Palm Beach firms, residential designs win big at annual Mizner Awards ceremony

Firms and projects with Palm Beach connections won the majority of the architecture, landscape and design honors during this month’s 2023 Addison Mizner Awards dinner in the Coral Ballroom of The Colony Hotel.

The 12th annual juried competition was sponsored by the Florida Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art.

Fairfax, Sammons & Partners and its affiliated office in New York City took three awards for projects designed by principal architect Richard Sammons, who is vice chairman of the Palm Beach Architectural Commission. Sammons runs his architectural firm with his wife, architect Anne Fairfax, a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The firm earned two of its awards for the design of new homes. An “Anglo Caribbean”-style house on Clarke Avenue in Midtown Palm Beach was honored in the category for homes measuring between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet. And a house designed by Sammons on the east end of Southampton in New York was named the best new residential project under 5,000 square feet.

Sammons’ firm also took the prize for best project in the renovations-and-additions category for a house on Onondaga Avenue on the North End of Palm Beach. That project added a second-floor addition and a fifth bedroom to a 1950s-era house while also overhauling its architectural style.

Awards were presented by Mitchell Owens, editor of The World of Interiors. Owens served on the judges’ jury with Palm Beach resident and interior designer Victoria Hagan of Victoria Hagen Interiors; and New York City-based architect Mark Ferguson, principal of Ferguson Shamamian Architects.

“We’re here to honor so many beautiful houses and interiors,” Owens said during his opening remarks at the April 20 ceremony, adding that the judges had reviewed “a formidable array of entries.”

The goal, Owens added, was to honor projects that “exemplify the classical spirit in all its timelessness as well as its opportunities for experimentation and surprise.”

Eligible projects had to have been built within the last 10 years. The competition is open to members of the Florida chapter, regardless of where the project is located. Other members can submit projects for consideration if they were built in Florida or the Caribbean.

The design of a new Mediterranean-style house on South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach won architect Phillip James Dodd of Bespoke Residential Design LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut, the award for best new home over 10,000 square feet. In 2022, Dodd won the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach’s Schuler Award in recognition of same house, which has a stepped-back design for its long-but-narrow lot near former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

FGS Design LLC of Palm Beach earned the award for excellence in historic preservation for its work on a project to restore Harbour Island Cottage, an 18th-century private residence reputed to be the oldest house on Harbour Island in the Bahamas. The firm also has offices in New York and Newport, Rhode Island. In accepting the award, FGS principal Francisco “Kiko” G. Sanchez recounted how the Bahamian cottage had collapsed during the construction work and had to be meticulously rebuilt.

“The town was mad at us. It was a disaster,” Sanchez said, before adding that the owners have since forgiven him and his design team: “We still have a key, and the staff of FGS is allowed to stay there” on visits to the island.

FGS Design also won the award for best architectural “folly” for another project in the Bahamas — a small structure with a Moroccan-style arch by a swimming pool at an estate in New Providence.

The garden surrounding FGS’s folly was designed by Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design of Palm Beach and Miami. The latter firm was honored with a separate award for best landscape architecture at an estate known as “Shangri-La” in Coral Gables. Wong, who also has offices in New Orleans, the Hamptons and London, is an alternate member of the Palm Beach Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The craftsmanship award went to Remains Lighting Company of New York's Brooklyn borough, for its handcrafted reproduction of two meal lanterns, originally manufactured around 1929 for a Palm Beach project.

At the end of the ceremony, West Palm Beach architect Kristin Kellogg of Smith Kellogg Architecture was recognized for her two years of service as president of the Florida Chapter.

Architect Chris Baker of Moor, Baker & Associates Architects in Vero Beach described Kellogg’s “efficient, clear and kind approach” to the job and her success in attracting new members through “meaningful education programming and social events.”

Other award winners included Moor, Baker & Associates Architects for best cottage; interior designer Frank Ponterio of Naples and Chicago for excellence in residential interior design; and Daniel J. Kiser, a student at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, honored as an “emerging classicist.”

The honorees also included Orlando’s planning division, which won the “patronage” award for commissioning, developing and maintaining the city’s Baldwin Park; Bruce Stephenson, a professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, honored for “pedagogy” in recognition of his dedication to teaching; and Steve Mouzon for exemplary architectural “research and documentation.”

With 310 members, the state chapter is one of 16 affiliated with the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, which was co-founded in 1991 in New York City by Sammons, Fairfax, Richard Cameron and Donald Ratner.

The Florida Chapter’s stated mission is to promote and advance “the classical tradition in contemporary architecture, planning and their allied arts and building crafts throughout the state.” Its members conduct business in Florida and the Caribbean.

More details about the awards and photos of the winning projects are available at FLClassicist.org/awards.

Click on the photo gallery at the top of this page to see more photos of Palm Beach projects and projects designed by Palm Beach firms that were honored in the 12th annual Addison Mizner Awards.

dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com

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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach firms, projects dominate architectural, landscape awards