Design in Oakland?
Sixth Annual IIDA Awards Celebration Pulls Design Types Across the Bay
Submitted March 29, 2010, 10:49 PM
Design-industry event planners, take note: The International Interior Design Association knows how to throw a good party! Key ingredients include a fantastic and slightly off-beat venue, an open bar, copious (if slightly odd) noshes, a steady supply of humor and loads of old friends. And being able to walk to the venue from my apartment.
The sixth annual IIDA 2010 Honor Awards held March 25 at Oakland’s renovated Fox Theater drew more than 600 people and went on for four hours with very few draggy bits. It’s good to have an hour of free drinks and schmooze then to sit down for the program. Afterwards, the party can go on as long as you can still stand up. Note to San Franciscans: Take BART.
We tracked down only a modest amount of Vitamin G (gossip). Locally, Herman Miller is looking to relocate its showroom from San Francisco’s north waterfront (who goes there?) to the heart of downtown. Good move! Design firms get ready. The executive director of San Francisco Architectural Heritage is leaving. There are other changes afloat at various firms and non-profits as well, but they aren’t quite ready for prime time…
A lot of out-of-towners made their way to this year’s event, a testimony to something. That included the always-glamorous IIDA Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Cheryl Durst, who came from Chicago and could launch her own comedy and beauty tips show if she ever tires of design.
Herman Miller’s vice president of architecture and design, John Newland, flew out from Michigan; Teknion’s senior vice president of design, marketing and sustainable development, Scott Deugo, hailed from Toronto; and Royal Hawaiian Hotel interior designer Marion Philpotts-Miller came in from Honolulu to pick up the big Best in Show prize.
Locally, almost every significant architecture and design firm was represented. This is something the IIDA does well: It gets the architects and interior designers drinking together. Indeed, this year, most of the awards went to architectural firms.
If anybody is counting, it was Gensler’s year. The firm won six of the 19 awards. Given the amount of square footage Gensler designs each year, this may not be a surprise as the numbers are on its side. It seemed like Gensler brought almost half the house. But then, Gensler principal Collin Burry is this year’s IIDA chapter president. It has to be said that Gensler brings the same level of design attention to a 250–square-foot retail space for olive oil as it does to a large student center.
The theme of this year’s program was “community,” which is one of those tricky words that can mean almost anything and quite often nothing. Yet the idea had some gravitas, with the Pioneer in Design Award going to Architecture for Humanity. The video profile could have been shorter, but Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr are articulate advocates for how design can affect social change. What was a little odd, however, is that there was only one award made in the “Give” category, which emphasizes social responsibility and sustainability. It went to Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects in San Francisco for the ClimateWorks Foundation. Perhaps next year, we will see more projects in this area.
Despite the worst recession in memory, the crowd was upbeat. At the end of the program, Tom DiRenzo took the time to call out some of the designers and their recent associations with pro bono projects. Someone who has been working quietly with Philanthropy By Design for more than 20 years is my pal Susie Jue, whom I first met in elementary school and then ran into again at Whisler-Patri and later on at a pro bono project in Oakland. She should also get a prize for most fabulous handbag of the evening. It was large enough to hold one of the table candles... Just as I was leaving, I bumped into Risa Ogroskin and Patsy Whatley, two kind and generous reps I first met in the early 1980s. At that moment, the place actually felt like an authentic community that has held together in difficult times. I walked home around Lake Merritt, glad that IIDA brought the San Francisco-centric design community out across the bay to my neighborhood.
