AIA’s Interior Architecture Awards for 2021

The design work of architects has never had sharp limits, but extends from cabinet details to urban neighborhoods. The complete design of interiors is included in some architectural commissions. For other projects, the work may involve key interiors such as the lobbies of office or apartment buildings, where the bulk of the interiors may be designed by others. Every year the American Institute of Architects conducts an awards program for interior architecture carried out by licensed US architects– who need not be members of the American Institute of Architects.

As with other recent architectural awards, these choices show clear evidence of the profession’s heightened emphasis on environmental responsibility and community values. Among this year’s eight winners we can find commendable ecological and social strategies – and no overly lavish expenditure of resources to serve essentially private goals. The jury of distinguished architects and designers were clearly expressing their subjective, aesthetic judgment as well.

Vilcek Foundation, New York by Architectural Research Office, New York

For its mission of “raising awareness of immigrants’ contributions” and “broadening appreciation for the arts and sciences,” the foundation established its new headquarters in a five-story mixed-use building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Built as a residence in 1919, the structure included some not-so-compatible renovations, including a first-floor storefront.

To adapt the building for its office and exhibition functions the organization tapped Architectural Research Office, whose notable works also include Knoll showrooms in New York, Philadelphia, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The architects’ strategy for the exterior included largely restoring the building’s Neoclassical Revival stone front and inserting a new entrance featuring a bold marble panel and bronze doors.

Inside, the foundation located its support functions in the basement, galleries on the first and second floors, offices on the third and fourth, and a director’s apartment on the fifth floor. Ample daylight is admitted from redesigned rear curtain walls (with improved energy performance) and from a pre-existing niche that apparently originated as a property-line setback required by earlier building configurations on this site.

The two gallery floors have ribbed glass-fiber-reinforced gypsum ceilings that conceal lighting and mechanical systems, and they are connected by a new stair crafted of steel, bronze, and terrazzo. The team designed custom furniture for public spaces, including a reception desk and leather benches in the galleries, and they chose furnishings for the offices and director’s apartment.

Vilcek Foundation, new entrance. Photo © Elizabeth Felicella
Vilcek Foundation, first-floor gallery. Photo © Elizabeth Felicella
Vilcek Foundation, fourth-floor offices. Photo © Elizabeth Felicella
Vilcek Foundation, view from Madison Avenue, showing foundation building rising above low retail structure. Photo © Elizabeth Felicella

Coca-Cola Stage at the Alliance Theater, Atlanta, by Trahan Architects, New York and New Orleans

Founded in 1968, the theater is a component of the Woodruff Arts Center campus, which also includes the Atlanta Symphony and the High Museum of Art. The thorough renovation of the theater called for an acoustical overhaul, state-of-the-art technology, and a radical reconfiguring of the 650-seat space, reducing the separation of the audience from the stage to make possible “a truly shared experience.”

Within the audience space a prime objective was to eliminate the earlier distinction between orchestra and balcony seating, which is a strong reminder in the American South of historic segregation. (The previous arrangement had also included box seating that could be reached without mingling with less privileged theater-goers in the lobby.) All seating zones are now accessible from every audience entrance, and differently abled theater-goers are accommodated in prime locations, not relegated to the margins.

To sculpt the new curvilinear volumes they proposed, the architects collaborated with the sculptor and furniture designer Matthias Pliessnig, who had perfected processes for steam-bending wood strips in precise and durable curves. It is no mere coincidence that the new curvilinear wood surfaces are also suggestive of the superb turned wooden bowls created by the Atlanta-based Moulthrop family, which are among the theater’s holdings.

Coca-Cola Stage, detail of wood enclosure. Photo © Leonid Furmansky
Coca-Cola Stage, showing variety of seating areas. Photo © Leonid Furmansky
Coca-Cola State, showing integration of stage and audience areas. Photo © Leonid Furmansky
Performance at Coca-Cola Stage. Photo © Leonid Furmansky

High Desert Retreat, Mountain Center, California, by Aidlin Darling Design, San Francisco

On a rocky plateau near Palm Desert, this retreat from urban pressures offers views of the Coachella Valley and San Jacinto Mountains. Conceptually, the house consists of three distinct elements: a floating roof plane, two concrete anchor walls, and a collection of wooden volumes. The square roof plane provides ample shelter from the intense desert sun, with exposure to the sun through one aperture over the pool.

Parallel concrete walls frame the entry sequence from the garage, the dining area inside, and the valley view to the east. Most of the other architectural surfaces contrast to varying degrees with the bleached color palette of the landscape outside – very dark for the wall framing and partition surfaces, a warm middle tone for the underside of the roof canopy.

The owners studied the site on numerous camping trips before commissioning the design.  As a result, they perceived it as a framing device from which to observe the changing terrain. Like many in this remote region, they pledged to keep the surroundings as intact as possible. No ancient pinyon pines or rock formations were disturbed during construction. The pool and other water features provide evaporative cooling and serve as fortuitous watering holes for local wildlife, which continues to follow its established courses.

High Desert Retreat, approach through entry courtyard. Photo © Joe Fletcher
High Desert Retreat, dining area and terrace. Photo © Joe Fletcher
High Desert Retreat, terrace, with living room beyond. Photo Adam Rouse Photography
High Desert Retreat, bath area. Photo © Joe Fletcher

Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences Middle School, Seattle, by LMN Architects, Seattle

Added to an educational campus in a dense urban neighborhood, the middle school was designed by the Seattle firm that won the AIA’s 2016 national Firm Award. The new facilities are accommodated in a six-story academic block and a lower athletic wing with a rooftop playing field.

