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Projects: Midsize Office

Edie Cohen -- Interior Design, 12/1/2011 2:00:00 AM

Winner: Studio MK27
Project: Studio SC
Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil

This photography studio may specialize in food images, but Marcio Kogan put its long, lean building on a diet. His double-height central volume has a strong linear orientation, thanks to the single long desk along the back wall and the concrete catwalk stretching all the way across overhead. The latter connects the enclosures at both ends: two-story boxes that accommodate such specific program needs as a reception area and a test kitchen. Because the enclosures are built from freijo, a Brazilian hardwood, they also introduce a taste of the natural into an industrial setting. Nature-the real thing-comes into the picture with a generous garden and a roof deck that offers a second kitchen for outdoor events.

Merit: Elliot + Associates Architects
Project: R.B. Akins Company
Location: Oklahoma City

Whoever heard of a showroom for an HVAC equipment and service company? "No one," Rand Elliott says. "It's rarely done." But leave it to the Interior Design Hall of Fame member to convince a longtime friend, the owner of the family-run R.B. Akins Company, "to show the equipment in an artistic way," targeting the architects and engineers who typically use the systems, Elliott explains. "They'll come if we do this right." Doing this right started with a real-estate search that culminated in buying a 1950's brick warehouse to accommodate offices, training rooms, computer labs, and that all-important showroom-with the air conditioner as metaphor. Part of the reception area, paneled in out-of-the-box supply grilles, looks almost coffered. And the showroom is dominated by a 113-foot-wide wall surfaced in spiral ductwork, while the mechanical units hanging from the ceiling are lit like art.

enstrust Merit: Gensler and William T. Georgis
Project: EnTrust Capital
Location: New York