Awards answer lack of green design criticism

What a difference a year makes.

If the 2007 design awards handed out last month by the San Diego chapter of the American Institute of Architects had a theme, it was that this year's jurors were impressed with local architects' adaptive, and creative, use of existing buildings coupled with a growing attachment to green construction.

This year's awards, heavily tilted to commercial and residential projects using sustainable materials and green building techniques, was a clear sign that the three judges believed San Diego designers are pursuing a strong agenda on the environmental front.

That was in marked contrast to the previous year's awards. Then, in the Neurosciences Institute auditorium -- also the location of this year's awards -- juror Gwendolyn Wright unexpectedly criticized the local architectural community for not embracing sustainable development.

Wright, a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture who is a regular on the PBS-TV program "History Detectives," said architects here had not connected nearly enough with an environment known for its magnificent climate and dependable solar exposure.

"I took that message back to my office," said Matthew Ellis, principal of the architectural firm Blue Motif Ltd., based in Little Italy. "We actually put it in our mission statement to focus on sustainable design." Each of the firm's projects now goes through a process to gauge its suitability for green building concepts.

"We can't always do it with everything," he said.

But sometimes once is enough. And that was the case this year, as a new panel of AIA judges gave Blue Motif two awards for its Barrio Logan Design Guild. The project transformed a former printer's warehouse into a mixed-use structure that heavily emphasized ecologically sound and low-cost materials.

Located at 1805 Newton Ave. in a neighborhood where homes collide with auto-body shops and heavy industry, the redesigned building houses a stylish and well-received restaurant, a loft-like office floor housing several businesses and the metal fabrication shop of one of the building's owners, Paul Basile. Basile is a well-known designer in his own right who creates interior decors for restaurants and art installations, working with architects.

The Guild emphasized the use of material salvaged from construction sites, and renewable or recyclable materials such as discarded glass bottles, bamboo plywood on tables and chairs, sustainable wood and kirei board -- a sheet product made of reclaimed agricultural fibers.

Ellis' firm undertook the original architectural planning to convert the building and Basile completed the work, constructing much of the interior furnishings in his shop just behind the Guild restaurant, down to a metal taco holder. He co-owns the building with Linda Karp.

The AIA judges gave the project a Citation award and the Energy Efficiency Integration Award sponsored by SDG&E.

"We know that construction debris has a significant impact on our landfills. For a project to re-use material to this degree while repurposing an existing building in unique ways sets a great example ... ," said juror Angela Brooks, a Santa Monica architect certified as a green building specialist.

In La Jolla, architect Jennifer Luce and her firm, Luce et Studio, took a different tack in a prize-winning project that takes sustainable architecture and adaptive reuse in a thought-provoking direction for anyone owning a suburban tract home.

Homeowner Greg Lemke shared with Luce his vision to live in a minimalist, open-air house, evoking the architecture of Mies van der Rohe. He wanted a home that could be used for entertaining or just kicking back to pursue Lemke's musical interest in Baroque fugues.

A prominent Salk Institute neuroscientist, Lemke wanted to remain in the '70s ranch house he had lived in since 1997, a home that was convenient to work and that had the potential to exploit views north and west toward the ocean and, from the back, to the cross on Mount Soledad.