San Francisco: Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), The Strand has been honored by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) as a 2016 recipient of the Institute Honor Awards for Interior Architecture, the profession’s highest recognition of works that exemplify excellence in interior architecture. Selected from roughly 500 submissions and among the 18 recipients in architecture, interior architecture, and urban design categories, The Strand will be honored at the AIA 2016 National Convention in Philadelphia.
The renovation of The Strand resurrects an abandoned century-old movie house to provide a highly visible, alternative performance space for American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), San Francisco’s preeminent nonprofit theater company. The redefined space incorporates an intimate 285-seat proscenium theater, educational facilities, a 120-seat black box theater and rehearsal space, and a public lobby and cafe. The program is inserted within the shell of the former cinema, overlaying modern architectural and theater elements on top of the raw backdrop of the original building. Creating inspiring civic theater out of the act of theater going itself, the design dramatically opens the facade and lobby to the street, energizing both the building and surrounding neighborhood to help catalyze the regeneration of Central Market Street.
SOM’s San Francisco office, led by Design Director Michael Duncan, collaborated with A.C.T. and their representative Equity Community Builders to develop the design—applying the expertise of its architects, structural engineers, and graphic designers in the firm’s signature integrated, multidisciplinary approach. SOM and A.C.T. also assembled an expert project team that included Plant Construction Company, a Bay Area-based general contractor; Page & Turnbull, a California-based historic preservation and architecture firm; Shalleck Collaborative, a San Francisco-based theater planning and design consultant; Charles M. Salter Associates, Inc., a San Francisco-based consulting firm on acoustics, telecommunications, and security; WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, a San Francisco-based mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering design firm; and PritchardPeck Lighting, a San Francisco-based architectural lighting design firm.
The 2016 AIA Institute Honor Award for Interior Architecture jury includes: Rand Elliott (Chair), Elliott + Associates Architects; Ruth Baleiko, The Miller Hull Partnership LLP; Barbara Bestor, Bestor Architecture; James Slade, Slade Architecture; and Lisa Smeltzer, State of Louisiana Facility Planning & Control.
About Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) is one of the leading architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world, with an 80-year reputation for design excellence and a portfolio that includes some of the most important architectural accomplishments of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since its inception, SOM has been a leader in the research and development of specialized technologies, new processes and innovative ideas, many of which have had a palpable and lasting impact on the design profession and the physical environment. The firm’s longstanding leadership in design and building technology has been honored with more than 1,700 awards for quality, innovation, and management. The American Institute of Architects has recognized SOM twice with its highest honor, the Architecture Firm Award—in 1962 and again in 1996. The firm maintains offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Abu Dhabi.
About The American Institute of Architects
Founded in 1857, the American Institute of Architects consistently works to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings, neighborhoods, and communities. Through nearly 300 state and local chapters, the AIA advocates for public policies that promote economic vitality and public wellbeing. Members adhere to a code of ethics and conduct to ensure the highest professional standards. The AIA provides members with tools and resources to assist them in their careers and business as well as engaging civic and government leaders and the public to find solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation, and world.