Office: Large / > 50,000 sq ft

Best of Year 2009 Winner: IA Interior Architects

Best of Year -- Interior Design, 12/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

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Best of Year > 2009 > Project Design > Office: Large / & 50,000 sq ft

Best of Year Winner, Office: Large / & 50,000 sq ft: IA Interior Architects: Bancolombia, Medellin, Colombia

Consolidation was the name of the game for Bancolombia's 4,000 employees, who had been spread across 14 locations in Colombia's second-largest city. The time had come to bring everyone under one roof. And what a spectacular roof it is. The ground-up building comprises two slender steel-and-concrete towers connected by a pair of skywalks. Seven levels of offices, five of parking, a sprawling conference center, and a penthouse devoted to cafeterias, lounges, and a fitness center total 750,000 square feet. Right angles and primary colors reign, from the exposed columns and beams to the blocky sofas and benches. Because sustainability was a guiding principle, daylight is plentiful, and most materials were sourced locally. So was the contemporary art, which appears in virtually all office areas instead of being restricted to boardrooms.

JULIO BRAGA; SUZANNA TAKAYAMA; ANTHONY SAVIANO; ALICIA WORTHINGTON; MARY LEE DUFF; SOPHIA YUN; ALI UCER; CINDY YI; JULIE KIM; RICHARD CHUI: PROJECT TEAM.

Best of Year Merit Awards, Office: Large / & 50,000 sq ft

Daroff Design + DDI Architects and Gensler: Comcast Corporate Headquarters, Philadelphia, PA
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At the top of a tower by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, a theatrical staircase in stainless steel and fritted glass connects the six executive floors.

Hickok Cole Architects: Blackboard Inc., Washington, DC
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This education-software company's headquarters is chockablock with chalk references, sculpted from painted MDF in the reception area and solid-surfacing in the lunchroom.

VOA Associates Incorporated: MillerCoors Headquarters, Chicago, IL

After a merger, the second-largest U.S. brewer establishes joint brand identity via a vintage-style beer-delivery truck in reception and, more subtly, a brick style once found at the Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee.