Interior Design Best of Year Awards Wrap Up at the Guggenheim

The evening's big winners included 3form, Clive Wilkinson Architects, Yabu Pushelberg, and Shelton, Mindel & Associates.

Laurel Petriello -- Interior Design, 12/8/2008

Clive Wikinson Architects took home awards for Education and Large/Office (Modern Funky).

Interior Design hosted the third installment of its annual Best of Year Awards, sponsored by Edelman Leather, at New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The most celebrated designers and architects of 2008 filled the museum rotunda on the evening of December 4, anticipating the announcement of the winners.

3form took home awards for Architectural Product and Innovation.

In order to create an even greater level of due diligence, and to address the close vote tallies experienced in the first two years of the program, the magazine launched a two-tiered voting system for 2008's nearly 1,300 entries. Online voting by the design community took place October 6 to 15; a subsequent judging by panel occurred the week following. This year's distinguished roundtable of Best of Year judges included Lee Mindel of Shelton, Mindel & Associates, Lauren Rottet of Rottet Studio, Calvin Tsao of Tsao & McKown, Keith Rosen and Ronette King of Gensler, Ali Tayar of Parallel Design, James Slade of Slade Architecture, and Brad Lynch of Brininstool + Lynch, who dutifully assumed the task of selecting their winning peers from a total of 240 finalists in 62 various categories.

Yabu Pushelberg took home awards for Retail/Fashion and Hotel/Domestic.

Divided into two presentations--products and projects--publisher and vice president Mark Strauss joined Cindy Allen, editor in chief, on stage to present the awards to 64 designers and manufacturers, as well as to honor the Merit award winners. The evening's major players included 3form, receiving awards for the Architectural Product and Innovation categories; Clive Wilkinson Architects, honored with awards for Education and Large Office (Modern Funky); Yabu Pushelberg, who accepted awards for the Hotel/North America and Retail/Fashion categories; and Shelton, Mindel & Associates, taking home awards for Freestanding Residence and Urban Apartment.


Shelton, Mindel + Associates took home awards for Freestanding Residence and Urban Apartment.

The ceremony was broadcast live in the atrium of the rotunda, where honorees and guests also enjoyed an after-hours exploration of the museum's exhibition "theanyspacewhatever." The New York landmark, designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2009. Proceeds from the event were donated to the Council for Interior Design Accreditation.