Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1528556
100 D espite the fierce thunderstorm that raged through Houston only a few hours prior, the city's design community came to The Houstonian Hotel ready to celebrate. The annual PaperCity Design Awards, held in the Grande Ballroom, recognized winning projects in 22 categories culled from more than 350 entries submitted by Houston-area designers and architects. The dapper master of ceremonies was Tom Kligerman, who co-founded Ike Kligerman Barkley with John Ike and Joel Barkley before founding his own New York-based firm, Kligerman Architecture & Design. Kligerman began his architecture career at Robert A. M. Stern Architects and received his BA from Columbia University and master of architecture from Yale School of Architecture. On this evening, Kligerman announced each of the winning designers and architects and presented Baccarat awards, while images of the projects flashed overhead. The first award of the night was the Visionary Achievement in Historic Preservation Award to Project Row Houses and David Bucek of Stern and Bucek Architects for the restoration of the Eldorado Ballroom, Third Ward, Houston. Bestowing the award was John Guess Jr. — collector, patron, and CEO of Houston Museum of African American Culture and the negotiator of the 1999 acquisition of the Eldorado, which added the ballroom to the Project Row Houses campus. Guess spoke about the fascinating history of the Eldorado in the American music canon, then presented the award to Project Row Houses' executive director Danielle Burns Wilson and architect Bucek. This year's ceremony was especially well-decorated, thanks to sponsor BeDesign, who created a sultry lounge and a walkable retrospective of chairs, tables, and objects important to design history from the 1950s to today. Winning designers and architects included Benjamin Johnston; Paloma Contreras; Bryson White and Tuan Mai, Arc Three; Gail and Joe Adams; Nadia Palacios Lauterbach; Sherrell Neal; Kara Childress; Katie Davis; Brinn Miracle and Nicholas Banks, Architangent; Michael Hsu; Kelie Mayfield, MaRS Culture; Laura Carrera and Andres Utting, Urbano Architects; Philip LeBlanc, Formation; Courtnay Tartt Elias, Creative Tonic Design; Rhett Rentrop, SWA; and Lauren Rottet, Rottet Studio. AWARDS DESIGN The Houston PaperCity CELEBRATION Who Was There and Who Walked Away with Awards By Caitlin Hsu. Photography Johnny Than. (Continued on page 102) Marcelo Saenz, Adriana Gonzalez Adrian Dueñas Gail McCleese, Amanda Heineman Lisa Pope Westerman Jennifer Henderson Marc Anderson Benjamin Johnston, Greg Roffino Madison Osborn Ally Phillips, Kat Bertron Jamie Ball Anita Smith, Melanie Lawson & John Guess Jr. Greg Fourticq & John Cone Paloma Contreras Kim Le, Kelie Mayfield Seliece Caldwell Womble Lisa Gochman