Winners of the 2010 Orchids & Onions Awards

The funky modern chairs in the reception area kept guests entertained as they waited for last night's San Diego Architectural Foundation's Orchids & Onions awards to begin. A silent auction was another source of entertainment, but it was so hot in the auction room that people had to work their way through the bid items pretty quickly or risk coming out drenched in sweat.

The actual awards room was cooler, and Sam "The Cooking Guy" Zien—a guy whose only commonality with a room filled with architects and designers is his elegant and hip eyeglass frames—was a funny and engaging host, despite his admitted lack of architectural knowledge.

Kevin DeFreitas, the only San Diegan to take home the prestigious American Institute of Architects (AIA) Young Architects Award, played the part of co-host and commentator and helped add some context to the night, and he pushed on in the face of the repeated interruption of the sound of empty beer bottles hitting the cement floor.

"Architects and designers are a bunch of lushes," joked one guest as the seventh or eighth bottle clinked to the ground.

Highlights of the always-fun, at-times awkward (Zien had to remind the audience  it was OK to applaud those brave enough to accept Onions) architectural ceremony included an Orchid award for "Sustainable Design" to the DPR Construction Regional Headquarters Office. It's not often a group of contractors gets praised by a room filled with architects, you know.

"It's good to actually be on the right side of this," said the DPR representative who took to the stage.

The first Onion of the evening went to the Mormon Battalion Historical Site for doing such a kitschy job in the "Historic Preservation" category. No one was present to actually accept the award, which Zien described as having "Taco Bell-like details," and one Orchids & Onions juror likened to "Disney Land in Old Town."

Usual suspects Michael Soriano and Jonathan Segal accepted Orchids respectively for "Interior Design" of Vin de Syrah, a downtown wine bar, and "Architecture" of The Q, a mixed-used building in Little Italy.

Longtime architect Ted Smith presented Segal with the award and made people giggle when he traded jackets with Segal onstage. Segal's jacket, it should be noted, was of the ostentatious ilk, and it was hilarious to see Smith in it (Smith is famous for his casual attire and demeanor).

Anyway, on to the rest of the the winners of the 2010 Orchids & Onions awards:

It’s the Little Things That Count

  1. (Orchid – Historic Preservation) Marston House    
  2. (Orchid – Sustainable Design) DPR Construction Regional Headquarters Office   
  3. (Onion – Historic Preservation) Mormon Battalion Historical Site    
  4. (Orchid – Interior Design) Vin de Syrah      
      
Moving into the 21st Century

  5. (Orchid - Architecture) UCSD Housing Dining & Hospitality Building  
  6. (Onion – Planning) Caltrans I-5 North Coast Corridor Expansion    
  7. (Orchid – Social Sustainability) Urban Corps of San Diego County  

  8. (Orchid - Architecture) The Q       
 
Engaging the People

  9. (Orchid – Social Sustainability) Community Properties     
10. (Orchid – Landscape Architecture) Olivewood Gardens   
11. (Onion - Planning Policies) La Mesa Police Station and City Hall Annex Building Expansion  
12. (Orchid – Public Art) Viva La Revolucion and the Hillcrest Mural by Shepard Fairey
 
Design Like You Give a Damn

13. (Onion – Architecture) Logan Heights Library      
14. (Orchid – Interior Design) St. Bartholomew’s Chapel     
15. (Orchid - Landscape Architecture) Restoration Project for SONGS Mitigation (San Dieguito

Wetlands)       
16. (People’s Choice Onion) –Proposed Downtown Chargers Stadium
17. (Grand Onion) – Cruise Ship Terminal and Utilities at Broadway Pier   
18. (People’s Choice Orchid) – Harry and Grace Steele Elephant Odyssey at San Diego Zoo  
19. (Grand Orchid) – Conrad Prebys Concert Hall at UCSD