Design judges see Memphis architecture as distinctive
There’s something distinctive about Memphis architecture, says the chairman of a panel of St. Louis architects who judged the 2017 design awards for the Memphis chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Jeff Ryan, principal of St. Louis’ Christner firm, didn’t exactly say that Memphis architects embrace the city’s “grit and grind,” but he almost did.
For example, archimania — which won five of the seven awards handed out Saturday night at the annual “Celebration of Architecture Honors and Awards Gala” — didn’t buffer the private Woodard residence from its industrial landscape Downtown. Instead, archimania embraced the area in part by using the weathered Cor-Ten steel in the home.
Archimania won an Honor Award of Excellence, the highest award, for that one.
The firm Bounds and Gillespie, in association with Looney Ricks Kiss, didn’t want to merely restore the historic Chisca Hotel on South Main, the architects pleaded the case to restore the mid-century modern hotel next door, Ryan said. “They had the foresight to understand the buildings together were better than either one by itself,” he said.
Bounds and Gillespie with LRK See a gallery of the winners at commercialappeal.com. won a Citation Award for that one.
Allen & Hoshall was confined to a modest budget in designing DeSoto County Schools’ Career and Technology Building in Horn Lake, yet was “inventive in finding ways to make a utilitarian building human and inviting,” Ryan said.
Allen & Hoshall received a Citation Award.
The awards were given by the Memphis chapter of the American Institute of Architects, which held its annual “Celebration of Architecture Honors and Awards Gala” at the FedEx Event Center in Shelby Farms.
In addition to the seven design awards, architect Mary Haizlip of the Haizlip Studio and community advocate Ben Avant received the President’s Award for outstanding
contributions to the profession, service to the community and leadership in the AIA chapter.
Architect and University of Memphis professor James F. Williamson received the 2017 Francis Gassner Award, which is given for outstanding contributions to the quality of the built environment in Memphis.
Archimania also won an Honor Award for its design of the Orion federal credit union on Poplar in the Medical District. “We really appreciated that the architect took the whole site and connected the building throughout,” Ryan said. “They thought of not just the building but the parking lot and landscaping around it.”
Other St. Louis architects on the jury panel were Brent Crittenden of UIC St. Louis, Valerie Greer, professor at Washington University, and Tony Patterson of patterhn ives.