GRAY No. 37

INTERIORS // ARCHITECTURE // FASHION // LANDSCAPE // PRODUCTS

PACIFIC NORTHWEST DESIGN

N O 37 :

DEC.2017 / JAN.2018

ALL-STAR JUDGING PANEL Deborah Berke Commune James Corner Olivia Kim Ingo Maurer Karim Rashid Philippe Starck Vicente Wolf

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Tansu House - Architecture: Olson Kundig; Photo: Michael Burns

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Free spirited and audacious designer Kenzo Takada, known as "the most Parisian of Japanese fashion designers", has designed an exceptional collection of fabrics and ceramics for Roche Bobois.

To dress the Mah Jong sofa, he drew inspiration from traditional kimonos of the NĂ´ theater.

He reinterpreted the motifs and colors, creating delicate and sophisticated harmonies that symbolize the three times of the day: Asa (morning), Hiru (noon), and Yoru (evening).

Photo: Michel Gibert, image for advertising purposes only. Special thanks: Stone Sculpture museum of the Foundation Kubach-Wilmsen.

Kenzo Takada dresses the Mah Jong

Mah Jong. Modular sofa system, design Hans Hopfer.

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14. hello

Game. On.

SCENE 25. happenings

Highlights from IDS Vancouver 2017; the winner of GRAY’s Pitch Tank contest; and celebrating award winners region-wide.

THE AWARDS 36. the trophies

Designer of the 2017 GRAY Award, glass artist John Hogan pushes the medium into thrilling new directions.

38. the cause

The BLOCK Project, an innovative approach to tackling homelessness.

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EDITORS’ PICKS 40. Tour a selection of our favorite projects, spaces, and pieces from GRAY Awards submissions.

THE WINNERS 76. commercial architecture

In a barren landscape, a masterfully designed high-performance building rises, manifesting its connection to the land both literally and lyrically.

86. residential architecture

Glowing like a green lantern at night, an angular, unconventional home and studio makes the most of its compact site.

94. landscape design

After years of Congressional debate, this landscape is the last site to be developed on the National Mall.

102. commercial interior design

An aptly named restaurant nods to the German modernist movement.

106. residential interior design

Raw-silk walls and a gallery-worthy collection of artistic lighting tipped this project into the judges’ favorite.

114. fashion design

A socially conscious designer weaves the spirit of human connection into her latest luxe apparel collection.

120. product design: lighting & furniture

A mind-bending new way to think about concrete.

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122. product design: other

An emerging design studio grabs our attention by reimagining a most utilitarian tool.

124. wild card

A renowned architecture firm plays a true wild card by exploring a new medium . . . that melts.

130. student design

A dozen students work together to imagine a sustainable solution to modern housing.

134. design for good

Turning a design brief on its head, a Northwest firm and a troop of students transform a temporary festival stage into a tiny house community for the unhoused.

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THE JUDGES

Learn more about the international design-world visionaries who evaluated this year’s GRAY Award submissions.

138. Philippe Starck 140. Deborah Berke 142. Commune 144. James Corner 146. Olivia Kim 148. Ingo Maurer 150. Karim Rashid 152. Vicente Wolf

GRAY’s first annual, multidisciplinary design awards program recognizes the best work across the Pacific Northwest.

BACK OF BOOK 154. the finalists

Out of 363 stellar submissions, see who made it to the final round.

162. last look

Not your typical trophy.

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| hello |

GAME. ON.

IF YOU’RE READING THIS, YOU’RE EITHER AT THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DESIGN PARTY OF THE YEAR OR YOU’VE JUST MISSED IT! This issue—

and the winners of the inaugural GRAY Awards design competition—was unveiled at the first GRAY Awards party, held November 29 at the Sanctuary at the Mark, a newly renovated historic church–turned– grand ballroom in downtown Seattle designed in collaboration with Philippe Starck (his first project in the Pacific Northwest).

Here we celebrate not just the winners but the entire Pacific Northwest design community. The winning projects were announced amid a glittering explosion of confetti as the judges personally lauded each exceptional project and the University of Washington marching band burst into the room and onto the stage stage to mark the grand reveal of this issue.

Accompanied by their signature song, “Tequila,” we passed out a round of shots, and everyone pretended it wasn’t the middle of the week and we wouldn’t regret the inevitable hangover come morning.

When we launched the awards program earlier this year, inviting regional design talent to throw their hats into the ring, we knew the competition would be tough—and it was. This issue gives you an up-close look at the incredible work that surfaced, all marked by the quality, ingenuity, and sheer beauty characteristic of the Pacific Northwest itself. We begin with 16 favorite projects earmarked by our editors and then move on to showcase the winning entries selected by our all-star panel of judges: Deborah Berke, Roman Alonso and Steven Johanknecht of Commune, James Corner, Olivia Kim, Ingo Maurer, Karim Rashid, Philippe Starck, and Vicente Wolf.

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On behalf of the entire GRAY Awards team, I offer big thank-yous to our sponsors, partners, volunteers, the team at Daniels Real Estate (especially Kevin Daniels, Tawny Paperd, and celebrated chef Gavin Stephenson), all of whom went above and beyond to make the event possible. Thanks also go to our judges for their time and their commitment to the arduous task of selecting just one winner per category. GRAY is very proud of the work being done in this region.

Our gratitude to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the 2017 winners!

—— The arrival of this issue also marks our anniversary: GRAY has enjoyed thirty-seven issues and six magnificent years in the game. Our entire team works hard and laughs hard—making the best memories—and are as dedicated as ever to our charge of raising the design profile of the Pacific Northwest. Our anniversary is a sweet reminder that we are living the dream, surrounded by exceptional talent within GRAY itself and among the design community. We are blessed and immensely humbled by the groundbreaking designers we have come to know and celebrate. xo, Shawn Williams,

CEO/Founder + Publisher

P.S.: CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS FROM THE PARTY AT GRAYAWARDS.COM

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CONTRIBUTORS

Benjamin Benschneider Brian Callaway Eirik Johnson Martin Knowles Alan Krachmer Scott Mooney Andrew Moore Ema Peter Amanda Ringstad Charlie Schuck Kevin Scott Darren Sutherland Adrian Tiemens Catherine Tighe Nate Watters Amanda Zurita INTERNS

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No. 37 Copyright ©2017. Published bimonthly (DEC, FEB, APR, JUNE, AUG, OCT) by GRAY Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint or quote excerpts granted by written request only.

While every attempt has been made, GRAY cannot guarantee the legality, completeness, or accuracy of the information presented and accepts no warranty or responsibility for such. GRAY is not responsible for loss, damage, or other injury to unsolicited manuscripts, photography, art, or any other unsolicited material. Unsolicited material will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. If submitting material, do not send originals unless specifically requested to do so by GRAY in writing.

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ARCHITECTURE / chadbourne + doss PHOTOGRAPHY / Benjamin Benschneider GRAYMAG . COM

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PACIFIC NORTHWEST ARCHITECTS

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The following architecture and design firms are among the best in the region. They also support GRAY’s effort to advance the Pacific Northwest’s vibrant design community. We’re proud to call them our partners.

Look to them first for your next project. Visit their portfolios at graymag.com or link directly to their sites to learn more.

David Hopkins Design davidhopkinsdesign.com

Emerick Architects

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babienko ARCHITECTS pllc

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Graham Baba Architects

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Johnston Architects

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Lyons Hunter Williams : architecture Measured Architecture

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Lanefab Design / Build

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One SEED Architecture + Interiors

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Tyler Engle Architects

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PACIFIC NORTHWEST INTERIOR DESIGN The following design firms are among the best in the region. They also support GRAY’s effort to advance the Pacific Northwest’s vibrant design community.

We’re proud to call them our partners.

Look to them first for your next project.

Visit their portfolios at graymag.com or link directly to their sites to learn more.

CAITLIN JONES DESIGN

Finley Grace Design

Garrison Hullinger Interior Design

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finleygracedesign.com

garrisonhullinger.com

GATH INTERIOR DESIGN

Guggenheim Architecture + Design Studio

HYDE EVANS DESIGN

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Lisa Staton Design

Michelle Dirkse Interior Design

Pulp Design Studios

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SMD

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AWARDS SEASON IS IN FULL SWING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST,

with professional organizations recognizing the best of the region’s architecture, landscape design, and interior design.

The University of Iowa’s Voxman Music Building (pictured here), designed by LMN Architects in collaboration with Neumann Monson Architects, received an Honor Award at the AIA Washington Council’s 2017 Civic Design Awards in October. » GRAYMAG . COM

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Among the winners of the IDIBC Shine Awards’ Award of Excellence were Shark Club Sports Bar & Grill by Daniel Meloché of Northland Properties (1) in the Food & Beverages category and Spareparts’ Pacific Centre location by Cutler (2) in the Retail & Kiosks category. Olympia Place, designed by Holst Architecture with DiMella Shaffer (3), took home AIA Portland’s Citation Award for Built Projects. And 2.ink Studio received an Award of Excellence from the ASLA Oregon in the Residential Multi-Family category for the landscape design of Portland’s YARD project (4). h

THE CELEBRATIONS CONTINUE AS GRAY HONORS REGION-WIDE EXCELLENCE ACROSS THE FULL SPECTRUM OF DESIGN. INTRODUCING...

THE GRAY AWARDS! TURN TO PAGE 35.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: HEATHER MERENDA; LUIZ VALDIZON / WHEN THEY FIND US; CHRISTIAN PHILLIPS; STEPHEN MILLER

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© 2017 Design Within Reach, Inc.

Jeff Weber Co-designer of the Herman Miller® Embody® Chair www.dwr.com GRAYMAG . COM

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SCENE

happenings |

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: GRAY Stage;

THANK YOU TO THE PRESENTING PARTNERS OF THE GRAY STAGE: DXV Canada; The Mine; Whirlpool / Coast Appliances

interior designer Alexa Hampton and Michelle Newbery of The Mine; keynote speakers Glenn Lawson and Grant Fenning of Lawson Fenning.

And to the presenting partners of GRAY’s Green Room: Design Within Reach Contract; Herman Miller; Contemporary Office Interiors

STAGE DESIGN

THE WEST COAST IS THE BEST COAST FOR DESIGN

For this year’s GRAY Stage, Jessica MacDonald and Kate Snyder of Vancouver’s burgeoning Studio Roslyn delivered a design evocative of Art Deco–inflected Hollywood glamour, combined with their reinterpretation of the authentic theatrical stage. “We were interested in exaggerating some [vintage] elements and juxtaposing them with contemporary details like sleek furniture and sheer, oversized balloons,”says Snyder. British Columbia Timberframe Co. brought the designers’ vision into reality, and, after the show, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Vancouver collected the stage materials for reuse.

