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First Lady Honors Architects, Designers at White House Event

Monday, July 16, 2012

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First Lady Michelle Obama and the Smithsonian honored leading designers in architecture, industrial design, fashion and other fields at a White House luncheon held Friday.

Joyce N. Boghosian, White House photographer

Michelle Obama, official White House portrait

The event recognized the 2012 National Design Award recipients from the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The award program celebrates “design in various disciplines as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world.”

Winners included the Atlanta-based architecture firm Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, Los Angeles-based interior design firm Clive Wilkinson Architects and the Boston-based landscape architecture firm Stoss Landscape Urbanism.

Architecture Design Award: Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects

The museum said the Architecture Design Award is given to a firm or individual for “exceptional and exemplary work in public, commercial, or residential architectural design.”

©Timothy Hursley; courtesy of Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

The Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass., designed by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects.

Founded in 1984, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects has achieved international acclaim for work that ranges from a sleek factory for Herman Miller to the LuLu Chow Wang Campus Center for Wellesley College and commercial office space for Tishman Speyer Properties, the museum said.

The firm’s portfolio of work has been characterized by “profound rigor tempered by childlike innocence,” the museum added.

Interior Design Award: Clive Wilkinson Architects

Clive Wilkinson Architects has completed a variety of creative projects worldwide for clients such as Google, Nokia, Twentieth-Century Fox and Disney. The firm has been awarded more than 75 awards in the process, the museum said.

©Benny Chan/Fotoworks; courtesy of Copper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Google headquarters, Mountain View, Calif., designed by Clive Wilkinson Architects.

The firm “strives to connect people, shape relationships, empower organizations” through its work.

Landscape Architecture: Stoss Landscape Urbanism

Established in 2000, the collaborative design and planning studio has distinguished itself for a “hybridized approach rooted in infrastructure, functionality and ecology.”

©Mike Roemer; courtesy of Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

The CityDeck, Green Bay, Wis., designed by Stoss Landscape Urbanism.

The firm’s design work includes The CityDeck in Green Bay, Wis.; Erie Street Plaza in Milwaukee; The Plaza at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.; and the Bass River Park on Cape Cod.

Other Award Winners

Others honored include the following.

• Lifetime Achievement: Richard Saul Wurman

• Design Mind: Janine Benyus

• Design Patron: Red Burns

• Corporate and Institutional Achievement: Design that Matters

• Communication Design: Rebeca Mendez

• Fashion Design: Thom Browne

• Interactive Design: Evan Roth

• Product Design: Scott Wilson

In support of Mrs. Obama’s emphasis on education and outreach to the Washington, D.C., community, the winners also participated in an educational program for local-area high-school students prior to the luncheon, the museum said.

Founded in 1897, the Cooper-Hewitt museum is the only museum in America devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. The museum says it presents compelling prospective on the impact of design on daily life through active educational programs, exhibitions and publication.

More information: National Design Awards.