Beverly Hills Honors Designers of 5 City Buildings

The city’s 1991-92 Architectural Design Award was presented this week to five designers and their corporate sponsors for their commercial design work.

The award-winning projects were selected from 24 projects reviewed by the city Architectural Commission and completed in 1991 or 1992.

Gin Wong Associates was recognized for its design of Lawry’s The Prime Rib, a new restaurant building on La Cienega Boulevard, and four other designers were honored for renovation of existing buildings. They were: Avila & Tom Co. and Banana Republic Store Design for the store on North Beverly Drive; Thane Roberts Architects for the Guess Ranch store on North Rodeo Drive; Gabbay Architects for the Caravan Rug Corp. store on Wilshire Boulevard and Franklin D. Israel Design Associates for Virgin Records America offices on North Foothill Road.

The seven-member Architectural Commission, which includes representatives from the architectural, landscape and construction fields and business community, was established in 1966 to encourage high-quality commercial and multifamily residential architecture, said Commission Chairman Richard P. Myers Jr. who presented the awards, along with Mayor Maxwell Salter, at Tuesday’s council meeting.

The city has honored more than 50 designs selected by the commission over the last two decades, he said.