Written by ABBY BEACH

Thank you to the volunteers and everyone who collaborated on the GRAY Stage:

THIS SEPTEMBER, INTERIOR DESIGN SHOW VANCOUVER highlighted

DESIGN: Studio Roslyn BUILD: British Columbia

designers, artists, makers, and design-centric brands from the Pacific Northwest and around the world—including international icons such as Jaime Hayon and Camille Walala as well as local startups such as ChopValue (winner of last year’s Pitch Tank on the GRAY Stage). In partnership with The Mine, DXV Canada, and Whirlpool / Coast Appliances, GRAY editors hosted designers, emerging talent, and industry leaders on our stage: Glenn Lawson and Grant Fenning (of LA-based Lawson Fenning) recounted their firm’s growth from a local store to a global brand; interior designer Alexa Hampton and Michelle Newbery, president of The Mine, discussed authenticity in design; and Neil Patel, CEO of Print the Future, revealed the next generation of 3D printing. This year, interior designer Karin Bohn of House of Bohn helped us debut GRAY TV, a conversation series filmed live by Life Studios at the GRAY Stage. »

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Timberframe Co. AUDIENCE SEATING, STAGE AND GREEN ROOM FURNITURE: Design

Within Reach Contract, Contemporary Office Interiors, Herman Miller CURTAIN PANELS: Maharam CUSTOM RUG: Banner Carpets Ltd. PAINT: Colorhouse PAINT SUPPLIES: GreenWorks Building Supply SIGN, GRAPHICS: SEEN Signs TILE: Fontile Kitchen & Bath

© 2017 Design Within Reach, Inc.

Hung-Ming Chen and Chen-Yen Wei Designers of the Story Bookcase www.dwr.com GRAYMAG . COM

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GRAY TV

Vancouver-based interior designer Karin Bohn interviews Italian sculptor and industrial designer Matteo Cibic at the GRAY Stage.

EXHIBIT SPACE DESIGN AWARDS

AFTER PARTY

On Friday evening after the show, GRAY hosted the IDS Official After Party with Jenni Finlay at the Finlay and Kath showroom in Railtown. The Moroccanthemed affair—complete with food trucks, hookahs, and DJ—played well with the designer’s newest collection of Moroccan-inspired rugs. Strathcona Beer Company, SKAHA Vineyard, and Crescent Hill Winery kept the drinks flowing (and designers dancing) well past 2 a.m. h

Each year at IDS Vancouver, GRAY editors walk the floor before opening night and pick the exhibitor booths they feel show the most innovative and eye-catching design.

This year’s winners include FRAME Magazine, whose modular design was created from paper by Molo; Lock & Mortice, with a simple yet elegant take on a house frame; the Furniture Society’s handmade seating; and Different Designs Group’s feminine addition to the Studio North section. Seattle artist Julie Conway of Illuminata Glass fabricated this year’s award—a piece that reflects the region’s industrial roots.

Watch clips and read about our full IDS lineup at graymag.com/IDSV. Photographed by MARTIN KNOWLES

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Though the AVA Byte unit is small—essentially a sleek, high-tech 18-inch-long planter box—the high-tech concept could have a sizeable global environmental impact.

TAKE A BYTE Written by ABBY BEACH : Photographed by CLINTON HUSSEY

STACY KENDALL

IMAGINE BEING ABLE TO GROW FOOD ANYWHERE BY JUST PUSHING A BUTTON. That sounds like a scene in a futur-

“We envision a future where nature and technology meet halfway.”

—VALERIE SONG, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, AVA BYTE

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istic film, but it will soon be a reality thanks to Vancouver-based startup AVA Byte—the producer of automated, self-watering indoor smart gardens and the winner of GRAY’s 2017 Pitch Tank competition at IDS Vancouver. Co-founded by sales and brand manager Valerie Song, former chef Chase Ando, and urban futurist Mike Nasseri, AVA Byte is both a reaction and a solution to the global realities of population increase, climate change, and urbanization, all of which make it difficult for farmers to meet the ever-growing demand for food. “Eventually, we aim to reduce the plastic packaging used for herbs at grocery stores, cut down on the amount of unused and thrown-out greens at restaurants, and eliminate pesticides from the empowered consumer’s diet,” says Song. AVA Byte comes equipped with soil-free, ready-togrow pods that hold seeds, food, and plant-based growing material. The machine’s sensors monitor the indoor environment, maintain water levels with a drought-proof hydration system, and adjust conditions to accelerate the garden’s growth and development; as a result, plants can grow up to three times as fast in AVA Byte as in a traditional garden. AVA Byte is also iOS and Android compatible, which lets users track their gardens’ development, vitals, and water supply via app. With plans for larger sister units—the Megabyte, Gigabyte, and Cannabyte—already underway, 2018 looks to be a year of rapid growth indeed. h

“I am and always have been inspired by color.�

Kathryn Ireland, Celebrity designer and author, Globe Style Saturday Jan 20, 2018

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the awa rd GRAYMAG . COM

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| AWARDS

the trophies

|

the art of the award

Written by RACHEL GALLAHER

GLASS ARTIST JOHN HOGAN IS KNOWN FOR HIS EXPERIMENTATION WITH FORM AND QUIET DETERMINATION TO PUSH THE MEDIUM INTO A CONTEMPORARY REALM—TWO REASONS AMONG MANY WHY WE CHOSE HIM AS THE INAUGURAL GRAY AWARD DESIGNER. Growing up in Toledo, Ohio (the birthplace of the Studio Glass movement in America), Hogan was exposed to the art at a young age. He learned to blow glass at 15, taking classes at the Toledo Museum of Art, and after moving to Seattle in 2008, he participated in the Emerging-Artists-in-Residence program at the prestigious Pilchuck Glass School. Driven by a fascination with light, Hogan creates geometric and amoebic forms impressed with textures and shot through with color—deceptively simple pieces that belie the skill and precision required in their crafting. In addition to his solo work, Hogan has collaborated on products with design firms including Erich Ginder Studio and Iacoli & McAllister, the Czech brand Lasvit, and the Irish artist Karen Donnellan. We popped into the hot shop and chatted with Hogan about his work, his concept for the award design, and what’s next for the field of glass.

How would you describe your work?

At the core, I’m trying to make simple statements that are really about making people feel something as a result of glass’s interaction with light. Although this is a technique-based art, at some point it became more important for me to focus on the potential for having an impact on someone’s emotions through the work rather than trying to create the most technically difficult or impressive piece. Glass

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is a very strange, fickle material, and I have a very intimate relationship with it.

How would you describe the landscape of glassblowing in the Northwest?

I think we’re approaching an interesting end of one era and the beginning of another. Obviously Dale Chihuly is the reason glass has become such a big industry here in Seattle, and many

individuals in his crew (Richard Royal, Martin Blank, Benjamin Moore) have gone on to become hugely influential in their own right. I’m starting to see a wave of young makers who are less focused on working for big-name artists and more excited about pursuing their own independent projects.

What was your inspiration for the design of this year’s GRAY Award?

I wanted to make something that straddled the line between award object and art piece. I knew it was going to include text, so it needed to be simple but still have some character. It needed to have some of the qualities you usually see in awards; that’s why its gold elements are nice, but I also didn’t want it to feel like it was made through a cookie-cutter process. Each award was shaped by hand—by letting the material move and breathe in its own way, each of the pieces came out a little different, just like each of the winners is different.

What’s next for you?

I’m starting to think about working at an architectural scale. For this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial, I collaborated with MOS Architects on a 16-foot modular cast-glass tower, and that has me very excited about the potential for building walls out of glass for homes and future commercial projects. I’m also working with a development company in Vancouver to design a glass screen for a section of a 40-story building that will go up in Seattle in the future. I’ve worked on a small scale for a long time, so it’s a whole new challenge to scale up that much. ❈

OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: COURTESY JOHN HOGAN; DAVID CLUGSTON; THIS PAGE: AMANDA RINGSTAD

See the GRAY Awards trophy on pg 162.

OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: Hogan in the hot shop; Untitled, 2017.

THIS PAGE: Vita, 2016.

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| AWARDS the cause |

Yes, in my backyard

IN RESPONSE TO SEATTLE’S RAPIDLY ESCALATING HOUSING CRISIS, TWO ARCHITECTS ARE WORKING TO FIGHT NIMBYISM AND GIVE THE HOMELESS A PERMANENT ADDRESS. GRAY IS LENDING SUPPORT BY DONATING HALF OF THE TICKET SALE PROCEEDS FROM OUR FIRST ANNUAL AWARDS PARTY TO THE BLOCK PROJECT. Written by RACHEL GALLAHER Portrait by NATE WATTERS

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IT’S RARE FOR AN ARCHITECTURE FIRM TO LEAD WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN DESIGN, BUT FOR SEATTLE’S BLOCK ARCHITECTS, IT’S EMPATHY THAT POWERS PROJECTS. Founded by Rex Hohlbein and his daughter Jennifer LaFreniere in May 2017, BLOCK Architects, a firm aiming to fight homelessness through community building, is the result of several years of discussion about linking architecture and homelessness. Although it’s not Hohlbein’s first foray into the social justice sphere (he closed his high-end residential architecture firm in 2014 to focus on Facing Homelessness, his nonprofit organization that seeks to debunk adverse stereotypes of people living on the streets), BLOCK Project, the firm’s first endeavor, is the most ambitious to date.

“Two of the biggest stumbling blocks to housing are a perceived lack of land and limited dollars,” he says, “but we think that being cut off from the community is a deterrent to people looking to improve their lives. BLOCK Project tackles these issues simultaneously.”

The concept is simple: recruit homeowners who are willing to host a 125square-foot tiny house (and a formerly homeless tenant) on their property. The structures are fully self-sufficient, featuring solar panels, a graywater system, and a composting toilet, and they incorporate a kitchen, a bathroom, a sleeping area, and storage. The hosts and tenants go through a rigorous matching process to ensure that the placement is based on a friendship rather than a transaction. “We want to encourage interaction between the two,” LaFreniere explains, noting that the foremost goal of BLOCK Project is building community. “It’s not about putting down this house and then having everyone go their own way. Building relationships is a crucial first step in folding these people back into the community.” All BLOCK host families receive a monthly stipend; however, all hosts thus far have opted to waive the stipend, choosing to donate the funds back to the project.

So far, BLOCK Project has raised enough money to build four tiny houses.

