Mark Singer Wins 2 Laguna Design Awards

Local architect Mark Singer and Associates won two of the four top honors--for new residential and rehab residential designs--at the fourth annual Laguna Beach Architectural Guild Design Awards at the Art Institute of Southern California Friday night. Of 52 entries, 16 received awards, including five merit citations and seven honorable mentions.

Singer’s design for the new Domiano home was cited for meeting privacy requirements on a long, curving lot with street exposure and for its “excellent” use of such materials as black granite, polished concrete and maple wood.

A frequent winner in the annual Orange County American Institute of Architects competitions, Singer also was honored for his addition to the 30-year-old contractor-designed Duka residence. Judges described it as “almost a tour de force” in its use of the original home as a neutral backdrop for more striking new architectural elements.

Laguna Beach newcomer Horst Noppenberger of Horst Architect, who is designing the reconstruction of the Woods home destroyed in the fire that swept portions of the city a year ago, won top honors in the On the Boards (uncompleted) category. His design was complimented by the judges for its integration of curved elements and for its purity and simplicity.

Top honors for an out-of-town project (a new category this year) went to Arlen Stahlberg Interior Design for an intimate conference suite for the New York office of advertising giant Saatchi and Saatchi. The judges commented on the “exquisite detailing” and richness of materials in a “sophisticated and reserved” ambience.

Stahlberg, who recently moved to Laguna Beach after working in New York and Los Angeles, called the award “a wonderful welcome.”

The judges were Nick DeLorenzo, president of DeLorenzo Inc., a landscape architecture firm in San Diego; Hsin-Ming Fung, director of design at Hodgetts + Fung Design Associates in Santa Monica; and Lamont Langworthy, an architect and builder who is past president of the Citizens Town Planning Assn. of Laguna Beach.