one side of the library to create a large central space. Photo © Jeff Goldberg/ESTO.

Pallotta TeamWorks New Headquarters, Los Angeles, by Clive Wilkinson Architects, Inc., for Legacy Partners Commercial, Inc.
Pallotta TeamWorks’ vision for their new headquarters had to be reconciled with a severely limited budget, which generated a radical approach to the process of creating a work environment in a warehouse shed. MEP components became the targets of a campaign to reduce spending on cooling, heating, and lighting by 50 percent, thus releasing funds to support the client’s vision of a playful and creative work environment. Taking cues from temporary “tent cities” used for special events, the architects used “breathed tented islands” as giant air diffusers and to create intimate and distinct work neighborhoods. Entering the building through a large screen-printed sunshade, one encounters a reception area featuring a desk modeled on Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion world map. From there, a dark blue open-ended shipping container forms a portal to the main volume of the building and onto the main street, which in turn leads to the square with its executive tower, a “six pack” of orange containers. “This design transcends function and ties to the use, mission, and goals of the client,” the jury concluded. Photo © Benny Chan/fotoworks.

First Presbyterian Church of Encino, Encino, Calif., by Abramson Teiger Architects, for the First Presbyterian Church of Encino
Located on Encino’s Balboa Boulevard, This church started its life in 1954 as a typical A-frame with tapering glue-lam columns and a stone exterior. The architects tell us that the goals for its current renovation were first to bring a more significant quality of illumination and, second, to develop a form that would create a greater sense of closeness and reverie. After they reorganized the pews in the round, the architects brought the chancel floor forward and lowered it to bring the pastor and choir closer to the congregation. Sculptured planes and volumes, whose irregularities shape different qualities of light, create a unified and flowing expression. In fact, light as metaphor to divine light and spiritual revelation forms the primary symbol and theme for the design. “The transformation heightens the experience of the building and embraces the worshippers,” noted the jury. “The light as a modulation of space was well-crafted.” Photo © Richard Barnes.

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