Mitch Tobias
Photograph © Mitch Tobias (415) 647-0242 www.mitchto…
To illuminate this modest 1,900-square-foot dental office, semitranslucent partitions—which the architects dubbed “floss walls”—filter daylight into exam and operating rooms and also safeguard patient privacy. Low-irrigation landscaping references the urban park nearby and materials serve double duty in order to save on space and money. (For example, a horizontal slot in the waiting room’s steel-and-wood wall offers views into the office; the wall folds in on the other side to double as a light table for X-rays.)
Jury: “It delightfully shows what you can do with a small space on a tight budget through a design that is visually very interesting and highly functional.”
Client: “We’ve now been open 10 months and we’re booked out an entire month. It usually takes a dental office 10 years to achieve that type of patient flow. We were told by a lot of people there was absolutely no way we could open a dental office from scratch, in San Francisco, and in this economy. The design of this office is what made our business.” —Sara Creighton, co-owner, Washington Square Park Dental
2011 Institute Honor Awards for Interior Architecture
Jury
John Ronan, AIA, (chair), John Ronan Architects
Jaime Canaves, FAIA, Florida International University
Margaret Kittinger, AIA, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects
Bryan Lewis, Assoc. AIA,The Capital Group Cos.
Brian Malarkey, FAIA, Kirksey
The Academy of Music, Philadelphia
Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, San Diego
Conga Room, Los Angeles
John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes, Eugene, Ore.
Alchemist, Miami Beach, Fla.
Moving Picture Co., Santa Monica, Calif.
Registrar Recorder County Clerk Elections Operations Center, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.
The Power House Restoration/Renovation, St. Louis
Armstrong Oil and Gas, Denver
Vancouver Convention Centre West, Vancouver, Canada
Washington Square Park Dental, San Francisco