Each costs about $30,000 to construct— the first was installed in the Beacon Hill neighborhood this summer, with two more starting construction before the end of 2017. Turner Construction Company is donating labor to build the initial four, and additional partners include FSi Consulting Engineers, Allworth Design, Swenson Say Fagét, contractor Dick McDonald, the Cloud Room, and other companies that will contribute time, materials, and resources. Currently more than 50 families are interested in hosting a BLOCK house on their properties, and hundreds of individuals are hoping to be housed. LaFreniere says she expects both numbers to grow. “If we put one project on every residential block in the city,” she says, “we could end homelessness in Seattle.” ❈

BLOCK Architects founders Rex Hohlbein and Jennifer LaFreniere, his daughter, in front of the first tiny house built through their nonprofit organization BLOCK Project.

P R O U D LY I N T R O D U C I N G T H E N E W

JO SAMPSON COLLECTION FROM DREXEL NOW IN OUR NEWLY REMODELED SHOWROOMS

URBAN INTERIORS

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THE GRAY EDITORS SHARE SOME FAVORITE DISCOVERIES FROM AMONG THE 363 GRAY AWARDS CONTENDERS.

Best Art Installation Photographed by MARK DAVIS

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A site-specific installation in the Seattle headquarters of Tableau Software, Contours is an artistic nod to the company’s core values: discovery, curiosity, and innovation. Designed by London and Seattle–based firm Acrylicize out of hand-painted formed acrylic sections that mimic the summit of Mt. Rainier, Contours hangs above a reflective water feature that doubles its dramatic impact, taking on new forms as it’s viewed from different angles. h

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Best basement renovation Photographed by MIKEE SHATTUCK

Basement makeovers are often low priorities in home renovations, but this sleekly designed subterranean remodel in Portland flaunts top-level chic. The work of Osmose Design, led by interior designer Andee Hess, basement 2.0 includes a new wet bar, a home theater, a wine cellar, a gas fireplace, a gym, a sauna, and a playroom. Hess’s material selections (powder-coated steel, inlaid LEDs, textured metals) reflect a tech-centric modern lifestyle, while the cozy gray sectional makes it an inviting family hangout. h

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Š2017 Wood-Mode, Inc.

Create without compromise.

Zen Blend by Wood-Mode Bellevue Henredon & Schoener 425.454.9000 www.henredonschoener.com

Portland Eastbank Interiors 503.233.1502 www.eastbankinteriors.com

Seattle Rainier Cabinetry & Design 206.632.7929 www.rainiercabinetry.com

Bellingham Bellingham Millwork Supply 360.734.5700 www.bellinghammillwork.com

Seattle Neil Kelly 206.343.2822 www.neilkelly.com

Seattle Savvy Cabinetry by Design 206.860.7600 www.savvycd.com

Seattle William & Wayne 206.762.2635 www.williamandwayne.com

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Best Mixed Use

Photographed by STEPHEN MILLER

Located at the geographic center of Portland, this distinctive podium and tower is Skylab Architecture’s answer to a challenging set of site constraints and cultural forces. YARD, a 21-story building at the Burnside Bridge’s eastern foot, is intended to ease the city’s housing crisis, adding 284 apartment spaces of differing prices to accommodate renters of diverse income levels. The majority of the site is occupied by the building’s five-story base, which combines commercial and retail spaces, offices, and parking. The podium is topped by an inviting, undulating green roof, designed by 2.ink Studio, that manages storm-water runoff.

Its tiered seating areas and overlook spots offer the public lofty views of the bridge and the Willamette River. h

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Beauty, Strength, Durability.

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Best OFFICE Photographed by PAUL WARCHOL

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Boardrooms can be boring places, with snooze-worthy furniture (and we don’t mean good for afternoon naps) and little enviable design. But Seattle architect Eric Cobb raised the boardroom bar when designing the executive offices at the Zillow headquarters: a rich mix of polished wood, concrete, and plush rugs lends the rooms a refined sense of luxury befitting top-tier talent. A Zen-like water feature runs the length of the west-facing windows, which provide unobstructed views of Puget Sound. Together, they’re a double hit of calming elements sure to unwind even the most stressed-out executives. h

artisan landscape design & services parterreseattle.com 206.527.4334 GRAYMAG . COM

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Best LIBRARY

Photographed by BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER

It’s an understatement to call the interiors of this Seattle home merely grand. The residents wished to blend classical design elements—from medieval to Art Deco to French rococo— with contemporary aesthetics, and interior designers Nancy Burfiend and James Fung of NB Design Group fulfilled their dream. All manner of flourishes adorn the residence, including miles of shimmering gold leaf on the ceilings, but the stylistic mashup is on full display in the handsome library, where a dramatic black and white palette, graced with hints of gold and brass, highlights the space’s architectural elements. An antique chandelier, gracious seating, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves accessed by a rolling library ladder keep things cozy. h

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custom

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Best kitchen storage Photographed by DANIEL BERNAUER

What do we want? Sleek storage! When do we want it? Now! Seattle-based Henrybuilt has answered the call. The Vertical Bar Block, handmade in Seattle, fits seamlessly into a kitchen’s smaller spaces and provides open storage that’s both good-looking and functional.

It includes an integrated electrical outlet and tailored storage for cutting boards, wine bottles, cooking tools, knives, and trays— all wedged into a 6-inch width. Eco-friendly PaperStone shelves are adjustable, and storage boxes are removable. Fist pump! h

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MA I S O N INC Award-Winning Interior Design Full-Service Kitchen/Bath Design

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Best use of color Photographed by LAUREN D. ZBARSKY

The crew who created Vancouver’s new Superbaba restaurant had one overarching goal: to make “the best damn pita bread in the area.” So they tapped Vancouver-based Studio Roslyn to create a scintillating oasis that would be on par, design-wise, with that lofty ambition. Taking inspiration from strong arch motifs in traditional Middle Eastern architecture, as well as quirky details—speckled quartzite countertops, neon signage—found in casual cafés across the Middle East, designers Kate Snyder and Jessica MacDonald added contemporary touches such as bold paint hues and playful original art that riffs on overlit fast-food menu photos. Now Superbaba is a delightful feast for all the senses. h

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love coming home.

1225 NW Everett St. | Portland, OR | www.kushrugs.com

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Best sun deck Photographed by BRETT HITCHINS

The grounds of a 4.5-acre Vancouver estate designed by landscape architect Paul Sangha are replete with notable design features—an infinity-edge hot tub; English-style garden plantings edged by old-growth forest—but none is more striking than the poolside overlook terrace. To achieve the suspended effect, Sangha employed commercial building techniques and frameless glass railings. To stand on the deck, which projects 30 feet beyond the edge of the property and offers a breathtaking view of the landscape beyond, is to feel that you’re floating amid the treetops. h

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Best DRAMATIC STAIRCASE

Photographed by KEVIN SCOTT

Set in a former 1960s Dr Pepper bottling plant, Charles Smith Wines Jet City strikes a strong industrial note that suits its locale in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood.

Designed by Olson Kundig, the 32,000-square-foot space features a plate-steel staircase that connects the first-floor lounge to the expansive second-floor tasting room. Standing in bold contrast to the building’s prevailing palette of concrete, wood, and white-painted walls, the statement staircase epitomizes the region’s obsession with craftsmanship. h

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Fine Solid Bronze Architectural Hardware | 866.788.3631 | sunvalleybronze.com Residential | Commercial | Plumbing | Lighting | Furniture | Custom | Made in the USA GRAYMAG . COM

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Best neutrals Photographed by HARIS KENJAR Styling by SARA DUNCAN

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The Northwest’s obsession with earthy hues sometimes manifests in interior design in predictable and safe ways. But this Seattle piedà-terre, designed for a couple of empty nesters by Brian Paquette and Liza Curtiss of Brian Paquette Interiors, takes neutrals to a sophisticated new level. Elegantly layered within an open floor plan, a variety of textures and natural materials—nubby textiles, woven rush, raw leather—gives the furnishings tactile appeal and suggests the interiors have evolved over time rather than being “decorated.”

Our editors’ reaction to the project? Anything but neutral. h

Cheshire in Stone Gray

Cheshire in Stone Gray

Redefine the classics The full range of Victoria Albert’s bathtubs and basins are now Redefi ne the+classics

available in seven external paint finishes. Explore the full collection

The full www.vandabaths.com range of Victoria + Albert’s bathtubs and basins are now online: available in seven external paint finishes. Explore the full collection online:www.vandabaths.com

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Best outSIDE-in Photographed by TIM BIES

Seeking relief from their busy work schedules, a couple recently asked Seattle’s First Lamp Architects | Builders to create a getaway on Herron Island, Washington, that could offer them welcome distance on day-to-day life. Inspired by the separation of the Case Inlet island from the mainland, First Lamp conceived of a cabin that is accessed via a floating stairwell and steel bridge from its top level, allowing the family to physically mark a separation from their daily lives as they descend into the home’s open, airy layout. The design further blurs the lines between indoors and out with floor-to-ceiling windows—many operable—and, in the master bedroom, wood floors that seem to merge seamlessly into the waters of Puget Sound, some 60 feet below. h

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Best duplex

Photographed by JOSHUA JAY ELLIOTT

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Portland-based Works Progress Architecture destigmatizes traditional duplex living through its artfully symbiotic Doppelgänger building. The architects’ unique approach allows both residences to occupy the entire 50-by-100-foot lot (rather than splitting it in two, as a developer typically would do). The wood-framed homes are intertwined, their living spaces spiraling upward from the ground-floor entries to the third-floor bedrooms.

Stacked atop each other, the units are both conjoined and distinct: each floor features adjacent outdoor spaces and carefully located interior openings for maximum privacy, and platform framing ensures high-level acoustic separation. The duplex’s exterior is clad in vertical tight-knot cedar—one side is finished in smooth cedar, the other in rough, for a subtle difference that invites an appreciative double take. h

Architectural Planters for Commercial and Residential Applications Full Design Services Available 517 E Pike Street Seattle WA 98122 206.329.4737 www.ragenassociates.com

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Best revamp Photographed by AARON LEITZ

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How should a firm approach the renovation of a city icon designed by renowned regional architect Roland Terry? If you’re Seattle’s Suyama Peterson Deguchi, and you’ve been charged with redesigning the bar and lounge at the city’s swanky Canlis, you tap into the building’s past to draw it into the present. The restaurant’s interior décor has long been influenced by Japanese design and culture, and SPD teased out those themes, using the form of a traditional stepped tansu chest as design inspiration. Stairs made of dense wenge wood lead up to the private dining room and form the structure of the bar back, while a series of steel rods and a bronze handrail suggest the jewelry-like hardware on a tansu. Furnishings and art chosen

by Doug Rasar Interior Design both honor Canlis’s elegant past and make it a muststop place for a modern generation. h

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1. eco blankets $150 2. LED table lamp $165 3. 3D gorilla puzzle $9.95 4. gold fig vases $80.95 5. matchstick bottles $24.95 6. placemats $15 7. stapler $10.95 8. creature cups $16.95 9. round placemats $45 10. erasers $6.50 11. planetarium paperweight $33.95 12. basket $199

Stuart Silk Architects 2cm Carrara marble slab

14328 Linden Ave. N, Seattle | 206.368.0990 | marmoegranito.net

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Best bright idea

Photographed by WHITNEY ROBINSON

Modularity is swiftly becoming de rigueur throughout design, from furniture to architecture, and the Ess Lite, by newly established Vancouver studio 8th and Ash, can be configured in endless ways. Born out of designer Whitney Robinson’s explorations of shape and physical adaptation, the CNC-milled light, with removable components, can slide, flip, expand, and contract to suit a user’s functional and aesthetic needs.

