Beverly Hills Architecture Awards

Posted by on May 19, 2011 in Beverly Hills, News | 0 comments

The Beverly Hills City Council and two commissions honored local architecture Tuesday at City Hall. Architecture Day featured a reception in the Municipal Gallery and public ceremonies by the council recognizing talented architects, building designers and Beverly Hills High School students with a penchant for drafting and model-building. The Architectural and Design Review commissions teamed for the first time regarding the annual awards with this year’s event, spotlighting choice commercial and residential structures as well as renderings and models produced by students in the Advanced Architecture class at Beverly Hills High. The Architectural Commission vets commercial projects, while Design Review oversees the residential sector. “We tried to put together a program that would allow everybody to win,” Architectural Commissioner Zale Richard Rubins said. “We brought the students in to let them meet real architects, let them have something that boosts their desire to become architects. We brought in the architectural winners and let them get the adulation that they deserve.” Commissioners honored buildings “based on exterior appearance and in consideration of quality of materials, mass and scale, landscaping and context with the neighboring sites,” Community Development Director Susan H. Keane said. “The purpose of the awards is to inspire property owners, architects and designers in the city to strive for excellence in design.” Commercial honorees were: South Beverly Grill, 122 S. Beverly Drive, Assembledge Architecture + Development: architect, Hillstone Restaurant Group and Brad Dunning: designers 9033 Wilshire Blvd., Joon Sim and Associates: architect, Archway Holdings: designer Bay Cities, 8826 Burton Way, Michele Saee, Building Inc.: architect 331 N. Foothill Road, Ehrlich Architects: architect 9378 Wilshire Blvd.,  Ehrlich Architects: architect Solange Azagury-Partridge, 340 N. Rodeo Drive, Wells Mackereth Architects: design architect, Kenneth Park Associates: associate architect, Solange Azagury-Partridge: designer Saban Theatre , 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Harrison Design Associates: architect Residential award winners were: Foothill Road—International Style, Leonardo Umansky, Arxis Design Studio Foothill Road—Spanish Mission Style, Patrick Zohrabians, Dunamis Architects Walden Drive—International Style, Shubin + Donaldson Architects Inc. “It’s a great honor to be receiving this from the city of Beverly Hills and I think it’s a great thing that the city is doing this … to encourage architects and designers and clients to do good design,” winning architect Michele Saee said. “Since the process of becoming nominated is totally internal by the city itself, for that reason for some of the architects here it was a surprise. Usually in architecture you submit your designs for awards but in this case the city comes to you, which I find very encouraging and positive.” BHHS students had a corner of the Municipal Gallery for an exhibit accompanying other visual examples of Beverly Hills architecture, representing the future tier of Architecture Day’s “past, present, future” theme. Students said they plan to pursue architectural careers and shared thoughts on what inspires them. “I love the combination of more academic subjects with more artistic subjects and really like that [architecture] allows you to create a place where people can live and thrive and be happy,” BHHS junior Sara Newman said. “So it gives back and combines art and academics and is really a rewarding practice.” Melony Bronder, teacher of the Advanced Architecture class, also attended the event. “I think it’s important for [students] to get their art out there, to show like professional artists, and they need to see what professional architects do,” Bronder said. She praised the city government’s attempt to encourage “a real career in art” such as architecture and building design, noting “there’s not enough emphasis about what you can do with a degree in art, so that’s why I think architecture is so important.” Architectural Commissioner Rubins hoped the event would bring attention to the issue of preserving Beverly Hills’ historic structures.  “We wanted to show some of the historic past, so that people start realizing that there are buildings that are missing from our landscape that were truly important,” he said. “Now whether or not they’re major buildings is another story, but the Mills Act is being looked at once again, and when they look at it, now they’re starting to develop a history. There’s never been a formal history taken or a survey of the city, and I think that’s part of what needs to happen.” Councilman John Mirisch closed the award presentation with a statement on the council’s intentions to implement the Mills Act, a state law that prevents alteration and destruction of historic buildings. Mirisch said the city is good at preserving sites on its owns, but “we need to develop better strategies at preserving the other architectural treasures” in Beverly Hills. Be sure to follow Beverly Hills Patch on  Twitter  and “Like” us on  Facebook .

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Beverly Hills Architecture Awards