AIA Chicago Awards Wrap-up

It looks like the AIA Chicago 2004 Design Excellence Awards had some obvious choices:

Contemporaine by Perkins and Will


Starlight Theater and Kam L. Liu Building by Studio Gang/O'Donnell, and Marble Curtain by Studio Gang)


Factor 10 House by EHDD and Herman Miller Building C1 by Krueck & Sexton (both winning 2004 National AIA/Committee on the Environment awards already)


Soldier Field by Lohan Caprile Goettsch with Wood + Zapata


Lipson Alport Glass Associates by Valerio Dewalt Train


State Street Village by Murphy/Jahn


Oklahoma City Federal Building by Ross Barney + Jankowski

and also some relatively unknown gems:

Doblin Residence by Valerio Dewalt Train
In this "house for a solitary person", VDT located the residence behind a simple facade that's made up of two galvanized steel, scissor doors. One side opens to a garage; the other side opens to a garden. Reminiscent of an early warehouse project by Santiago Calatrava, in this case the doors refer to the industrial past of the site - the house being a renovation of a burned-out warehouse - and perhaps the solitary nature of the owner. It's a simple solution that is very rich.


Cohodes Residence by Dirk Denison Architects
My friend Brandon worked on this project for almost three years, DDA's site illuminating the design process of the house over that time. A deceptively simple, modern plan is actually very complex, the interior spaces broken up by courtyards in the deep, one-story plan. A folded ceiling plane adds some dynamics to the orthogonal plan, with creative ways of bringing light to the interior one of the design's best features, as in the image above. The jury cites the clean detailing as a positive aspect of the house.


I & S Residence by mac D+A
The highlight of this Gold Coast condo is definitely the wood-clad den, a retreat behind frosted-glass sliding doors. The simplicity of the layout and detailing contrast with the "Parisian-inspired exterior", making me think this apartment could be located within Lucien Lagrange's latest.


Antron Resource Center by Perkins & Will/Eva Maddox
Antron, a commercial carpet manufacturer, modified its space in the Merchandise Mart for NeoCon last year by focusing on the actual carpet fibers and their colors. By bundling different colors into plastic tubes and suspending long ropes, the fibers became objects in and of themselves that could be played with by people. Rather than lay down some carpet squares, the display suggests that the final product has almost infinite possibilities.


Rural Studio Exhibit by Xavier Vendrell Studio with Andrew Freear and Jennifer Bonner
Finally, this project makes Rural Studio's reliance upon recycling salvaged materials its inspiration, using carpet tiles, hay bales, wooden pallets, and other materials to define the space of the exhibit and to support the exhibit itself. This is the least aesthetically beautiful of these five projects, but that's excusable because of its message. Though beauty can be found in the stacking of recycled materials in a colorful manner.