In a growing set of finish options, the Ess Lite is more than a good idea—it’s something for everyone. h

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Live, Work, Play from the Oregon Coast $275,000 2 beds, 2 baths, 1,102 sqft Sweet Seaside cottage west of Hwy 101. Beach, prom, and cafĂŠs nearby!

Newer cedar siding, windows, updated kitchen. Living room features cozy woodburning fireplace, main floor master with private bath, large bedroom upstairs with plenty of room for extra guests. Private backyard includes garden shed/shop/art studio. Enjoy sun and ocean breezes from this charming covered front porch!

MLS#17018488 Sylvia Stuck, Broker GRI, ABR, CDPE, ASP RE/MAX River & Sea (503) 440-2209 | sylviastuck@hotmail.com seasideoregonhomes.com

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Best spec home Photographed by JUSTIN KRUG

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Mixing modern American amenities with Japanese design principles, the Suteki residence in Happy Valley, Oregon, truly brings together the best of East and West. Designed by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma for Suteki America and built by Westlake Development Group, the house is nestled into a landscape designed by Sadafumi Uchiyama, curator at the Portland Japanese Garden. The L-shaped dwelling features oversized sloping roofs, double-height windows, a wraparound wooden deck with deep eaves, and an open-plan kitchen and dining area that faces onto gardens. “Dream house” doesn’t even begin to describe it. h

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Best contemplative space Photographed by NIC LEHOUX

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Bohlin Cywinski Jackson’s 1,650-square-foot Lightbox, in Point Roberts, Washington, was designed as a home and studio for a globe-hopping architectural photographer and his family. The two-story glass and cedar residence is an uncomplicated yet powerful project that enables the residents to enjoy both the densely forested site’s ever-changing light and an enduring sense of refuge. Also offering peace of mind was the home’s relative affordability: the total construction cost clocked in at just $210 per square foot. h

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IS FOR

PROVENANCE.

Nine out of nine of Provenance Hotels were named winners in the 2017 Conde Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards, including all of our hotels in the Pacific Northwest. This month, Hotel Theodore in Seattle joins the family.

Welcome, Hotel Theodore.

Find out more at provenancehotels.com

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WINNER

• COMMERCIAL •

ARCHITECTURE Washington Fruit & Produce Company Headquarters GRAHAM BABA ARCHITECTS Date of completion: January 2016 Location: Yakima, Washington Photographed by: Kevin Scott

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When the Washington Fruit & Produce Company started talking to Graham Baba Architects about design plans for their new headquarters in Yakima, Washington, they provided a single architectural reference to the team: an abandoned wood barn.

Dotting the barren landscape of eastern Washington, derelict barns are often seen as signs of economic decline, but the familyowned company (which grows, packs, and ships premium fruit products from the Northwest throughout the world) took them as inspiration for a bold new vision for their building: the family imagined a decaying barn with plants, grasses, and trees flourishing amid its ruins and reclaiming their territory. The clients also asked for a warm material palette, protection from a neighboring freeway, and minimal visible equipment, and they wanted to avoid both concrete and boxy forms.

Seattle-based Graham Baba responded with an inward-focused approach. In collaboration with Berger Partnership, they set earth berms and a site wall around the new L-shaped headquarters to direct the gaze upward, toward the nearby basalt hills, and to obscure the distracting freeway and adjacent industrial agribusiness. Tapping

Yakima’s Artisan Inc. General Contractors for construction, the architects shaped the building’s outer shell out of reclaimed wood from nearby sources and laced the interior with dozens of criss-crossing wooden beams.

The headquarters’ lunchroom, which includes both a kitchen and a table seating up to 30, hosts weekly meals at which field staff, usually at work in the orchards, dine alongside office staff so that those who grow the fruit can mingle with those who sell it.

Yakima averages 300 sunny days a year, so the architects developed a sustainability strategy that oriented the building’s windows to the north and east, which minimizes heat gain and the need for electric lighting. A south-facing clerestory invites in daylight, and photocells balance light on dark days. A high-performance building system, made of locally sourced structural insulated panels, permitted the team to build the new headquarters quickly and with minimal waste. Graham Baba’s modern, low-slung building and use of natural materials both bring the 100-yearold operation into the present and create a seamless connection to the landscape—a fitting architectural approach for a company so tied to the land. ❈

COLLABORATORS Contractor: Artisan Inc. General Contractors Structural engineer: MA Wright Landscape architect: Berger Partnership Mechanical engineers: Arup Civil engineers: Meier Architecture • Engineering Custom furniture: Stusser Woodworks Interior designer: Interior Motiv Lighting engineer: Brian Hood Lighting Design

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“The building’s plan frames views of nearby hills.

An expansive use of glass, overhangs, and arcades creates a strong relationship between indoors and out. The warm material palette contrasts with the more industrial structures elsewhere on the site.

It’s a handsome building and a very inviting place to work.” —DEBORAH BERKE, GRAY AWARDS 2017 JUDGE

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• RESIDENTIAL •

ARCHITECTURE Bear Run Cabin DAVID COLEMAN / ARCHITECTURE Date of completion: October 2015 Location: North Cascade Mountains Photographed by: Benjamin Benschneider

WINNER

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“THE HOUSE AND STUDIO RESPOND TO AND ECHO THE DRAMATIC LANDSCAPE IN WHICH THEY SIT. A COMPACT SITE STRATEGY CREATES DISTINCT SPACES THAT ARE NESTLED TOGETHER. ALL OF THIS WAS ACHIEVED ON A MODEST BUDGET. IT’S A BEAUTIFUL HOUSE.” —DEBORAH BERKE, GRAY AWARDS 2017 JUDGE

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Tucked into a rugged parcel of land in the rainy northwestern foothills of the Cascade Mountains, Bear Run Cabin was cheekily named after an encounter between the client and a bear during the project’s construction phase (it was the client who ran). Designed by David Coleman, principal of Seattle’s David Coleman / Architecture, the Bear Run compound consists of a pair of structures (one serving as the cabin or main living space, the other as a guest loft, woodshop, and music studio) and a narrow terraced garden. The client wanted a modern, sustainable cabin for two that both expresses a strong sense of place and integrates well into the surrounding landscape, so Coleman created building forms that mirror the jagged Cascade peaks and create a simple, elemental presence. The western terrace, carved

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into the 30-by-100-foot site, steps down into the earth and leads toward a soaking tub set behind a glass wall.

The southeastern porch and stair, both sheltered by a soaring roof, rise above the site, offering a shield against both rain and summer sun. The two spaces meet in an interstitial rain garden: a place designed to gather seasonal rains and direct them toward the river below.

Sustainable elements include geothermal heating, superinsulation, passive solar design, and an electrical system that draws upon hydropower generated nearby. The western wall of the 1,000-square-foot studio, clad in a translucent polycarbonate skin, illuminates the interior in a soft glow during the day and, as the studio is lit from within at night, becomes a dramatic green display when viewed from the exterior terrace. ❈

COLLABORATORS Structural engineer: Gary Gill Contractors: John Piazza Jr. Construction & Remodeling (building shell) Finishes: Mark Malone

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National Museum of African American History and Culture GUSTAFSON GUTHRIE NICHOL Date of completion: September 2016 Location: Washington, DC

landscape DESIGN

WINNER

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COURTESY GUSTAFSON GUTHRIE NICHOL

ALAN KRACHMER

Every landscape-design project presents sitespecific challenges, but those challenges are compounded when you’re designing a new landscape for the National Mall in Washington, DC. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened in 2016 and set on a 5-acre tract near the Washington Monument, took decades to plan (including more than a dozen failed votes in Congress over its funding) and sparked a significant debate regarding the museum’s site on the Mall. To shape the landscape around the museum, Seattle firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) cultivated a design with the utmost social consciousness and aesthetic sensitivity.

The site design aimed to mesh the building and its program, both physically and historically, with the broader context of the National Mall and its numerous monuments.

At the same time, the landscape needed to be distinctive and uniquely linked to the museum; it had to extend the visitor experience outside by expressing the museum’s broad organizing themes of resiliency, spirituality, hope, and optimism.

Myriad functional considerations had to be

juggled as well, including entry plazas and pathways that could accommodate millions of yearly visitors, and a secure perimeter around the site.

GGN integrated the building, conceived of by its architects as a pavilion in a park, into the Mall by drawing on the design qualities of the adjacent Washington Monument and White House grounds and installing gently curved pathways and retaining walls, open lawns, and a diverse palette of trees, including many native to the Southeast.

The two entries to the site are marked by a wide stone retaining wall to the north and a water feature to the south, juxtaposing the permanence and weight of stone with the ephemeral qualities of moving water.

These thresholds symbolically link past, present, and future to reinforce the museum’s location—it is the last significant site to be developed on the National Mall—as a critical context for the story of the African American experience showcased within the museum itself. And every year in late winter, 400,000 crocus bulbs bloom across the lawn in a bright expression of hope and optimism made manifest through planting design. ❈

COLLABORATORS Architects: Adjaye Associates; Davis Brody Bond; The Freelon Group; SmithGroup JJR Water feature consultant: CMS Collaborative Structural engineers: Guy Nordenson and Associates; Robert Silman Associates Structural Engineers, DPC MEP engineer: WSP USA Civil engineer: Rummel, Klepper & Kahl General contractors: Clark Construction; H. J. Russell & Company; Smoot Construction Landscape contractor: Ruppert Landscape Stone installer: Rugo Stone

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“A simple yet exquisitely thoughtful and sensitive design, responsive to its context and program.” —JAMES CORNER, GRAY AWARDS 2017 JUDGE

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interior design • COMMERCIAL •

Bauhaus Restaurant ANDREA GREENWAY INTERIOR DESIGN

WINNER

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THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE: EMA PETER

Date of completion: Summer 2015 Location: Vancouver

“Bauhaus is elegant, with nice, clean details well suited to the client and the original architecture. Although minimal in design, the space feels warm due to the use of certain materials and successful lighting; nothing tricky here. The designers also did a great job with the exposed kitchen—it’s beautiful.”

