AIA/LA Presents 2009 Design Awards

The four top Honor Awards were snagged by Michael Maltzan Architecture, Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects, DSH, and Predock_Frane Architects.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 10/30/2009

Design Honor Award Winner Habitat 825 by LOHA (Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects); photo by Lawrence Anderson Photography.

Autumn in L.A.: the summer smog has cleared up, letting in the brilliant Southern California sunshine, and the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects is once again handing out their annual Design Awards and Presidential Honors.

This year's ceremony took place on October 21 at the historic Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood where 13 hometown firms were recognized for projects both built and unbuilt. The City of Los Angeles Cutural Affairs Commission and the Architectural Foundation of Los Angeles also presented design awards during the 90-minute extravaganza.


Design Honor Award Winner Inner-City Arts by Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc.; photo by Iwan Baan.

A jury including Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Craig Hartman and IDEO's Fred Dust bestowed the four top Honor Awards to Michael Maltzan Architecture for their Inner-City Arts community center for at-risk youth, two apartment buildings—Habitat 15 by Predock_Frane Architects and the Bubeshko Apartments by DSH, and the Habitat 825 condos by Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects, who also bagged one of three Merit Awards for their Formosa 1140 residences.

The other two Merit Awards were picked up by Clive Wilkinson Architects for their FIDM San Diego Campus and Pugh Scarpa Kodama's Step Up on Fifth affordable housing project for the mentally disabled. Meanwhile, DWV Architects took home one of four Citations for their Planned Parenthood Bixby Center for Reproductive Health and S. Mark Taper Center for Medical Training.


Design Honor Award Winner Habitat 15 by Predock_Frane Architects; photo by Jason Predock.

The Next LA Awards, which were established to acknowledge work that is not yet built, went to two firms, DRDS for their Samsong Bromex Development Master Plan for Goyang City, South Korea and Studio Pali Fekete Architects for the National Music Centre in Alberta Canada.

AIA/LA Board President, John Kaliski also handed out ten Presidential Honors at the ceremony to those committed to bettering the built environment of Los Angeles. Michael Rotondi, principal of RotoArchitects was honored with the Gold Medal while architect William Krisel won the Lifetime Achievement Award.


Design Honor Award Winner Bubeshko Apartments by DSH; photo by Grant Mudford, DSH.

Images courtesy of AIA/LA.