3 Californians Win Chrysler Awards
Three Californians--two in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco--have been singled out for this year’s Chrysler Design Awards, which honors six designers for excellence and innovation in a variety of disciplines.
The winners are Thom Mayne, co-founder of the Santa Monica-based architectural firm Morphosis; the architectural team of Robert Mangurian and Mary-Ann Ray of Studio Works in Los Angeles; and graphic designer Susan Kare in San Francisco.
The other honorees are landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson of Seattle, interface designer Daniel Rozin of New York and graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister.
Morphosis is being recognized for projects such as Austria’s Hypo-Alp Adria Center Bank, which Mayne describes as “a landscape more than a building” and graduate student housing for the University of Toronto, which Mayne calls a gateway to the university: “We brought it over the street and formed a gate, as a way of allowing the public to interact with the building.”
Studio Works is known for its work measuring and photographing the excavation of Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, Italy. It also has created educational facilities, including a gym and library for the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School in Hollywood and a proposed low-cost house in Houston dubbed the InsideOutside House, to be built on a 5,000-square-foot lot for $65,000. Kare has designed icons for computers, what she calls “visual language” such as the trash can, the moving wristwatch and the bitty Mac icon.
“Risk-taking, substance, style, intellectual daring, creative commitment and a stir of emotions” is how Trevor Creed, senior vice president of product design at Daimler Chrysler Group, summed up the award winners, who will be honored at a gala celebration in New York City on Oct. 17.
The Pasadena chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers is holding the 15th annual showcase of kitchens and interiors on Oct. 20 and 21. The self-driven tour features five homes, all with renovated kitchens and some with additional work in other parts of the houses. All design work was done by ASID members who will be on hand at the homes, which are in Glendale, San Marino, Pasadena, including the Wrigley Mansion, headquarters of the Tournament of Roses.
Call (800) 237-2634 for information and tickets, which are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Proceeds support the chapter’s education fund.
Talks on Oct. 11: Linda Parry of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London will present a slide lecture on the design of interiors produced by designer and printer William Morris (1834-1896) and the firm Morris & Co. at the Huntington Library at 7:30 p.m. Information: (626) 405-2100
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Candace A. Wedlan can be reached at candace.wedlan@latimes.com.