—ROMAN ALONSO, GRAY AWARDS 2017 JUDGE

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the restaurant’s namesake German modernist movement, with tubular steel chairs, sleek linear lights (a collaboration with designer Matthew McCormick), and up-lit double-height concrete walls that add “some needed austerity to this brick-heavy space,” says Greenway. Yet despite the minimal palette and severe lines, the restaurant manages to be warm and inviting due to strategically complementary indirect lighting and the integration of rich materials such as the rosy copper host desk and the expanse of oak flooring.

Also inviting is the open kitchen, which allows diners to see the chefs in action and, with its double-sided island cook suite and steel pass-through, ensures smooth choreography among chefs and service staff. “Mechanically speaking, it was difficult to achieve, but we are all so pleased with the result,” says Greenway. h

COLLABORATORS Custom lighting: Andrea Greenway and Matthew McCormick Copper host stand and suspended steel display shelving: Andrea Greenway, fabricated

by Oren Darel for the Modern Joinery Kitchen: Pacific Restaurant Supply THIS PAGE: DARREN SUTHERLAND; OPPOSITE: EMA PETER

Designing within a historic space has its perks and its challenges, and the new Bauhaus, an elegant German restaurant set within a brick-walled building in Vancouver’s Gastown, was no exception.

The 2,200-square-foot space once housed a bank, a saloon, and, legend has it, a brothel. “Its storied past presented us with a site full of cool relics, such as 100year-old wallpaper and bullet holes in the vault, as well as some not-so-cool relics, such as the ancient electrical and plumbing systems and a crumbling structure,” says designer Andrea Greenway.

To create Bauhaus, Greenway and her team embraced and retained some elements of the original architecture— the exposed brick walls, the tall windows—while updating the interior shell and systems. “The entire space needed to be overhauled and brought into this century,” says Greenway.

The interiors take a design cue from

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• RESIDENTIAL •

interior design Cliffwood FINLEY GRACE DESIGN Date of completion: January 2017 Location: Los Angeles

WINNER

BRIAN CALLAWAY

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THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE: ADRIAN TIEMENS

How to infuse both contemporary edge and a sense of history into a brand-new build?

It’s all in the materials, as demonstrated here by Portland-based interior designer Anna Kimmel and project manager Jennifer Yamin. Their clients, a Los Angeles couple building a new home from the ground up in Brentwood, sought “a sophisticated masculine feel that also remained warm and inviting,” says Kimmel, founder of Finley Grace Design. “The main challenge was finding the right balance between the clean-lined modern aesthetic that the clients wanted and the Old World materials and scale of the architecture.”

To that end, Kimmel enacted a process of reduction, opting to use large wood paneling on walls instead of stone, and strategically whitewashing some of the home’s rubblestone walls to achieve a more uniform look. Then she layered in materials rich in texture and patina, such as aged bronze, highly polished lacquer, mohair, parchment, and long-pile wool rugs. “Function is always an important aspect of our design, but this

was not a home with small children or animals, so we were able to play with surfaces.

We lined the powder room walls in leather and the theater walls in raw silk, and we upholstered the custom-designed formal sofa in pure cashmere,” notes Kimmel.

Over time, the house took shape around statement pieces of furniture and accessories, many of them custom, such as a pair of Courrèges-inspired lamps in one bedroom.

Other furnishings were specifically curated to double as works of art in their own right, such as a limited-edition mirror from Hubert le Gall and a Cosmos cabinet from Patrick Naggar. Standout features include several pieces from Hervé van der Straeten, including the custom Lustre Volubile bronze light fixture that hangs over the dining room table. As Kimmel notes, “It is a piece of art as much as a fixture, presenting a beautiful balance in its contrast of heavy material— solid bronze—with airy, intersecting loops.”

This fusion of form and function is evident throughout the home and is a key factor in the project’s success. h

COLLABORATORS Architect: Steve Giannetti, Giannetti Home Contractor: R. T. Abbott Construction Art consultant: Lendrum Fine Art

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“IT’S WONDERFUL TO SEE AN ENVIRONMENT THAT IS CONTEMPORARY BUT STILL CLASSIC. THE ELEMENTS IN THIS HOUSE ARE ALL BALANCED; IT MAKES THE SPACE A REALLY SPECIAL HOME.’’

OPPOSITE AND THIS PAGE, TOP: BRIAN CALLAWAY; THIS PAGE, BOTTOM: ADRIAN TIEMENS

—VICENTE WOLF, GRAY AWARDS 2017 JUDGE

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fashion Legion SCHAI Date of completion: Fall–Winter 2016–2017 Photographed by: Charlie Schuck

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“Very cool and forward. There is a European/Belgian/modernist vibe to these clothes, and I see influences from Haider Ackermann to Veronique Branquinho.”

—OLIVIA KIM, GRAY AWARDS 2017 JUDGE

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“These days aren’t meant for isolation,” says designer Suk Chai, winner of the GRAY Award in fashion. “On the one hand, we’ve never been better at solitude—how easily we fold into our artificial shells and seal ourselves inside.

But as it gets easier to do without human connection, we’re faced with the simple, enduring truth that, all alone, we feel less. We create less. We are less.”

As an antidote to disconnection, Chai’s fall–winter 2016–17 collection, titled Legion, is an homage to the spirit of togetherness and team effort. With simple shapes, rich colors, subtle military influences, and sumptuous cashmeres, crepe, and twill fabrics, Chai imagines an army of “humble visionaries,” all holding tightly to the same towline, pulling for and with one another, as her design inspiration.

The Korean-born, Seattle-based designer has spent more than 22 years creating and directing for high-end womenswear brands. A graduate of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, Chai began her career at Adrienne Vittadini and Liz Claiborne. In Seattle, she helped develop Nordstrom’s private label and served as the department store’s senior design director for 14 years. In 2014, Chai launched her eponymous label, SCHAI, a tailored, alternative luxury line characterized by finely milled Italian textiles, architectural shapes, and timeless, precision-cut lines. Every one of SCHAI’s collections is inspired by Chai’s personal emotions and memories. In Legion, she manifests her desire for harmony, comfort, and unity in a chaotic world. ❈

COLLABORATORS Styling: Michele Andrews Model: Sofie Tveter (Seattle Models Guild) Hair and makeup: Katya Gudaeva Lighting: Natasha Felker Assistants: Maria João Neves and MacKenzie Nowinski

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• FURNITURE OR LIGHTING •

PRODUCT design Whorl Console NEAL ARONOWITZ DESIGN Date of completion: July 2017 Location: Portland

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THIS PAGE: KERRY DAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY; OPPOSITE: OUUM STUDIO

“It’s an incredible achievement—the studies he undertook, his enthusiasm for the material, his persistence in following his ideas, and, of course, the shape. It’s a very nice product.

I would like to have one.” —INGO MAURER, GRAY AWARDS 2017 JUDGE For most of us, the term “concrete furniture” evokes images of hefty park benches or blocky tables. But Portland industrial designer Neal Aronowitz has worked design alchemy, transforming a typically heavy, rigid material into something light, lyrical, and even gravity-defying.

Aronowitz’s Whorl console is made from Concrete Canvas, a patented concrete-impregnated fabric typically used in architectural applications—to construct disaster-relief shelters, for example, or to shore up erosion-prone hillsides and ditches. “It is essentially concrete cloth on a roll,” explains Aronowitz. When it’s wet, the material becomes pliable and can be draped over armatures; as it dries, it hardens to form a thin, durable, waterproof, and fire-resistant concrete layer. In addition to its environmental perks (it reduces the environmental impact of concrete applications by up to 95 percent), it has endless design potential as a raw material.

In Concrete Canvas’s flexibility, Aronowitz saw an opportunity, as he says, to “explore the material’s unique structural properties and

express a fluid form, in contrast to the dense and heavy associations of concrete.” The challenge was to stretch the tensile strength of the material to its limits in the service of aesthetic beauty while still maintaining its structural integrity. In other words, Aronowitz wanted to create a functional furnishing that could be used every day: a utilitarian object, not an art piece.

After much experimentation, Aronowitz developed a new, specialized casting technique that would allow him to achieve the ribbon-like effect that he sought. First he built a water-filled trough in which he immersed a 15-foot length of concrete cloth. Then he wound and draped the cloth around a five-part plywood mold. At the precise moment when the cloth was still flexible yet strong enough to hold its shape, he removed the mold and structurally reinforced the piece with wire mesh.

The final surface—pigmented cement mortar skim-coated over the console’s curves—was then sanded to a highly polished finish. Astoundingly, the piece weighs just 150 pounds: not quite as light as air, but as close as concrete gets. ❈

COLLABORATOR Consultant: Nuna Innovations

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product design PlusMinus ERDEM SELEK Date of completion: March 2017 Location: Eugene, Oregon

WINNER

ERDEM SELEK

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Turkish-born industrial designer Erdem Selek has spent his career in consumer and academic spheres, but it wasn’t until 2016 that he founded his own design studio to “focus on everyday objects—mainly those ‘silent’ ones that often go unnoticed.” His PlusMinus screwdriver, for example, is a form that is both intuitive to use and aesthetically pleasing when it’s out of the toolbox and set down in a living space. Its carefully devised form, made of polished stainless steel, fits the hand but can also rest on a desk “like a small yet perfectly formed work of art,” says Selek. A PlusMinus set consists of a pair of Phillips #2 and 3/16-inch flat-bladed screwdrivers, each with a paddle-shaped handle engraved with either a plus sign (indicating that it is a Phillips tool) or a minus sign (indicating that it’s flat-bladed). The position of the symbol tells the user which way to turn the tool in order to screw or unscrew. “The pure use of material makes the product a precious tool that can be kept for generations,” says Selek. ❈

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WINNER

WILD CARD Ice Cube OLSON KUNDIG Date of completion: September 2016 Location: Installation for the Seattle Design Festival Photographed by: Eirik Johnson

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Internationally renowned for its geometric modern architecture and strong material palette, Seattle firm Olson Kundig embraced a new medium last year when designing and building Ice Cube, a temporary installation for the 2016 Seattle Design Festival.

Positioned at a central point in Pioneer Square’s tree-lined Occidental Park, the 10-ton cube was fabricated by Dovetail General Contractors (with input from Swenson Say Fagét and Cascade Crystal Ice Sculptures) from 64 individually frozen ice blocks, each hand-selected and rotated for the best fit. Once assembled, the cube measured nearly 7 feet on each side.

Inspired by the festival’s theme, “Design Change,” Ice Cube demonstrated the stages of the natural water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection) as it melted away over a period of 10 days.

