The American Institute of Architects has selected the office of Prairie Management Group, designed by Goettsch Partners, to receive a 2012 Institute Honor Award for Interior Architecture. The award honors outstanding building interiors worldwide, created by architects licensed in the United States. Located in Northbrook, Illinois, the project also received an interior architecture award from AIA Chicago in 2009.
Executive investment offices for a retired design entrepreneur provided the opportunity to leverage the client's passion for clean, bold modern design into a dramatic, light-filled investment office environment showcasing the client's extensive glass and ceramic art collection.
Inserted into a single-story, speculative office suite, the 7,500-square-foot facility is organized around three compositional elements: the colonnade, created by the building's exposed structural steel columns and central ridge beam; full-height glass screen walls; and a custom maple "pavilion."
The simple, classic interior composition of thin glass frames and bold, clear millwork forms rendered in a timeless color palette-all awash in natural light-creates a platform in which the appreciation of fine art, design, and nature enables a pioneering entrepreneur to continue his lifelong passion for creating business value through design.
"Small and well-executed, this project is quiet, restrained, and sophisticated with a straight-forward manner towards both the composition and detail that reinforces the larger concept," the jury commented. "Standing in contrast to the natural prairie grass outside, the design effectively organizes the plan around a central armature inducing the glass screen walls to both modulate the plan and effectively provide light and views to the meadow beyond."
Photos: Michelle Litvin