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

Phoenix-based DLR Group has been chosen to lead design and engineering work for a new, $167 million Sheraton hotel to be located adjacent to downtown Tucson, Arizona’s convention center. The new hotel, approved by the City of Tucson as part of a downtown revitalization effort, is being developed by Garfield Traub. The development team also includes Turner Construction and Sundt Construction. Slated to open in 2012, the 525-room hotel will include 36,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space, a 1,160-space parking structure, bar and lobby lounge, spa, cafe, outdoor pool deck and business center. The project also includes a 55,000-square-foot expansion of the existing convention center.

In other DLR Group news, the firm recently completed design of the new library for Diné College in Shiprock, New Mexico. The 20,000-square-foot library integrates the form of the Navajo hogan and uses other cultural design elements, including framed views of sacred landmarks and fiber optic ceiling displays depicting constellations important to traditional Navajo storytelling.

DLR Group’s Tucson Sheraton hotel.

Tucson architect Bill Taylor, AIA, principal of Taylor Design + Build, recently completed work on a 2,200-square-foot residence in a desert setting. Working with architect-in-training Peter Neff, Taylor designed the house to include clay plaster interior walls, integrally colored concrete floors, a bamboo ceiling, steel ramada and solar power for electricity and hot water. Taylor Design + Build specializes sustainable residential design.

DLR Group’s Diné College library.

Taylor Design + Build’s desert residence.

Peterson Architecture’s clubhouse.

Peterson Architecture & Associates, LLC of Scottsdale, Arizona has completed renovation work on the clubhouse at the PGA West Stadium Golf Course, located at La Quinta Resort & Club in La Quinta, California. The 25,000-square-foot destination private golf club, originally built in 1976, was expanded to include two elevated terraces that overlook the juncture of two golf courses. The project was a collaboration between Peterson Architecture, founded by Erik Peterson, AIA; R.D. Olson Construction of Irvine, California and EDG Interior Architecture + Design of San Rafael, California.

Merz Project Architecture + Interiors + Urban Design of Phoenix has broken ground on an 18,000-square-foot library and city hall for Show Low, Arizona. The project, meant to encourage a pedestrian experience and a community center, will include council chambers and a television studio. The firm has also been hired by Navajo County to masterplan a 30,000-square-foot administrative, law enforcement, judiciary and emergency operations center, also in Show Low. Additionally, Merz Project has been retained by the city of St. Johns, Arizona to conduct a feasibility study on the renovation of a historic adobe building to house a new city hall. Merz Project was founded by architect Joe Herzog, who was recently certified by NCARB.

Merz Project’s Show Low library and city hall.

Boise, Idaho architecture firm CSHQA has completed one of several ongoing projects for Fresno Yosemite International Airport, creating a signature entry experience for air travelers that references the area’s national park and agricultural heritage. Working with the National Park Service and NatureMaker, a company specializing in handcrafted interior landscaping, the firm created a life-size, replica sequoia forest, detailed with split-rail fencing, natural ground cover and carpeting patterns that resemble farmland as seen from the sky. Another one of the firm’s projects, a $5.1 million, 17,752-square-foot multi-use terminal building for the Grant County Regional Airport in John Day, Oregon, has gone out to bid. The building is targeted for LEED Silver certification.

Nick Tsontakis Architecture & Interiors has completed design work on a 4,840-square-foot residence in Fountain Hills, Arizona. The two-story house, set on a sloping site, includes a four-car garage, game room, exercise room and outdoor living areas. The Scottsdale firm was founded by Nick Tsontakis, AIA.

Nick Tsontakis Architecture & Interiors’ hillside residence.

Las Vegas contracting firm Danoski Clutts Building Group has completed construction on Southwest Airlines Node 5A inside Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. The $6.4 million tenant improvement involved some 10,300 square feet that included installation of an advanced baggage system. Architectural design on the project was done by the Las Vegas office of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini.

Southwest Airlines Node 5A by Danoski Clutts Building Group and Dekker/Perich/Sabatini.

SmithGroup of Phoenix and Durrant of Denver have been selected by the City and County of Denver to provide architectural and engineering services for the Denver Police Crime Lab. The new bond-funded, $39 million project is anticipated to be 60,000 square feet and will include more space for analysis of forensic evidence and crime-scene investigation support.