To join the blocks into a single form, the design team milled each one, strategically

stacked them, and then sprayed the cube with water to fuse its seams. Illuminated from above by a suspended LED light, it emitted a ghostly glow at night. The public was invited to interact freely with the sculpture, and they eagerly accepted the challenge: passersby could be seen touching, smelling, and even (in a few brave cases) licking the melting mass. Dogs cooled their tongues on the piece in the September heat; images of the piece (including nearly 550 Instagram posts hashtagged #ok_icecube) sprang up on social media; and local weather celebrity Cliff Mass asked people to speculate on how long Ice Cube would last. In a witty reversal of the standard “build for longevity” design principle, Olson Kundig embraced a subtractive program to highlight the beauty and potential of combining natural media and processes with human intervention to allow a design to shift, evolve, and eventually vanish. ❈

COLLABORATORS General contractor: Dovetail General Contractors Lighting design: NITEO Products Structural engineering: Swenson Say Fagét Ice sculptor: Cascade Crystal Ice Sculptures

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“The dialogue between the manmade and the natural is beautiful here. This project is also interesting for its temporality; architecture in the 21st century is becoming much less about permanency.”

—KARIM RASHID, GRAY AWARDS 2017 JUDGE

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STUDENT CUBE^3

WINNER

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN PROGRAM, WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, CLASS OF 2018 Date of completion: June 2017

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Twelve is the magic number for Western Washington University’s Industrial Design program, whose curriculum deliberately focuses on developing just a dozen graduates annually. Each class collaborates on shared projects, and the class of 2018’s passion for environmental sustainability and the use of design to improve whole communities added up to the winning submission in the GRAY Awards Student Design category.

Cube^3 is a modular housing system designed to address the needs of a variety of residents, from single adults to families, as well as small retailers. The students aimed to create a sustainable mixed-use development that would offer a combination of affordable housing, midrange units, and retail spaces for rent. Its name nods to the project’s modularity: units can be added or subtracted, with no modification to their core elements, as a resident’s income or resources change. Each Cube is designed to be mass-manufactured using modern

materials and techniques: first a client configures a unit via app, and then the Cube’s panels are wired, plumbed, and finished for the room (e.g., bathroom, kitchen, bedroom) they’ll enclose in the finished home. The Cube is flat packed, shipped, and assembled onsite using basic tools. The panels— constructed like modern structural insulated panels but using sustainable, carbonnegative hempcrete as their insulating layer—“plug into” the structure from the exterior, with utilities running through chaseways and attached via interior access ports so that the homes can be easily expanded, downsized, or reconfigured.

As part of their project assignment, the students were asked to answer the question “What is a home?” Their answer: it’s a place to plan for the future. It’s a definition that the GRAY Awards judges felt describes Western Washington University’s approach to training industrial designers as well. ❈

COLLABORATORS Design team: Lisa Collander, Linsey Gardner, Joe Han, Julian Hein, Matthew Hoogestraat, Ellen Huyn, Kenji Kimura, Noah Lanphear, Aiden Lee, Josh Pehrson, Sam Weaver, Kevin White Instructor: Professor Arunas Oslapas

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design for good

WINNER

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S.A.F.E. Pod and Treeline Stage SRG PARTNERSHIP AND PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEREST DESIGN Date of completion: Late 2017 Location: Portland Photographed by: Scott Mooney

Over the past decade, homelessness in the Pacific Northwest has increased at such an alarming rate that it’s become one of the most hotly debated topics in the region. So in 2015, when the city of Portland declared a housing emergency in response to soaring numbers of unsheltered people living on its streets, Portland State University’s Center for Public Interest Design decided it was time for a proactive solution. Teaming up with two local nonprofits, City Repair and the Village Coalition, the center launched the Partners on Dwelling (POD) initiative in the spring of 2016, inviting architecture firms to design 144-square-foot sleeping pods that could be easily assembled, disassembled, and moved as needed. Fourteen teams submitted pod prototypes for the pilot project. Once built, the structures were placed at a 1-acre site in north Portland and organized into the Kenton Women’s Village—a tiny-house community for the homeless, with shared kitchen and shower facilities and support services offered onsite, from leadership development to addiction treatment.

A year later, the PSU School of Architecture’s Diversion Studio was preparing to design and build, for the fifth year in a row, the Treeline Stage for the Pickathon Music Festival in Happy Valley, Oregon. But then, inspired by the success of the POD initiative’s pilot program, the students hit upon a novel idea: they would create a stage that could be easily dismantled after the festival

and its materials repurposed to build additional sleeping pods. After reviewing the 14 prototypes at Kenton Women’s Village, the group chose the S.A.F.E. Pod, designed by Seattle- and Portlandbased SRG Partnership. The pod’s central appeal is its simplicity of construction—it is built from a series of gable trusses, each composed of two 8-foot-long 2x4s connected to each other with only a handful of screws—and the fact that it can be assembled with just a few tools and minimal waste. Additionally, the pod’s unique heptagonal shape allows the inhabitant to occupy the building frame’s edges, providing built-in opportunities to install shelving, a desk surface, a bench, or a bed without sacrificing the open floor plan.

Using the S.A.F.E. Pod’s dimensions as a starting point, the student team developed a stage design using gable trusses, linked together to form vessel-like structures varying from 12 to 32 feet high. After the festival ended, the stage was deconstructed into its component 690 trusses, which are currently being used to construct sleeping pods in a new housing village for homeless veterans in Oregon’s Clackamas County. The students and their contractor partners, Lease Crutcher Lewis, began assembling the first wave of the SRG-designed pods in the fall of 2017, and Clackamas County officials hope to finish the project by the end of the year. ❈

COLLABORATORS Stage designer: Portland State University, School of Architecture (students: Kayla Anderson, Amy Peterson, Ossie Pleasant, Olivia Snell, Nick Vipond; faculty: Travis Bell, Clive Knights) Contractor: Lease Crutcher Lewis Structural engineer: Catena Consulting Engineers

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PHILIPPE STARCK Written by JENNIFER MCCULLUM

IN A 2007 TED TALK, RENOWNED CREATOR, DESIGNER, AND ARCHITECT PHILIPPE STARCK, WHEN DISCUSSING DESIGN AND DESTINY, OBSERVED THAT “NOBODY IS OBLIGED TO BE A GENIUS, BUT EVERYBODY IS OBLIGED TO PARTICIPATE.” There could be no better philosophy—and none articulated by any greater master—to inform the enthusiastic and egalitarian approach GRAY took as we launched our inaugural annual design awards. Conceived as a platform to honor the authentic creative work that defines our region, the 2017 GRAY Awards were an initiative in which every Pacific Northwest designer could participate, their work evaluated by an expert panel of their international peers, including Starck.

With a global career that has yielded

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over 10,000 projects, ranging from everyday kitchen tools to luxury hotels, Starck’s body of work alone warrants the visionary status synonymous with his name. But it is his democratic approach to design, paired with his personal code of ethics, that has established the French designer as an icon of 21st-century innovation. “When you are born, you sign a contract with your civilization,” Starck says. “Your only job is to be part of the evolution, to become better than your parents, and to make children who will be better than you. It’s a full-time job to observe, to understand, and to create something that goes toward evolution.”

Starck’s creations have included the world’s first polycarbonate chair, for Kartell in 1996; his optical mouse, for Microsoft in 2002; and even a reimagination of the toothbrush (his

1987 design for Fluocaril). But equally remarkable are the projects he will not make. For more than 30 years, the designer has refused any projects with organizations ranging from Big Tobacco to the arms industry, saying that humane profit is the only bottom line he cares about. “We refuse 95 percent of the proposals shown to us.

We accept only when there is a process, from the beginning to the end, of trust, of elegance in the relationship, and of respect for people.”

While Starck prefers to design alone, often noting that he lives “in the middle of nowhere” in his commitment to work free of external creative influences, his relationship with the world is driven by a very specific vision. “I am a bottle opener,” he has said, the analogy meaning that he views every person as a bottle of sparkling water, in which the bubbles—that is, the individual’s energy—become visible only once the bottle is opened. Through his designs, he hopes to uncork people’s passions and inspirations.

With Starck’s discerning eye focused on designs arising in the still, deep waters of this region, we raise a glass to the designers selected by Starck and his colleagues on the 2017 GRAY awards panel. Consider the bottles popped. h

“The only important things are your family, your tribe, your society, your civilization.

You always need to try to think how you can help. That’s all. There is nothing to do other than help your community.”

THIS PAGE: DRIADE STARCK NETWORK; OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: STARCK NETWORK; KARTELL STARCK NETWORK

—PHILIPPE STARCK, CREATOR, DESIGNER, AND ARCHITECT

The glass-and-molded-plastic Sir Gio table, designed for Kartell. OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: Paris-based designer and architect Philippe Starck; the WOW sofa, designed for Driade.

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DEBORAH BERKE Written by RACHEL GALLAHER

WHEN DEBORAH BERKE WAS JUST 14 YEARS OLD, SHE CAME HOME AFTER AN EVENING SPENT ROAMING HER NEIGHBORHOOD IN QUEENS, NEW YORK, AND ANNOUNCED TO HER PARENTS, “I’M GOING TO BE AN ARCHITECT.” Her decision was the culmination of dozens of nightly walks with a friend on which they’d observe local houses “Both of us wanted to be architects,” Berke recalls. “We would spend hours sketching plans and trying to figure out what the houses looked like on the inside based on the exterior architecture.”

Berke’s fascination with design, architecture, and their place in a community helped launch her into a notable career that has spanned three decades and produced dozens of award-winning

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residential, commercial, and institutional projects.

After studying architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and earning a master’s in urban planning from City University of New York, she launched her New York–based firm, Deborah Berke Partners, in 1982. Known for her sleek modern designs, Berke puts a heavy focus on context, climate, and building materials. “It’s incredibly important that buildings are grounded in their location,” she notes. Her firm, now with over 60 employees, has designed prominent structures around New York City (the Marianne Boesky Gallery; the 48 Bond Street apartments) and beyond, including seven 21c Museum Hotels across the U.S., the Yale University School of Art in New Haven, and the recently completed

Cummins Indianapolis Distribution Headquarters.

In July 2016, Berke became the first female dean of the Yale School of Architecture, where she has been a professor since 1987. She firmly believes that more women are needed in the profession, and she sees their dearth as an indication of a broader problem in architecture: the underrepresentation of most communities.

“I think architecture should look like the population it serves, and that’s everybody,” she says. “Those who practice architecture, whether it’s in a traditional sense or in the capacity of town planning officials, campus architects, and so on, should resemble the population. That’s my goal.”

This commitment to social justice and community engagement is among the reasons GRAY tapped Berke to be one of our inaugural GRAY Awards judges. A devoted design educator for more than 30 years, she is used to reviewing new work, and her notes on the region’s burgeoning architectural scene leave no doubt that the Pacific Northwest is at the top of the class.

