Swatches

>>> who's doing what, where in the design industry

BY NORA BURBA TRULSSON

The Phoenix office of HKS Architects has been awarded several new projects. Ground has been broken on a new Ronald McDonald House in Phoenix, to be located on the campus of Phoenix Children's Hospital. The four-story house will include 12 guest rooms for short-term stays and six long-term apartments for families and patients staying for extended inpatient or outpatient care. Each apartment has been designed with a separate ventilation system to protect children with compromised immune systems. The firm is also designing the $450 million, 1.9 million-square-foot Phoenix Children's Hospital expansion, which will include a new patient tower, ambulatory care building and expanded parking garage. Kitchell Contractors of Phoenix will serve as construction manager. Additionally, HKS, in collaboration with Hirsch Associates of Chicago, has been selected as architects for the $100 million, 32-story Omega residential high-rise project in downtown Phoenix. The project includes 204 residential units and ground-level retail.

HKS Architects' Ronald McDonald House.

The Tempe, Arizona office of Design Workshop has broken ground on the Villa Cortez resort near Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. The firm is handling master planning and landscape architecture for the beachfront resort, which will include five luxury condominium buildings, pools and gardens that emphasize sustainable design.

Design Workshop's Villa Cortez.

In other Tempe Design Workshop news, Will Iadevaia and Adrian Rocha have been hired as landscape architects. Both hold bachelor's degrees in landscape architecture from Arizona State University.

Will Iadevaia.

Langdon Wilson of Phoenix has been selected to design a new church for the Armenian Apostolic Church of Arizona in Scottsdale. The new facility will be 7,000 square feet and feature a traditional design. Additionally, the architecture, planning and interiors firm has been chosen to handle the rehabilitation of the Kino Junior High School pool in Mesa, Arizona. The project includes a new eight-lane competition pool, a recreation pool, decking, a bathhouse, water slides, shade canopies and a classroom building.

Langdon Wilson's Armenian Apostolic Church.

In other Langdon Wilson news, the firm has hired Farshad Majafpour as junior project manager, Rob Bass as senior project designer, Jane Pane as project architect and Huy H. Hua as intern.

SmithGroup Phoenix has renovated a 22,230-square-foot industrial/office building in Phoenix to accommodate the headquarters of InSys Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical company. The building, which previously contained a series of small office spaces, was redesigned with flexibility in mind, and includes a lobby, conference rooms, offices and a large open laboratory conducive to the pharmaceutical company's research and development of new compounds. The layout provides views of the laboratory for visitors via display windows and includes a camera-monitored secure lab vault to house controlled substances.

Denver-based Slaterpaull Architects celebrated its 35th anniversary by planting 35 trees at several project sites, including schools, churches, historic sites and civic buildings, in a gesture to give back to the community and promote environmental stewardship. The firm, founded in 1972 by Seymour M. Slater and James F. Paull, has roots going back even farther, to the architectural practice of Raymond Harry Ervin, one of Denver's most prominent architects, where Slater once worked as an associate. The firm now includes 36 employees and specializes in educational and church projects in the region.

Humphries Poli Architects of Denver has promoted Eric Blase, AIA, LEED AP, and Adam Ambro, LEED AP, to associates. Blase joined the firm in 2005 and has focused on multifamily housing, while Ambro, who joined the firm in 2001, has served in project management and design capacities.

Eric Blase.

Adam Ambro.

Janice Jennings, ASID, IIDA, IDEC, LEED AP, has been elected design department chair at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona. Jennings, who has been an interior design educator for more than 10 years, will oversee the department, which includes architecture, construction and interior design programs.

Janice Jennings.

OWP/P, a Chicago-based firm, has promoted two employees at its Phoenix office. Fred Lindenmuth has been promoted to principal senior engineer, and Jason Boyer has been promoted to principal director of architecture.

Beaudin Ganze Consulting Engineers, Inc., with offices in Denver, Fort Collins and Vail, Colorado and Lake Tahoe, California, has announced that firm principal David Lyle has passed the AABC Commissioning Group certification exam and has been granted certification as an ACG-Certified Commissioning Authority. Lyle is currently leading commissioning projects in Wyoming and for resort and mixed-use developers, local and federal government owners, and healthcare facility owners. The engineering firm has been providing mechanical, electrical, technology, lighting and sustainable design services since its inception in 1991.

Glendale, Arizona Certified Kitchen Designer Nancy Hugo was named first-place winner in the Sharp Electronics Insight Pro Microwave Drawer kitchen design competition. The contest recognized professional kitchen designers for creative kitchen design that incorporates the microwave product. Hugo received her award during the recent Kitchen/Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas.

The Denver Design District has added four new showrooms to its roster. Opening this summer were Corraggio Textiles, which specializes in luxurious Italian textiles; Vario, which offers European pottery and accessories; and Electronic Home Technologies, which represents Lutron Electronics lighting and shading systems. Design Materials, a source for ceramic and porcelain tile, is scheduled for a fall opening. The new showrooms join other recent additions to the Denver Design District, including Henredon, Baker, Mile High Trim, Pierre Deux, Century Designer Showroom, Forma Funzione, Northrup House, ALNO, Exquisite Kitchen Design and the expansion of John Brooks, Inc.

Bulthaup, the German architectural kitchen company, has opened a Scottsdale, Arizona location. The 2,000-square-foot showroom will be managed by Marina Moric, assisted by designer Robert Moric.