Shaw Names “Design Is…” Global Winners

Shaw Contract Group, a leader in the floor covering industry, has announced the winners of its eighth-annual Design Is…Award program. The competition recognizes architecture and design firms that challenge our thinking when it comes to the interpretation of design. Because the Design Is…Award is not broken down into categories, the stakes were set even higher with commercial spaces going head-to-head against hospitals, governmental buildings and more. This allowed the judges to focus solely on the most important element: design.

“It’s easy to make a space pretty, but can it be well designed? Beyond what it looks like, you have to think of how it works for the user,” says Mark Harbick, judging moderator and design principal at NBBJ. “What stood out was what was the most innovative and how they were solving problems in ways we never would have anticipated. The winning projects all have something really special that gave us goose bumps.”

Out of a total of 369 entries from 26 countries, a team of judges narrowed down the competition to six winners. They are:

Firm: AECOM, Los Angeles
Project: Velti Headquarters, San Francisco

Firm: ITOKI Corporation, Tokyo
Project: SYNQA ITOKI Innovation Center, Tokyo

Firm: HDR Architecture, Omaha, Neb.
Project: Bellevue Medical Center, Bellevue, Neb.

Firm: HGA Architects and Engineers, Minneapolis
Project: Macalester College – Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, St. Paul, Minn.

Firm: HNTB Architecture, Kansas City, Mo.
Project: NNSA National Security Campus, Kansas City, Mo.

Firm: Avola-Llaber Arquitectos, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Project: Red Bull Argentina, San Isidro, Argentina