The City of Redmond’s Design Review Board (DRB) recognized 25 projects built in the city from 2004-2011 during a special ceremony at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Award winners included city-built projects such as the Grass Lawn Community Park Picnic Shelter, large corporate campuses such as the Microsoft Studios West Campus and small private projects such as the Redmond Presbyterian Church.

“They run the full range of size,” said Steven Fischer, a principal planner for the City of Redmond.

Awards were given in three categories of excellence in design:

• Superior Design — The unique and dramatically successful execution of design, siting and landscaping that is particularly harmonious with the site and community.
• Outstanding Design — Recognizing exceptional architectural contribution.
• Honor Design — Recognized for the level to which they have elevated the quality of architectural design in the city.

There were nine Superior Design recipients, 12 Outstanding Design recipients and four Honor Design recipients. Redmond City Hall, a new narthex (entrance hall) at St. Jude Parish and Redmond High School were among the superior award winners.

All winners in all three categories were projects that came before the DRB. Fischer said the city’s capital projects are usually not included.

“The work of this important citizen commission and the design elements reflected in each of these projects is a testament to the forward thinking vision of the owner, architect and landscape architect representatives for each of the projects,” Redmond Mayor John Marchione said in a city news release.

Redmond’s DRB is made up of seven citizen members who review plans for proposed business, commercial, industrial and multi-family projects to determine the projects’ compatibility with the community. Members include two city residents and five professionals from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design. Criteria for review include a review of site plans, colors, building materials and landscape design.

“I am so amazed at the quality of the work presented here,” DRB Chair David Scott Meade said in a city news release. “I certainly hope that Redmond continues to get such interesting and well-designed projects.”

The City of Redmond Planning Department and DRB established the Excellence in Design Awards Program in 1999 to recognize and honor projects that best represent the design values of the community.

Fischer said they wanted to recognize people who have positively contributed to and invested in the community. He said when constructing buildings, it is important to make sure the projects will have a positive impact on the city and are a good addition because the buildings last for decades.

“(The award-winning projects) exceeded the minimum standards,” he said. “They’re great-looking projects.”

For example, Fischer said the City of Redmond’s Well No. 3, which received a superior award, doesn’t look like a utility building and is more than just a box.

“It’s got some class to it,” he said.

In addition, Fischer said another goal of the design awards is to encourage architects, landscape architects and property developers to raise the bar and follow in award winners’ footsteps when constructing new projects.

Fischer said the awards were initially presented every other year, but there were so many projects between 2005 and 2007 that they haven’t able to get to the awards until now. He said now that city officials are caught up the awards, they hope to get back to presenting the awards every other year.

For more information contact Steven Fischer in the Planning Department at (425) 556-2432 or sfischer@redmond.gov or visit www.redmond.gov.

For a complete list of winners, go to city’s news release about the awards at http://tinyurl.com/bv44j45.