“Design in the Northwest is very strong and has a contemporary regional voice that I find both appropriate and compelling,” she says. “There’s a lot of fertile, creative work going on here, and I find that exciting.” h

OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: WINNIE AU; CHRIS COOPER. THIS PAGE: ANNIE SCHLECHTER

21c Museum Hotel, Louisville. OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: Deborah Berke, architect and dean of the Yale School of Architecture; 21c Museum Hotel, Oklahoma City.

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COMMUNE JUDGING THE 2017 GRAY AWARDS WAS A NEW EXPERIENCE FOR ROMAN ALONSO AND STEVEN JOHANKNECHT, founders and principals of the Los Angeles design firm Commune. Previously, they’d evaluated student projects and served in mentorship roles, but for the GRAY Awards, the duo were called upon to review the work of their peers—a role with added pressure. “I count Kengo Kuma as one of my heroes,” Alonso says, referencing the Japanese architect who designed a luxurious Portland-area spec home, one of the projects submitted for awards consideration (see pg. 68). “It was interesting to see the different levels of experience competing against each other,” he says.

Alonso and Johanknecht established Commune in 2004, fusing their backgrounds in art history, retail design, and communications into

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a multidisciplinary firm that works across architecture, interior design, graphic design, and brand management. The firm’s thoughtful projects include the award-winning American Trade Hotel in Panama City, Opening Ceremony’s conceptual Tokyo retail space, and the Ace Hotel locations in LA, Palm Springs, and Chicago.

“We look at things in a very holistic way,” says Alonso. “We answer a lot of programming and practical issues through design.” This ethos is most apparent in the kaleidoscopic Ace in downtown LA, carved out of the 1927 Union Arts building and featuring both a 1,600-seat Spanish Gothic–style theater and a rooftop bar. Commune revamped the old building in a way that honors its history and existing infrastructure and nods to its new life with of-the-moment details. “For us, things date well when they strike a good balance of old and new, classic

and unexpected, and when there’s a good mix of styles,” Alonso notes.

“A project shouldn’t say too much of one thing.”

The duo tend to look well past design trends, figuring that once a style has established a solid media presence, it’s time to move on.

Commune’s residential spaces in particular are both contemporary and timeless in their use of vintage furniture alongside more modern textiles.

More than anything, the homes feel lived in and individualized—a theme that Alonso and Johanknecht see on the rise. “People are becoming less interested in creating overly decorated environments and more interested in making collected environments,” says Alonso. “As clients grow more informed and have a greater hand in the design process, we’re going to see more personality infused into spaces.” h

SPENCER LOWELL, COURTESY COMMUNE

Written by AMANDA ZURITA

The reception desk and guestroom (below) at the Ace Hotel Chicago.

OPPOSITE FROM LEFT:

A residence in Paris; designers Roman Alonso and Steven Johanknecht, founders of Commune.

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JAMES CORNER Written by RACHEL EGGERS

RENOWNED LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT JAMES CORNER HAS DEDICATED HIS CAREER TO RAISING THE BAR IN URBAN DESIGN WORLDWIDE. Originally from England, Corner has worked and taught in the United States for more than three decades, and his Manhattan-based firm, James Corner Field Operations, has redefined cities’ expectations about the design of public space. “Public design should be inclusive, interactive, engaging, and uplifting,” he says. “It should help forge interaction and foster kinship, identity, and belonging.”

Best known for his transformation of an abandoned railroad viaduct into

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New York City’s High Line, Corner has also designed Staten Island’s Freshkills Park (clocking in at nearly three times the size of Central Park) and Presidio Parklands in San Francisco, and he is currently working on the master plan for Qianhai Water City in Shenzhen, China. Closer to home, Field Operations has created a plan for Seattle’s central waterfront, reimagining the busy thoroughfare, defined by the noisy Alaskan Way Viaduct, as a dynamic and pedestrianfriendly public gathering space.

That kind of urban reclamation is a trademark of Corner’s interdisciplinary approach, which insists on a design that is ecologically sound, responsive

to the community, and integrated seamlessly into its surrounding environment—all goals he kept at the top of his mind as he reviewed GRAY Awards submissions. “The finalists’ projects are relevant, contemporary, global,” he notes. “They’re among the highestquality work happening across the country.” Corner also commends the diversity of the designs, pointing out that while none of them display an overtly “regional look,” they all share a “Pacific Northwest sensibility. The work has an ethic of environmental and social responsibility, reverence for nature, and interest in what cities can accomplish in terms of creating community.” In a time of so much upheaval and uncertainty, he says, “the region has something very important to offer the world.”

Corner admits that in landscape architecture, the value of a project isn’t always evident until it has been integrated into the life of a city.

Artworks, well-appointed rooms, and stunning buildings invite immediate observation, study, and appreciation.

But when it comes to landscape design, Corner says, “it is a deep, subliminal experience. You walk through it, you’re immersed, and only later do you reflect. It’s magical.” h

OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: NATE WATTERS; TIM STREET-PORTER. THIS PAGE: IWAN BAAN

Aerial view of the High Line, New York City.

OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: Landscape architect James Corner at the Seattle waterfront; Tongva Park in Santa Monica, California.

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OLIVIA KIM Written by JENNIFER MCCULLUM

OLIVIA KIM’S CAREER IS SOMETHING OF A FASHION FAIRY TALE. Fifteen years ago, she agreed to help ring up sales and take out the trash at her friends’ new retail venture in Lower Manhattan. Owned by Carol Lim and Humberto Leon and dubbed Opening Ceremony, the shop quickly became a backroom hangout for artists and creatives, and it eventually grew into a coveted cool-kid label and retail destination, with an eponymous clothing line and outposts in London and Tokyo. Kim may have started out collecting cash behind the counter, but over the next 10 years she honed her eye for spotting the next “it” brands and ultimately became Opening

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Ceremony’s influential vice president of creative.

In 2012, Kim met Pete Nordstrom, Nordstrom’s president of merchandising, through a mutual industry contact, and the two discussed how the 116-year-old Seattle retailer could create engaging in-store experiences for its customers. Kim made an impression: six months later she accepted a job as Nordstrom’s director of Creative Projects, a newly created role. Now the brand’s vice president of Creative Projects, Kim can often be spotted running among ready-to-wear presentations in global fashion capitals such as Paris and Milan, wearing her signature sneakers or Doc Martens.

At home in Seattle, she curates Pop-In@Nordstrom (a series of pop-up shops featuring an eclectic mix of designer lines that rotates every four to six weeks) as well as the in-store boutique SPACE and its incubator project SPACE LAB, which showcases works from fledgling designers each season.

In her five years at Nordstrom, Kim has also collaborated with brands such as Nike and Hermès on exclusive launches and initiatives. “Part of my role is to constantly be on the lookout for new innovators in all aspects of design,” she says. “I love content and the stories behind why people make what they make.” Her primary goals, she explains, are to create new and unique experiences for customers and introduce them to the best upand-coming brands.

As a judge of the GRAY Awards’ Fashion Design category, Kim had a front-row seat to the up-and-comers driving the sartorial direction of the Pacific Northwest. The designs she reviewed displayed, in her words, “a holistic and intelligent point of view. Many of the designers created garments that were a reflection of, or reaction to, what was happening to them in the outside world. The work was emotional. I loved that.” h

COURTESY NORDSTROM

| JUDGE |

Spring 2017’s Pop-In@Nordstrom, KFASHION, spotlighted pieces by Korean designers KYE, Hyein Seo, and J KOO. OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: Nordstrom vice president of Creative Projects, Olivia Kim; the downtown Seattle Nordstrom flagship features an Hermès accessory-only boutique, the first of its kind.

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INGO MAURER Written by JAIME GILLIN

WALK INTO ONE OF INGO MAURER’S LIGHTING SHOWROOMS AND YOU’LL GET A VISCERAL, VISUAL PEEK INTO THE MASTER LIGHTING DESIGNER’S WILDLY CREATIVE MIND—AND THE FRESH THINKING THAT DREW US TO HIM AS A GRAY AWARDS JUDGE. A spiky chandelier made from jagged porcelain shards lurks in a corner; a bare bulb encircled by what appear to be fluttering butterflies dangles from the ceiling. A desk lamp, in Maurer’s fertile imagination, might become a comics-inspired speech bubble wired with LEDs and seemingly leaping off a metal base plate, or a frosted bulb outfitted with a tiny pair of goose wings as if caught in mid-flight.

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Though his witty creations redefine what a light fixture can be, whimsy isn’t an end goal for the 85-year-old German designer. “You cannot plan [to be humorous]; it just happens, like poetry happens,” he says. “A lot of people say I’m the poet of lumière, and if they take my work as poetry, that makes me happy. But I never intended to be whimsical or a poet.”

Maurer credits his out-of-the-box design thinking to his lack of formal education. The son of a fisherman, he grew up on a southern German island and spent much of his early years on a boat, “dreaming in the wind and seeing the light dancing on the water.” He trained as a printer and typographer, but his creativity soon

found its outlet in lighting design.

The medium’s appeal, he says, is its ephemeral nature. “I love the fact that light is a material that does not physically exist. I’m a dreamer, and with light you can dream.”

To further fuel inspiration, he travels frequently—to Egypt, a country he finds mind-expanding for its “different logic”; to Burning Man, that highdesert proto-utopia in Nevada; to Brazil, where he and his team recently collaborated on the design of a lighting showroom; and to New York, which he describes as a “centrifuge—I come there pregnant with lots of ideas, and the city turns me around and around.”

The concept of retirement holds no appeal—working closely with colleagues in his Munich studio, he continues to design new lights and still chases and relishes new experiences.

Noting that he recently returned from a study of the cave paintings in Lascaux, France, undertaken in preparation for creating a lighting installation for a winery, he says: “At this age, a lot of people close their minds and perception. I feel so blessed that my brain and my awareness of things have not died down. I fight very much to not let it happen. Every day is a challenge, and boy, I love challenges.” h

COURTESY INGO MAURER; PORTRAIT: ROBERT FISCHER

| JUDGE |

The iconic Zettel’z 5 chandelier comes with printed and blank sheets of paper, allowing users to express their own creativity. OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: The delightfully unpredictable lighting designer Ingo Maurer; red ceiling panels striped with LEDs boldly identify Munich’s Marienplatz subway station, a collaboration with Allmann Sattler Wappner Architects.

“Conventional thinking is all too common. I avoid it.

I tell my team we should stand upside down once a week to leave our normal logic behind.”

