Stream of Conscienceness

The unofficial top winner at the AIA Orange County design award ceremony in Costa Mesa on Friday night was the irascible wit and wisdom of juror Julius Schulman, the esteemed architectural photographer now in his sharp-as-a-tack late 80s.

Whether chiding the Irvine Co. for “desecration and destruction done in the name of progress” or urging architects to design homes for young people with modest means so they will “appreciate what architecture can achieve,” Schulman set the moral tone for an event largely dedicated to projects with a broad positive impact on the community at large.

The other jurors were architects William Kreager of Mithun Partners in Seattle--designers of homes, resorts and the Seattle headquarters of outdoor outfitter REI--and Edward Rubin of Esherick Homsey Dodge & Davis in San Francisco, best known for the Monterey Bay and brand-new Long Beach aquariums.

They selected two Honor winners this year: Carl McLarand of McLarand Vasquez & Partners Inc. in Costa Mesa for Bridgecourt, a housing project in Emeryville, Calif.; and Dan Heinfeld of LPA Inc. in Irvine for the Tarbut V’Torah Community Day School, also in Irvine.

Bridgecourt--which has both residential and retail components and offers a 15-year rent-to-own option--was praised by Kreager for “epitomizing what we’re looking for in merchant-built housing,” designed for a general market rather than an individual client. “It represents a return to community, to neighborhoods.”

The day school--which a teacher had envisioned as suggesting the experience of being in Israel--got high marks from the jurors for its sensitive and cohesive treatment of biblical and Jerusalem-based symbolism. It includes a Torah gate, plants mentioned in the Bible and an angled masonry wall recalling the Western Wall.

Merit awards went to Thomas Blurock Architects Inc. (Martin Luther King Elementary School, Santa Ana); Paul Lentz of HMC/HNTB in Irvine (Ontario Convention Center); and Mark H. Singer of Laguna Beach (Franko residence, also in Laguna).

Two new Special Recognition awards were given for “merchant-built” projects. The winning designers, both in Newport Beach, were Mark Scheurer of Scheurer Architects Inc. and Don Jacobs of JBZ/Dorius Architects.

Four firms won Honorable Mentions: Paul Zajfen of GKK Zajfen in Irvine for Desert Willow Golf Clubhouse in Palm Desert; Walter Metez Architects for Schilling House in Laguna Beach; Wendy Rogers of LPA Inc. for Sage Hill School in Newport Beach; and Dougherty + Dougherty for remodeling its own warehouse studio, also in Newport.

Jury’s Excellence awards, for unbuilt projects, went to Mehdi Rafaty of Tag Front in Santa Ana Heights (Candace Irelean residence), Don Caskey of Coleman-Caskey Architects in Irvine (Primary Care Clinic for Tucson, Ariz.) and Ralph Allen & Partners of Santa Ana (Whelan Elementary School, an underground building designed for a vandalism-prone site in Lennox).

Rubin called the school “maybe the most interesting project in the whole package” of entries. Kreager dubbed it “anti-architecture,” which seemed to be a compliment.

Schulman said he initially protested (“These children are going to work and live like moles!”) but changed his mind, remembering how teachers in the ‘50s complained that expansive glass windows let their students’ attention wander.

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Other honors announced at the event included the President’s Award (presented by chapter president Thomas Blurock to Glen Gellatly for “a lifetime of good design”); the Board of Directors’ Award to Habitat for Humanity; and the Society of Design Administrator’s Award to HomeAid, a charity helping the homeless under the auspices of the Building Assn.

The American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment gave its first award for Excellence in Sustainable Design to Betsy Dougherty of Dougherty + Dougherty for Ocean Park School in Los Angeles County, which was designed with shade plantings and adroitly positioned windows so as to obviate the need for air-conditioning.

This year’s Art in Public Places Award, a project of the nonprofit Architecture Foundation of Orange County, went to Terry Schoonhoven for his 40-foot-long tile mural, “The Poet’s Table,” at Pier Plaza in Huntington Beach. Members of the five-person jury were Irvine landscape architect James Curtis; Michael Botwinick, director of the Center for Orange County Regional Studies at UC Irvine; artist Michael Pally; Connie Glenn, director of the University Art Museum, Cal State Long Beach; and architect Arthur Strock.

The AIA Students’ Award went to Carolyn B. Newsom, the Orange County chapter’s executive director.