Palm Beach firms dominate at Mizner Awards architectural competition

Jodie Wagner, Palm Beach Daily News
·3 min read
Anne Fairfax, left, of Fairfax & Sammons Architects, with Kristin Kellogg, Florida chapter president of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, celebrates her firm's four awards at the 11th annual juried competition sponsored by the ICAA. (Photo: [CAPEHART])
Anne Fairfax, left, of Fairfax & Sammons Architects, with Kristin Kellogg, Florida chapter president of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, celebrates her firm's four awards at the 11th annual juried competition sponsored by the ICAA. (Photo: [CAPEHART])
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Palm Beach-based architecture and landscape design firms were among the big winners last month at the 11th annual juried competition sponsored by the Florida chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art.

Addison Mizner medals were handed out during a presentation April 15 at The Colony for awards that honored projects in Florida and outside the state in a wide range of categories.

Fairfax & Sammons Architects, a classical architecture firm with offices in Palm Beach and New York, won four awards at the event, which included a cocktail party and dinner program.

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Headed by principal architects Anne Fairfax and Richard Sammons, the firm won in the residential category for two single-family homes — one in Washington, Connecticut (single family, under 5,000 square feet), and the other in Cooperstown, New York (single family, over 10,000 square feet); in the renovations and additions category for an Upper West Side apartment in New York City; and in the planning and urban design category for State Street Towhouses in New York's Brooklyn borough.

Sammons also serves as vice chairman of Palm Beach's Architectural Commission, and Fairfax is a member of the town's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design, which is based in West Palm Beach, won the landscape architecture award for its work on Jardin de Style Francais in the Hammock Oaks area of Coral Gables.

Wong, a Palm Beach resident, serves as an alternate member on the town's Landmarks Preservation Commission. He and his business partner, Tim Johnson, founded Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design in 2005.

Fernando Wong, left, and Tim Johnson, right, of Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design, with Kristin Kellogg, celebrate their award for landscape architecture at the 11th annual juried competition sponsored by the Florida chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art.
Fernando Wong, left, and Tim Johnson, right, of Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design, with Kristin Kellogg, celebrate their award for landscape architecture at the 11th annual juried competition sponsored by the Florida chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art.

Palm Beach-based SMI Landscape Architecture won the Folly award for designing a garden folly for a home on Emerald Lane in the North End of town.

A garden folly, also called an eyecatcher, is a nonessential building that is erected to enhance a natural landscape.

Kemble Interiors, also based in Palm Beach, won the Commercial Interior Design category for its redesign of the The Colony lobby.

The renovated space, which is called the Living Room, features blush pink seating areas, touches of brass sconces, wicker lamps, vintage and new furniture, hand-painted wallpaper, and carved elephant tables that sit atop the hotel’s original black terrazzo floors.

The Colony lobby features a pagoda, vintage and new furniture and de Gournay hand-painted wallpaper.
The Colony lobby features a pagoda, vintage and new furniture and de Gournay hand-painted wallpaper.

Palm Beach-based FGS Design, LLC, won the Cottage award for its work on a pool cottage in Harbour Island, Bahamas.

Palm Beach resident Elizabeth Connaughton, of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, won the Emerging Classicist award for her work on the urban infill along the Forum Boarium in Rome, Italy.

Connaughton serves as a member of Palm Beach's Architectural Commission.

Other winners include: Residential — Single Family over 5,000 SF, de la Guardia Victoria Architects & Urbanists, Inc., of Coral Gables, for VIZI, a Miami single house; Historic Preservation, Martinez Alvarez Architects of Miami, for The H. George Fink Studio in Miami; Patronage, the Hon. Hilary M. Weston and Mr. W. Galen Weston, Windsor co-founders; Pedagogy, Jaime Correa, director of undergraduate program in architecture, School of Architecture, University of Miami; Service, Friederike H. Mittner, historic preservation planner, city of West Palm Beach.

The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art Florida Chapter founded the Addison Mizner Awards program in 2012 to celebrate new work in the classical design tradition. The program celebrates the achievement of excellence in the fields of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, urbanism, craftsmanship and the allied arts.

The institute is a nonprofit membership organization with 15 chapters nationwide committed to promoting and preserving the practice, understanding and appreciation of the principles of classical and traditional architecture and its allied arts.

For a list of winners or for more information, visit flclassicist.org/awards.

Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach firms win Mizner Awards for architectural projects