Best of Year: Public Space

Deborah Wilk -- Interior Design, 12/1/2010 4:14:00 PM

Project: 1 Kearny Street
Firm: IWAMOTOSCOTT Architecture
Location: San Francisco

A 1902 building, its 1964 annex by Charles Moore, and a new high-rise by the Office of Charles F. Bloszies, AIA, have combined to form a complex not far from the galleries and museums of the Yerba Buena arts district. To satisfy the city’s percent-for-art requirement for commercial developments, Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott were hired to create a site-specific installation for the 860-square-foot shared lobby, and the result is Lightfold. They blurred the line between art and design by drawing inspiration from the or-namental surfaces found in century-old architecture, specifically the ceiling coffers. Above the reception desk, the imaginary coffers are scaled up and extruded in sustainable maple veneer to produce an abstracted chandelier fitted with LEDs programmed to dim and brighten according to ambient conditions. Maple veneer also surfaces angular wall and ceiling planes along the corridor that leads back to the elevators.

Merit Winners:


Project: Broadway Cinemas
Firm: One Plus Partnership
Location: Kunming, China
Standout: Metal-capped wooden rods, protruding from the wall behind the ticket counter, spell out the name of the multiplex, while cylinders of mirror-polished stainless steel descend from the ceiling.


Project: Allstream Centre
Firm: NORR
Location: Toronto
Standout: A deco-era automotive showplace has become a convention hall with a massive column-free ballroom, an adjacent multifunction corridor, and LEED Silver certification pending.


Project: 184 Kent Avenue
Firm: Slade Architecture
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Standout: In a converted 1915 warehouse by Cass Gilbert, luxury rental lofts enjoy a swanky lobby with a CNC-milled rosewood ceiling and an EMAF Progetti sofa.