BoY, Oh BoY

Interior Design magazine’s 2010 Best of Year Awards ceremony, held this year at Frank Gehry’s IAC Building, was a night of firsts. First time the show was held at the Gehry venue; first time I’d been in the building; first time for categories such as Modern Farmhouse and Café; and first time an active Interior Design blogger won a BoY award. Congratulations to my friend and colleague Ghislaine Vinas for her much-deserved Best of Year honor in the Urban House category, for her TriBeCa residence that graced the cover of ID in September. Ghislaine is pictured here seconds after her name was called.



Congratulations, too, to Cindy Allen and M…, for two extraordinary nights of celebration and audio visual wizardry--the Hall of Fame gala and BoY, held back-to-back. Mark Strauss is right--there is a crazy gene in the design community. It’s a good thing there is an enthusiasm gene also. 



Nobody knew quite what to expect with the shift of venue to the Gehry building, just that it would accommodate more people. The multiple screens and adjacent refreshment area proved a winning combination. I am a big fan of the Guggenheim, but I liked the feel of the Gehry space; it had a lightness and informality to it that was conducive to both the business and conviviality of the evening.



As for the business: awards for stand-out projects went to up-an-coming design star Patricia Urquiola for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Barcelona; Steven Harris and Lucien Rees Roberts for their villa in Croatia; Simone Micheli Architectural Hero for Atomic Spa Suisse, Milan; Neri and Hu Design for The Waterhouse in Shanghai; and our aforementioned Ms. Vinas. Quirkiest and most irresistible award went to Dreamtime Australia Design for the Victor Churchill butcher shop in Sydney. Who can resist sausage door handles?

The crowd on hand included vocal sections from Canada, California, and Australia, who cheered on their local favorites. My local favorites included Kate Korten, nominated in the Textiles: Outdoor category; James and Hayes Slade, nominated for Public Space;  D’Aquino Monaco, nominated for Residence:  Apartment; and Amy Lau, nominated for Textiles:  Residential (Amy won an award for her work with Maya Romanoff in Wallcoverings:  Residential). As Cindy Allen pointed out, everyone on the program is a winner, and I congratulate my friends, and all the nominees, for a job well done this year.