Verdone Landscape Architects, with offices in Jackson, Wyoming and Driggs, Idaho, has received an Honor Award in the category of residential design from the national ASLA. The award, one of only nine Honor Awards, was received for a family retreat, surrounded by national park and forest land, which was designed to blend into the dramatic natural site.

Allen + Philp’s desert home. Photograph by Bill Timmerman.

Scottsdale-based Allen + Philp Architects/Interiors received three Gold Nugget Awards during the recent PCBC annual conference held in San Francisco. The firm won a Grand Award for a desert home, also in Scottsdale, set on a challenging hillside site. Scottsdale designer David Michael Miller did interiors on the home, while Linthicum Construction of Scottsdale was the builder. Allen + Philp also won two Merit Awards, for SouthBridge, a downtown Scottsdale mixed-use development and for the Sheraton Salobre Golf Resort and Spa in Spain.

A Gold Nugget Grand Award also went to Kendle Design Collaborative of Scottsdale for the renovation of the Camelback Village Racquet and Health Club in Phoenix. The project’s architecture was handled by firm principal Brent Kendle, AIA, LEED AP, while interiors were done FoRM Design Studio, Ltd. of Phoenix. Additionally, Kendle Design Collaborative has begun work on two new projects, the MOUT (Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain) training facility at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the design of a mock Iraqi/Afghanistani village for military intelligence training; and new construction and renovation on the Vernadero Group corporate offices in Phoenix.

Denver-based Possibilities for Design, Inc., which specializes in interior design and model home merchandising, has received seven recent awards for projects around the country. The firm won National awards from the International Builders Show for its Web site, for interior merchandising on a Toll Brothers, Inc. model in Yorba Linda, California, and for a model done for Bel Arbor Builders in Richmond, Virginia. Also from the International Builders Show, the firm won Best in American Living Awards for a specialty room and a detail, both in the Toll Brothers, Inc. project, Additionally, the firm won an award for interior merchandising from the Home Building Association of Chester and Delaware Counties in Pennsylvania for a Toll Brothers, Inc. project in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania; and recognition from the New Jersey Builders Association Sales and Marketing Awards for contributions to the design of Centex Homes in Secaucus, New Jersey.

The Gensler office in Las Vegas has received LEED Gold certification. Located on the sixth floor of the Hughes Center, the interior features sustainable elements such as natural lighting, locally quarried rock, rapidly renewable materials such as cork, and low-VOC paint, carpeting and adhesives.

Las Vegas-based YWS Architects, which specializes hospitality, gaming and entertainment architecture has announced eight LEED AP firm members. Accredited professionals are firm co-founder Tom Wucherer, Eddie Cervantes, Rainer Grubmueller, Craig Palacios, Vanessa Stockton, Vanessa Fuller, Brandon Maldonado and Mike Stewart.

Denver’s Associates III, a firm specializing in sustainable interiors, has announced three new LEED AP members. Amy DePierre Tindle, Natalie Lynch and Debbie Hindman have passed the LEED for New Construction examination.

Senger Design Group, a Colorado Springs, Colorado interiors firm specializing in hospitality, healthcare, retail and commercial markets, has two new LEED AP members. Firm principal Cindy Senger, ASID, and interior designer Jocelyn Downing have both passed the LEED examination.

Humphries Poli Architects of Denver has expanded its office to 25 staff members with the addition of studio manager Greg Lemon, LEED AP, and interior designer Sierra Woods, LEED AP. Lemon, an architect, has more than 23 years’ design and construction experience and will oversee the firm’s design studio operations and project management coordination. Woods is an award-winning designer who spent eight years working at design firms in the Pacific Northwest.

Shelly Lester of Scottsdale has formed an interior design-support consulting firm, The Designer’s Left Brain. The firm offers business and administration management services for design firms, including invoicing, procurement, presentation preparation, scheduling and tracking, project installation assistance, freight logistics and more. Lester has a background in to-the-trade furnishings showrooms in Ohio and metro Phoenix.

Paradise Valley, Arizona architect and theorist Paolo Soleri celebrated his 90th birthday recently at the site of his most recent project, the Soleri Bridge in downtown Scottsdale. The pedestrian bridge and plaza, a Scottsdale Public Art project, has been designed to serve as a cultural destination for the city. More than 100 people attended the event for Soleri, best known for his pioneering sustainability work on Arcosanti, his community in central Arizona, as well as sculptural bronze bell designs.

Allen + Philp’s desert home. Photograph by Bill Timmerman.