—INGO MAURER, LIGHTING DESIGNER

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KARIM RASHID Written by AMANDA ZURITA

KARIM RASHID HAS BEEN ON THE RECEIVING END OF ENOUGH ACCOLADES TO SPOT A DESIGNWORLD WINNER WHEN HE SEES ONE. The New York–based multidisciplinary designer and artist—known for both his eccentric personal style and his fluid, curvy “blobject” designs— has taken home nearly 300 awards for his work in product design, interiors, fashion, and graphic arts, including the Red Dot Design Award, which he’s won repeatedly over the years, for designs ranging from the sinuous steel-and-fiberglass Solium lamp to

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the bean-like Blobina seat to the ultramodern Nhow Hotel in Berlin.

In his prolific work (he has more than 4,000 designs in production), Rashid aims to problem-solve through projects that aren’t just stylish for style’s sake. “Creativity is not enough in design,” he says. “Design must answer to all the issues of use, behavior, aesthetics, manufacturing processes, each material’s ecological impact, marketing, dissemination, et cetera.”

It’s an ethos he applies throughout his work—his Bobble water bottle, for example, is both good-looking and

eco-friendly, with a colorful built-in carbon filter that can purify up to 150 liters of tap water—and one he also extended to his judging criteria for the 2017 GRAY Awards, rating most highly those projects that took a similarly holistic approach.

Among the submissions, Rashid spied a recurring theme: nature fused with tech, an apt emblem for the Pacific Northwest. “As humans, we are tied to technology and nature biologically and culturally,” he says.

“The PNW is becoming a global tech hub, and ultimately that will influence designers in the region.” Rashid also hopes to see the Northwest continue to raise the profile of American design as a whole. “Design in our country has never really had the same respect as fashion or architecture or the arts, and rarely has it had the opportunities or support that are present in European design communities,” notes Rashid.

“I hope that the Northwest continues to take the opportunity to foster creativity, create an identity, and remind the world that America respects design.” h

COURTESY KARIM RASHID; PORTRAIT: OSCAR VALLE

| JUDGE |

The “blobular” Lava bench, designed for Spanish furniture company Vondom. OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: New York–based multidisciplinary designer and artist Karim Rashid; his selfdesigned office in Shenzhen, China, features custom-made digital-printed wall coverings and materials ranging from poured resin to stretched fabric to fiberglass.

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VICENTE WOLF Written by RACHEL EGGERS

BORN IN CUBA AND BASED IN MANHATTAN, INTERIOR DESIGNER VICENTE WOLF EPITOMIZES THE IDEAL WORLD CITIZEN. After arriving in New York in the 1970s, Wolf tackled various creative realms—advertising, merchandising, retail, even modeling— before entering the field of interior design. A self-taught designer, photographer, and art collector, Wolf has honed his craft over the ensuing four decades, fueling his ingenuity with global travel and an insatiable curiosity.

In addition to developing a wide range of international design projects, both commercial and residential, through his firm Vicente Wolf Associates, he heads a furniture and accessories line

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(VW Home by Vicente Wolf) and has authored five design-centric books that reflect his cosmopolitan sensibility.

When it came to judging the GRAY Awards, Wolf weighed factors including process, functionality, and aesthetic balance—all areas of focus in his own projects. Looking at these metrics, he detected a strong thread running through the finalists in the interior design category. “Everything was cool, clean, comfortable—very relatable spaces that reflect a wish to live in the present.” When asked if that is a Pacific Northwest thing, he admits, “I don’t know. We’re so global now. It does seem the region, with its technology, proximity to Asia, and the

beauty of its natural surroundings, is coming up more and more.” Perhaps it’s this inextricable relationship to nature, he surmises, that results in work that exudes calm and simplicity.

With a portfolio that includes designing homes for clients in creative fields (actor Julianna Margulies, producer Clive Davis, and choreographer Twyla Tharp), Wolf has an instinctive approach to mixing disparate styles. In 2015, he reimagined the penthouses of the landmark Manhattan House building, and he was the first U.S.based designer to collaborate with legendary crystal glassware maker Baccarat, creating an exclusive collection for Neiman Marcus. It can be difficult to stay relevant in a crowded global marketplace, but Wolf seems to have found the formula, which includes differentiating himself by experience, especially world travel.

Name a place and he’s probably been there—Burma, Iran, India, Thailand, Egypt. His global ramblings are a core part of his process and continually reshape his outlook, ensuring his eye stays fresh. “Refine yourself over and over,” he advises, “so you can produce the best possible product that will stand the test of time.” h

COURTESY VICENTE WOLF; PORTRAIT: JULIEN CAPMEIL

| JUDGE |

A luxe bedroom in Scarsdale, New York. OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: Interior designer Vicente Wolf; a bedroom designed by Wolf in Sag Harbor, New York.

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THE FINALISTS

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SEE MORE OF THE FINALISTS’ WORK ONLINE AT GRAYMAG.COM/ 2017FINALISTS

ARCHITECTURE: Commercial LAKESIDE AT BLACK BUTTE RANCH, Hacker Architects, Portland L’ANGOLO ESTATE, LEVER Architecture, Portland SLATE, Works Progress Architecture, Portland; Los Angeles MEDIA HEADQUARTERS, Olson Kundig, Seattle

ARCHITECTURE: Residential COLLECTOR’S RETREAT, Heliotrope Architects, Seattle OWL CREEK RESIDENCE, Skylab Architecture, Portland SUTEKI, Suteki America with Westlake Development Group and Kengo Kuma and Associates, Clackamas, Oregon YARD, Skylab Architecture, Portland

INTERIOR DESIGN: Commercial KNOT SPRINGS SPA, Skylab Architecture, Portland SIX HUNDRED FOUR SHOE GALLERY, Ma- k Interiors, Vancouver SUPERBABA, Studio Roslyn, Vancouver TABLEAU NORTHEDGE, Gensler, Seattle

INTERIOR DESIGN: Residential A.O BASEMENT, Osmose Design, Portland ELLIOTT HOUSE, NB Design Group, Seattle HUNTS POINT RESIDENCE, Maison Luxe, Seattle INSIGNIA CONDO, Brian Paquette Interiors, Seattle

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THE FINALISTS

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LANDSCAPE DESIGN: Civic, Residential JUXTAPOSITION, Paul Sangha Landscape Architecture, Vancouver LOWER RAINIER VISTA, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, Seattle PIKE PLACE MARKET, MARKETFRONT EXPANSION, Berger Partnership, Seattle

YARD, 2.ink Studio, Portland

PRODUCT DESIGN: Lighting, Furniture BORO BORO CHANDELIER, Neal Aronowitz Design, Portland ESS LITE, 8th and Ash, Vancouver HALO, Matthew McCormick Studio, Vancouver SAUVIE SOFA, Nicholas Sario, The Flotsam Furniture Works, Portland

PRODUCT DESIGN: Other BASHO, Interstyle, Vancouver FACET: GEM RUBY, Kush Rugs, Portland GEOMETRIC BAR CLOCKS, Lillian Sinclair Design Co., Naramata, British Columbia VERTICAL BAR BLOCK, Henrybuilt, Seattle; Mill Valley, CA; New York City

WILD CARD CONTOURS, Acrylicize, Seattle; London FACET, Fraser + Fogle Architects, Seattle THE FIRE LOOKOUT HOUSE, Paul Michael Davis Architects, PLLC, Seattle UNDRCARD BOXING STUDIO, McKinley Burkart, Vancouver

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THE FINALISTS FASHION DESIGN: Apparel, Accessories LINEA COLLECTION, WHITE/SPACE, Seattle RE-ENTRANCE, Fall 2017, SILVAE, Seattle

STUDENT DESIGN COMMON GROUND: COLLECTIVE LIVING IN SEATTLE, Ariel Scholten, Seattle

KAMPOENG KAMI (OUR VILLAGE), Gabriel Dwisatria, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle

PEARL HOTEL, Razan Mohammed, The Art Institute of Portland, Portland

TRAVEL BUG, Vi L. Nguyen, Bellevue College, Bellevue, Washington

DESIGN FOR GOOD LAURA’S PLACE, Architecture Building Culture, Portland THE HUB, Sawhorse Revolution, Seattle

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| market | THE ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE

Porcelanosa Porcelanosa is a leader in the innovation, design, manufacture, and distribution of tile, kitchen, bath, and hardwood products.

Visit the Porcelanosa showroom in downtown Seattle to see design inspiration and solutions through vignette installations and feature detailed product libraries.

(206) 673-8395 porcelanosa-usa.com

The Shade Store Fran’s Chocolates Considered one of the best chocolatiers in the U.S., Fran’s Chocolates offers elegant presentations of award-winning chocolates for every occasion.

Each confection is handmade in small batches with the finest local and organic ingredients to reflect a passion for exquisite flavors and the pure taste of chocolate. Visit us online or at one of our four Seattle-area retail stores: Downtown, Georgetown, University Village, and Bellevue.

For more than 70 years The Shade Store has handcrafted the finest custom shades, blinds, and draperies available. With a wide selection of products, and over 1,300 exclusive materials, finding the perfect window treatments has never been easier.

(800) 820-7817 theshadestore.com

(206) 322.0233 frans.com

Urban Interiors & Thomasville At Urban Interiors & Thomasville, Tommy Bahama offers designs across a diverse range of styles— choose from 175 all-weather performance fabrics with the same soft hand, rich colors and vibrant patterns as our indoor upholstery, complete with trims, fringes and designer options. Every item is hand crafted and features artisan finishes.

Alchemy Collections Located in downtown Seattle, Alchemy Collections is your Western Washington source for modern and contemporary furniture. Sensing a void in the Seattle furniture landscape, Alchemy Collections opened in 2004, bringing a modern yet accessible furniture venue to the everyday Seattleite.

urbaninteriors.com

(206) 448-3309 alchemycollections.com

Kat & Maouche

Lapchi Rug Design Studio

Traditional Techniques + Modern Design Specializing in authentic vintage Moroccan rugs. Each is carefully sourced and chosen for its expressive modern style and cultural significance.

Look into the heart of Lapchi and you’ll find a rug maker with a wealth of experience in custom rugs. Lapchi produces handmade rugs in custom colors and sizes at no additional cost. Make your next rug a custom rug by Lapchi.

33 N.W. 4th Ave., Portland katandmaouche.com Instagram @katandmaouche

(503) 719-6589 Pearl District, Portland lapchi.com

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REASON TO SUBSCRIBE NO. 38:

LUXURY. ISSUE RELEASES FEBRUARY 2018.

WE’LL DELIVER IT TO YOUR MAILBOX. SUBSCRIBE ONLINE BY JANUARY 1. graymag.com

#GRAYMAGAZINE

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Smokey Brights

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University of Washington Husky Marching Band

Public Relations by:

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| last look |

Congratulations to the winners of the 2017 GRAY Awards.

For more about the award designer, see pg 36.

Custom design by JOHN HOGAN : Photographed by AMANDA RINGSTAD

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HENRYBUILT