Inside the taller block, each grade occupies an entire floor, with classrooms organized around double-height collaborative learning spaces that support the project-based curriculum and provide opportunities for cross-discipline discovery. Glazed classroom enclosures foster contacts among faculty and students.

Sustainable strategies were applied throughout the design. Building analysis modeling was used to optimize daylight, solar exposure, and natural ventilation. The north-south orientation of the classroom block maximizes solar heat gain in winter, while sunshades limit it in summer. Indicator lights in every classroom empower students to help manage classroom operation modes.

Middle School in its neighborhood. Photo © Adam Hunter/LMN Architects
Middle School, entrance front. Photo © Lara Swimmer
Middle School, seminar space. Photo © Lara Swimmer
Middle School, collaboration space with city views. Photo © Lara Swimmer
Middle School, rooftop playfield. Photo: © Lara Swimmer

Tanglewood Linde Center for Music and Learning, Lenox, Massachusetts, by William Rawn Associates, Boston

On the legendary grounds of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in the Berkshire Hills, the Linde Center bridges the gap between the famed music festival and its summer academy, which provides no-cost fellowships to some of America’s most talented musicians. It occupies a cluster of four new buildings designed to celebrate the interaction between Tanglewood’s professional activities and its fine natural setting.

Laid out around a 100-foot-tall oak tree and connected by serpentine pathways, the center’s four buildings house educational programs, lectures, rehearsals, and performances – many of which the public can attend. Designed by the firm that shaped the adjacent Seiji Ozawa concert hall in the 1990s, the center contains a 3,700-square-foot multiuse space with retractable seating and a performance area equal to Ozawa Hall’s stage, allowing the symphony to practice here so that the main hall can be available for other events.

These buildings continue the historic palette of materials appropriate to this countryside location. In a first for Tanglewood, however, they are equipped to be fully air-conditioned, making possible year-round operation. Many of the spaces also have operable walls and actuator-operated windows to support natural ventilation in good weather.

Tanglewood Linde Center, main performing space and neighboring buildings. Photo © Robert Benson Photography
Tanglewood Linde Center, main performing space with stepped seating. Photo © Robert Benson Photography
Tanglewood Linde Center, main performing space, looking outward. Photo © Robert Benson Photography
Tanglewood Linde Center, main performing space, seating folded. Photo: © Robert Benson Photography

CO-OP Ramen, Bentonville, Arkansas, by Marlon Blackwell Architects, Bentonville, Arkansas

This new fast-casual restaurant is located in Bentonville’s 8th Street Market, which opened in 2016 inside a former food processing plant. CO-OP Ramen offers a respite from the bustle of the surrounding market, providing seating with various levels of privacy and community contact for the enjoyment of a humble yet sophisticated dish.

Beaded steel curtains partly obscure the views into the space and mute the views from inside to establish a calmer atmosphere. Upon entering, patrons get a clear view of a ceiling crafted of construction-grade plywood, which extends throughout the restaurant. Assembled with careful detailing and joinery, this coffered canopy is illuminated by concealed fixtures. Custom-made white oak furniture extends the warm wood tones into the diners’ more immediate environment.

The color and texture of the wood, used as well in partitions, contrasts with concrete blocks walls and concrete floors that recall the industrial history of the place. A living wall of greenery represents the natural beauty of the surrounding region, and broad views into the kitchen remind diners of the restaurant’s distinctive food culture.

CO-OP Ramen, view in through beaded steel curtains. Photo Timothy Hursley
CO-OP Ramen, greeter-cashier station. Photo Timothy Hursley
CO-OP Ramen, main dining space, with view of kitchen. Photo Timothy Hursley
CO-OP Ramen, “the cave” secluded dining tables, planted wall beyond. Photo Timothy Hursley
CO-OP Ramen, plywood details. Photo Timothy Hursley

Reused Spaces in a Historic Shipyard, San Francisco, by Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects, Berkeley, California

This award honors the adaptive reuse of six buildings dating from 1885 to 1941 in the former Bethlehem Shipbuilding yards, one of the nation’s largest and best-preserved industrial complexes. Redeveloped by Orton Development, Inc., these structures now meet the space needs of burgeoning tech companies, offering the advantages of solid construction and ample natural light from their extensive windows and skylights.

Building 102, also known as the Powerhouse, originated in 1912 as an electrical substation. Its Spanish Renaissance architecture, including a traditional tile roof, was a form of urban camouflage. Adapted for a technology company, it offers an ample volume lighted from tall arched windows. To accommodate the occupants’ space needs the design team inserted a heavy-timber mezzanine that overlooks the main level and defines the entry and reception area.

Nearby, in the interconnected series of Buildings 113 through 116, cavernous ship-building spaces with steel and glass walls have been adapted to accommodate the Uber Advanced Technologies Group R&D Center, which is focused on self-driving vehicles. These structures readily accommodate that group’s needs for office spaces, communal areas, laboratories, and vehicle storage.

During design and construction, the architects worked closely with the Port of San Francisco, the National Park Service, and the state historic preservation office to ensure that their interventions – including some additional windows and skylights — complement the architectural character of the existing structures. Many historic features, such as inlaid tile flooring, industrial light fixtures, and gantry cranes, were retained and restored.

Aerial view of shipyard site with building numbers. Diagram © MWDL, Image source, Google Earth.
Building 102 interior, including restored powerhouse equipment. Photo © Billy Hustace
Building 113, atrium before and after, with gantry cranes. Photos before © MWDL; after © Billy Hustace
Building 116, Uber R&D spaces for automobiles on main level and offices on mezzanine. Photo © Billy Hustace