[We (Oooooohhhhhhhhh)Won]

Can you BELIEVE it???

M. J. Neal Architects just won the 2008 Institute Honor Award for Interior Architecture from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

It’s a great day, it’s a great, big, fat, new…. year!!!!

This project had already won an Austin AIA Design Award and the Texas Society of Architects (TSA) Honor Design Award, and let’s not forget the International IIDA Award (my favorite, see previous post)

The anecdote? We almost didn’t submit the project! Farley Studio was doing so well at competitions that when we were done submitting it, MJ, who was hungry and tired, said, “ah, let’s blow it off and go to Asti to eat… I was hungry and tired too…but something told me to submit Anthony Nak, so I stayed on and BAM! You never know, do you?:-)

Yey for being dogheaded when I’m hungry and tired and double yey for MJ’s design excellence!!!!

Here’s the video the TSA made for the 2005 State Design Honor Award.

Scott Randall Productions by Scott Randall. emailto:sr@scottrandall.com.
Copyright 2005 by the Texas Society of Architects.

I get bored stiff at some of the award parties that we’ve had to go to. But Chicago was fun, fast, and furious. The Interior Designers kicked some butt. This was the IIDA awards party last year… And we got to sit at the same table with Her Highness Eva Maddox. I’ve been dying to post these, but we didn’t have a blog then, so here they are. M. J. in a tux, was almost too much for me, and all the quasi-naked boys and girls didn’t cool things down any.

VV

JUNE 2005 /LOOK FOR INTERIOR DESIGN MAGAZINE
Interior Design Magazine features M. J. Neal Architects in their current (June) issue, now in the stands. You can read the article online
But buy the magazine to look at the incredible pictures by Jett Butler and Kenny Braun and peruse all five winners of the 2005 IIDA award.

JUNE 2005 / TOP INTERIOR DESIGN AWARD
M. J. Neal Architects has been awarded the prestigious International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Award for 2005 for its Anthony Nak project. This competition is held annually by the International Interior Design Association. This is their 32nd edition.

From hundreds of projects submitted from around the world, only five awards were given this year. The winners will be featured at the COOL 2005 IIDA’S NEOCON GALA in Chicago in June 2005 and the projects will be published in Interior Design Magazine. IIDA’s press release.

“The selected winners represent a wide range of project types. The common thread lies in their clarity of idea and the designers ability to develop that concept through the details in a clear and consistent way,” stated John Mack, IIDA, AIA, IIDAs Vice President of Communications.

Also, keep an eye out for the next issue of Residential Architect featuring M. J. Neal and his take on the materials he prefers to use in his projects.

June 2005 / THE ANTHONY NAK STORE WINS TOP JEWELER RETAIL DESIGN AWARD
The Anthony Nak project, designed by M. J. Neal Architects, receives first place in the 2005 Couture International Jeweler Retail Design Award by the National Jeweler and Couture International Jeweler publications. The award was presented to Anthony Camargo and David Nakard, the famed jewelry designers and owners of Anthony Nak, at the jewelery convention in Las Vegas. The Anthony Nak flagship store was chosen by an independent panel of design professionals as demonstrating excellence in design, inventive use of space, and overall quality of concept execution.

This is an elegant, subtle, space created to show exquisite designer jewelry.

Existing non-structural arches and windows were removed. These openings were altered to form new rectilinear windows and entry, enabling a dynamic street presence.

The palette is white surfaces with very subtle changes in texture. Venetian plaster on a complex curved wall, smooth gypsum board on the remaining walls and ceiling, and a Lonseal floor. A sandblasted glass wall acts as a screen for rear-projected movies of the client’s jewelry that run 24 hrs a day.

All case-work was designed by the architect: window cases are of stainless steel and glass. Free-standing floor cases, “pods,” are cherry wood, stainless steel, and glass. When open, the glass top of the pod becomes a surface to rest the jewelry on. Adjacent to the front door, a bench flows out of the ceiling.

From design work to end of construction, including case work , this 800 sq. ft. project was completed in twelve weeks.

This project also received the 2004 Citation of Honor from the American Institute of Architects, Austin and the prestigious IIDA Design award for 2005.