Innovation Triumphs in KTGY Award Winners

Irvine, Cal.-based KTGY Group Inc. Architecture + Planning recently captured nine Gold Nugget Award design and planning competition Awards of Merit for seven of its projects.  The ultimate beneficiaries, however, may have been those people who favor living in communities notable for design innovation.

The Gold Nugget Awards recognize creativity in architectural design and land-use planning of residential, commercial and industrial projects.  KTGY was honored for University of California, Irvine (UCI) East Campus Apartments Phase III; The Crossing at Anaheim in Anaheim; Gallery 421 in downtown Long Beach, Cal.; Paragon at Old Town in Monrovia, Cal.; La Floresta in Brea, Cal.; 12th & Burnside in Portland, Ore.; and The Shell House in Nassau, Bahamas.

The UCI East Campus project received a Gold Nugget Award of Merit in two categories: Campus Housing Project and Community Site Plan–up to 20 Acres.  More than 1,760 beds were added to UCI’s on-campus housing in the project, allowing almost 43 percent of UCI students to be housed on campus.  Both student housing complexes and a community clubhouse included in the project earned a LEED Gold Rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

“Today’s students expect environmental responsibility from their campus, as well as great amenities,” Daniel R. McAllister, NCARB, principal and director of architecture at KTGY, tells MHN.  “UCI’s new student housing communities certainly set the bar very high for both amenities, as well as green living.”

Capturing a Gold Nugget Award of Merit in the category of Mixed-Use Project, Gallery 421 is a high-density, eminently walkable, mixed-use in-fill development right next door to Long Beach City Hall.  Requirements for public art were met in everything from the community’s name to the building’s exterior and spacious gallery. Gallery 421’s location gives it access to one of Southern California’s most distinctive waterfront urban renewal live-work-play destinations, says David Obitz, KTGY principal and lead designer on Gallery 421.

“We also performed extensive research and public outreach to determine the apartment community’s amenity offering,” he adds.  “The selection of amenities caters to diverse personal and social tastes.”

KTGY’s design work on the multi-generational, mixed-use La Floresta community, designed to fill a prominent north Orange County urban infill site, garnered the firm a Gold Nugget Award of Merit in the category of On the Boards Site Plan.  The project is currently under construction.

“One of the most notable aspects of the La Floresta plan is the seamless relationship between the age-qualified product, representing approximately 40 percent of the total units, and the market rate housing,” says Ken Ryan, KTGY principal. “It is truly a multi-generational project that blurs the lines between market segments and forges deeper ‘community within community’ connections through thoughtful design and synergy of uses.”