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Architects Win With a Bolt From the Blueprints

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A combination of multimillion dollar exoticism and socially conscious utility marked the top winners of the Orange County chapter of the American Institute of Architects’ annual design awards, presented Friday night at “California Scenario,” the gardens designed by the late sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

One of the three Honor Awards went to Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo of Newport Beach for “Palace of the Lost City.” The $183 million luxury hotel and theme park in South Africa are based on a legend--invented by the architects--of a magnificent desert kingdom destroyed by an earthquake that left the palace largely intact.

All elements of the project--which includes 13 major waterfalls, two mountain rivers, three lakes, a man-made jungle and an 85-foot-tall hotel lobby--were made on a larger-than-life scale to sustain the fantasy vision. Juror Bobbie Sue Wood, a partner in Hood Miller Assn., San Francisco, lauded the project for its “excellent detailing,” use of “real” materials and reliance on “the animals of Africa and the universal myths of what a fantasy city would be like.”

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The other two honor awards went to McLarand, Vasquez & Partners Inc. of Costa Mesa for an affordable housing project for the upscale Westpark neighborhood of Irvine and to Ralph Allen & Partners of Santa Ana for the science building at Polytechnic High School in Long Beach.

The 382-unit, 15-acre Westpark project was designed as a new kind of low-cost housing to counter “not in my back yard” stereotypes. The architects minimized the visual and circulation impact of increased auto traffic by arranging three C-shaped buildings with 40 to 50 units each, staggered at a 45-degree angle around a parking court.

Juror Don Sandy, a partner in Sandy & Babcock Inc. of San Francisco and Miami, said he was impressed that 40% of the units in the Westpark project are set aside for low-income renters (15% more than the project requirements). He singled out the “unique concept of tuck-under parking” and the “simplicity and uncluttered detailing, with strong and powerful forms and color.”

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Space constraints at Polytechnic High School, which serves 3,000 inner-city students, obliged Ralph Allen & Partners to do some creative thinking. Building over an existing parking lot, the architects carved out 19,000 square feet of laboratory classrooms on two levels. Combined lecture and lab rooms--the new trend in high school science classroom design--use a common preparation and storage area.

Juror William Crutchfield, an artist, said he and his fellow jurors appreciated the way the building fit “beautifully” in a tight space and admired “the proportions, the use of materials and the warmth . . . created by barrel ceilings made of rich wood.”

Nine other projects received awards of merit (two each were won by Mark H. Singer Architects of Laguna Beach, the Blurock Partnership of Newport Beach and Stoutenborough Inc. Architects and Planners of Irvine).

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Betsy O. Dougherty, a partner in Dougherty + Dougherty of Newport Beach, won the president’s award for “outstanding service to the profession.” In 1984, Dougherty became the first woman president of the AIA/OC chapter.

The American Society of Civic Engineers, Orange County chapter, won the Architectural Foundation Award for working to gain recognition of blimp hangars at the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station as a national historic and civil engineering landmark.

“California Scenario” itself was honored with an Architectural Foundation Art in the Environment Award for “most significant public-oriented artistic achievement in Orange County.” Henry T. Segerstrom, managing partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons in Costa Mesa, won the board of directors’ award for “significant contributions to the development of Costa Mesa and Orange County.”

Two cities won the community design excellence award: Tustin for the Civic Center redevelopment project and San Juan Capistrano for the depot passenger loading platform at the Amtrak train station. An honorable mention went to Santa Ana and its Council of Arts and Culture for developing the downtown Artists Village.

The fourth juror was Mahrdad Yazdani, a design principal with Dworsky Assn. of Los Angeles.

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