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AIA Dallas 2008 Design Awards

The architecture world gave major kudos to a handful of hot Dallas architects last month for humanism, sustainabilty and simplicity at the 41st annual AIA design awards. Names recognized — Ron Wommack, Gary Cunningham and The Joule Hotel:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                  CONTACT:  Janet Howe

              September 23, 2008                                                      Howe Associates

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JURORS SALUTE DALLAS ARCHITECTS FOR ‘HUMANISM, SIMPLICITY

AND ELEGANCE’ AT 41^st ANNUAL AIA DESIGN AWARDS

Entries include upsurge in international engagements

            DALLAS—Ten Dallas architectural firms, plus a student design studio from The University of Texas-Arlington, earned top honors Sept. 18 at AIA Dallas’ 2008 Design Awards presented in an open-air ceremony on AT&T Plaza at Victory Park.

  World-renowned jurors from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago cited

the Dallas architectural community for its attention to sustainability, outreach to global markets and “the immense elegance of simple, humanist design.”

            Ron Wommack, FAIA, earned both Best of Show and the AIA Dallas Honor Award for his resistance to overdesign in his 2401 Douglas Ave. residence.  “His disciplined use of simple materials creates a poetic series of spaces that could serve as a museum as easily as a house,” jurors said.

            Attention to environmental sustainability was reflected in a number of award-winning entries from a field of 115 local submissions.  Merit Awards were presented to:

• Cunningham Architects for the House on Cedar Hill, a lakeside residence recalling  contemporary design of the 1960s reinterpreted with state-of-the-art materials and natural stone
• Susan Appleton Architect for a contemporary Pilates Studio created in an existing residential carport space
• ARCHITEXAS for adaptive reuse design for the White Rock Filter Building and Basin Boathouse at White Rock Lake
• Laguarda.Low Architects for Light & Sie Gallery, an adaptive reuse design for a warehouse space in the Dallas Design District

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Also receiving Merit Awards were two yet-to-be-built structures in Braga, Portugal, designed by the Dallas office of the international architectural firm HDR Inc.:

• The Tube Dwelling and Campus Gateway Dwelling, both innovative housing for students and researchers at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory

Judges noted that at least one-third of the entries were designed for

international clients in countries including China, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Dubai, Spain, and Portugal.

Another Merit Award went to:

• Courthouse in Madrid, Spain, by the Dallas firm of Fernando Teruya Architects-FTA Design Studio, Inc.

The final Merit Award was presented to Morrison Seifert Murphy for the firm’s design of One Arts Plaza, the mixed-use highrise in the Dallas Arts District.

Giving Back to Dallas

            Brent Brown, AIA, his colleagues at Buildingcommunity WORKSHOP, and a group of architecture students from The University of Texas-Arlington won both the Community Design Award and the Urban Edge Excellence in Sustainable Design Award for their 698-square foot Holding House on South Dallas’ Congo Street.  The simple structure is designed to provide temporary shelter for one family at a time in a neighborhood where every house is being renovated.  This winner also achieved LEED™ Gold status from the U.S. Green Building Council.

            The final two awards were presented to a Dallas firm long known for its historic preservation work and to the Dallas office of RTKL Associates.  The Jurors’ Choice Award was presented to ARCHITEXAS for The Joule Hotel in Downtown Dallas, which judges cited for the polished restraint of the building’s historic exterior topped by the clear, cantilevered rooftop pool overlooking

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downtown pedestrian traffic.  The futuristic Gateway to L.A. parks and bridges system won the Citation Award in the unbuilt design category.

Acclaimed Jurors

            Jurors for the 41^st annual AIA Dallas Design Awards, some of whom were seeing Dallas for the first time, included:

• Thom Mayne, FAIA, 2005 winner of the Pritzker Prize, the world’s highest professional honor for architects, and designer of Dallas’ Perot Museum of Nature and Science
• Dr. Andres Lepik, Museum of Modern Art curator of architecture and design
• Victoria Meyers, AIA, New York-based architect and designer of Dallas’ “See-Thru House” in Urban Reserve
• Edward Keegan, AIA, editor-at-large for Architect magazine and a contributing editor for Chicago Architect
• Richard Clarke, AIA—Award-winning architect for Dallas’ Federal Reserve Bank

Clarke noted that jurors responded to authenticity in evaluating the range of projects submitted for this year’s awards.  “Preferring simplicity, minimalism and visceral heart to ‘more design’, we discovered a surprisingly classic modern theme among the strongest work in this year’s submissions,” Clarke said.  The jurors called attention to their findings that there were more “small” (under 50,000 square feet of finished space) projects than large and that the more refined work was generally found in the smaller projects.  “We noted,” Clarke added, “that there was little conceptually oriented work; rather, we found more of a focus on the craft of building, especially in a modern tradition.”

            Awards were presented by AIA Dallas President J. Mark Wolf, AIA, of James, Harwick + Partners and Awards Director Thom Powell, AIA, of Good, Fulton & Farrell. Shannon Kraus, AIA, of HKS, Inc. chaired the annual event.

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Paula Clements is executive director of AIA Dallas, the professional organization serving architects and allied professions in the Dallas area.

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