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ADEX Awards Call For Entries 2024-25

Excerpt

The Ahwahnee Hotel sits in a meadow at the north-eastern end of Yosemite Valley. Built in 1926, it is one of the crown jewels of the National Park system. Nearby, El Capitan, a 4,000 ft. granite carapace, rises straight off of the valley floor while Yosemite Falls, a white ribbon in slow motion, cascades down. In the distance, high over half-dome, clouds return home. I first saw the Ahwahnee one late spring day in 1981. I had wandered onto a trail through a stand of Douglas firs, and came upon the entry to the hotel. Under a redwood timber canopy, cars pulled up, valets opened doors, and women and men in fancy clothes stepped out. Curious, I followed them into the lobby. When I entered ‚¬â€ first thing ‚¬â€ the floors caught my eye. They were buffed and waxed to a worn-saddle finish. Broad expanses of veined color were cut-in with beautiful incised patterns, as though etched with a tool. Stone? I wondered. I bent down for a closer look, but couldn't figure out how they were made or of what they were made. Finally, I was amazed to realize, these floors are concrete. When I stood to look around, I saw concrete everywhere, used as I had never seen it used before. I had to know more, so I signed on for the guided tour. We were told that the structure, to reduce the vulnerability to fire, contained little wood. Concrete had been cleverly adapted as finish material to the floors, fireplaces, walls, and beams.But what really impressed me was how the concrete work merged with the artwork. In the foyer, bold geometric designs reminiscent of Native American baskets and Santa Clara burnished pottery, were inlaid into rust-colored acid-stained floors. In bands on the immense concrete beams, in the drapery, in the ironwork ‚¬â€ native graphic designs resonated with the architecture. (Our guide, with some irony, reminded us that the native people who once roamed the valley and inspired these designs no longer made their home here.) Each time I visit the Ahwahnee, I am refreshed. Strangers become community there, share the pleasures of great meals in a setting of great design, and enjoy the largess of the commons and the common decency of good government. I am inspired by nature and the nature of human creativity. I head out, eager to pursue the elusive balance between art, architecture, and concrete at home.

Cheng Design is a team of creative individuals who specialize in interior and exterior design and construction. The company provides art and design services under the supervision of award-winning designer Fu-Tung Cheng, emphasizing personal service and quality for both residential and commercial projects.Founded as a construction firm in 1978 by Fu-Tung Cheng and incorporated as Cheng Design nine years later, the Berkeley, California company began with small residential remodeling contracts in the Berkeley-Oakland area, building a reputation for innovative design in contemporary kitchens and baths. Cheng Design has since evolved to a full service residential and commercial design company and has expanded with a separate products division. In 1990, Cheng Design relocated its offices and studio to the present location in West Berkeley. The staff includes architects, designers, and a construction and fabrication crew. Their design and consultation process provides a close working relationship with each hands-on craftsperson, whose creative talents and skills contribute to the inclusion of art in building. In addition, Cheng Products, founded in 1999, now distributes a line of high-end stainless steel kitchen hoods, and a line of modular concrete countertops through over thirty independent showrooms nationwide. Cheng Design has reinvented the traditional kitchen and bathroom by utilizing the medium of concrete as a sculptural element for counters and drainboards, incorporating the aesthetics of water and stone. Carvings and inscriptions, inlays and artifacts, objets trouvés, are worked into colored plaster and concrete while it is still curing, integrating the spontaneous act of drawing with the construction of floor and wall surfaces.Recipient in 1998 of a Stellar Award in the first American Society of Interior Designers (ASID)/Sunset Magazine Design West Awards for a house remodel, Cheng Design is known internationally for its innovative stylings in concrete, produced in the Berkeley workshop. Cheng's entry of a Mill Valley remodel won a Second Place award in the 1997 bi-annual Sub-Zero Company Kitchen Design Contest. For the 1995 Sub-Zero contest, Cheng Design received a First Place award of $10,000 for a striking remodel in a Victorian home in the Pacific Heights district of San Francisco. The winning designs use concrete, plaster, soft-finished stainless steel and natural wood to achieve a beautiful harmonious look.The same level of hands-on detail and artistic perspective has been applied to Cheng Design's custom homes, described as “modern, tactile, and warm.” Cheng's first custom home, completed in 1993, was published in House Beautiful and in Jim Tolpin's The New Family Home, Taunton Press, 2000. The second home, finished in 1995, was published in Global Architecture (GA Houses #54). Completed in 1996, the third custom home was selected as one of Architectural Record's Record Houses and won awards from the Sunset Magazine/AIA Western Home Awards, the Metal Construction Association Merit Awards, and the Metal Architecture Design Awards. As construction continues on the company's fifth custom home, in Puerto Rico, Fu-Tung Cheng continues to emphasize homebuilding as a medium of refining culture, art, and play.

ADEX Awards Call For Entries 2024-25
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