Clive Wilkinson Architects

VCU BRANDCENTER, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

Meghan Edwards -- Interior Design, 12/1/2008

Successful design marries the past with the present. Perhaps the same can be said for a successful ad campaign. Regardless, it's what Interior Design Hall of Fame member Clive Wilkinson did at this advertising and communications graduate school. The school's main lecture halls, media labs, and classrooms are accommodated in an 1890 brick carriage house, part of one of Richmond's oldest hotels, which Wilkinson updated, refurbishing its maple floors, adding maple-veneered workstations, and inserting a retractable 50-person meeting room. He also built a 12,000-square-foot addition to provide seismic bracing and modern facilities. A series of what the architect calls "neighborhoods" in the form of massive concrete tables and breakout areas encourage interaction between students and staff. "One cannot force creativity," Wilkinson says, "but can provide the environment to stimulate it."

1100 Architect

project New School, New York.

standout In the 6,200-square-foot ground-floor lobby of a 1906 commercial building, fluorescents in an undulating ceiling and bursts of the school's signature orange steer students up elevators to classrooms and studios or downstairs to a subterranean lounge.

Steven Holl Architects

project New York University Department of Philosophy.

standout A six-story staircase, wrapped in painted panels of laser-cut steel, connects roomy landings filled with daylight and rainbows from prismatic film strips installed on the stairwell's south-facing windows.

Studio mk27

project Primetime Child Development, São Paulo, Brazil.

standout Cantilevered cubes wrapped in acrylic resin extend 10 feet past exterior concrete sidewalls, while interior lattices of Brazilian freijo screen playrooms and meeting areas.