Editors’ Choice: Best Interior Design Projects of 2023

Children’s Hospitals provide invaluable life-saving medicine and research treatments for broken bones to pediatric cancer to help infants, adolescents and young adults. While the reasons families visit a Children’s Hospital location vary, designers’ and architects’ abilities to construct a welcoming, fun environment serve to alleviate the physical and emotional struggles of children and families. 

HDR’s team completed a 460,000-sq.-ft. expansion and a 100,000-sq.-ft. renovation of the Omaha location with the Hubbard Center for Children, featured in our January/February issue. Incorporating adjustable, colorful wallcoverings and color-changing lights, each floor featured different hues and shapes that lightened the atmosphere. The ultrasound room features a fiber optic star-field ceiling to mimic the night sky. As a mother who has spent months inside a Children’s Hospital, I know how valuable those lights, shapes and colors are to distract a child who is scared and a parent who is trying to hold it together. HDR’s team understood the end users’ needs, which is why for me, the Hubbard Center is one of the year's best projects.

Biophilic design continues to rule the day into 2024, and a great example of it for this year was Hendrick’s showcase of the beauty and diversity of it at the Novelis Atlanta headquarters, featured in our May/June issue. 

Following the pandemic and surge in work-from-home opportunities, companies had to design offices that earned the commute. Novelis does that as soon as employees step into the lobby with cork flooring, a living moss wall, aluminum tree and vertical planters. People can also access havens like an indoor pergola and recessed alcoves with booths, offering various work environments as well as spaces to focus on wellbeing. Natural woods abound in the furniture, walls and ceilings. The ceiling trellis system evokes a canopy, which is placed over collaborative spots. Thoughtful use of biophilia not only ties into Novelis’ brand but also creates an environment to support workers’ social and emotional needs, which helped it earn its spot on my list.   

There’s probably no bigger brand in sports than Nike and no more acclaimed tennis star than Serena Williams, which is why it’s fitting that the new building in Oregon representing these iconic names was a feat of design and engineering. The fact that Skylab managed to turn a 1 million-square-foot building into a LEED-Platinum-certified powerhouse of sustainable design at a human scale is impressive to say the least—and it deserves further attention as one of our Best of the Year projects.

What stood out to me, in particular, was a vivid-green lounge seating area that’s dominated by an overhanging art installation, which graced our March/April issue’s cover. Created by Jenny Sabin, “SinewFlex” employs photoluminescent and solar-active knit material to express fluid motion and incredible strength—hallmarks of Serena Williams’ on-court appearances. There’s so much about this project that’s noteworthy, but this is the spot I’d park and pose for a selfie if I found myself wandering through this inspiring building. 

There are two types of people in this world: campers and non-campers (although “glampers” seems to be an emerging third category). I belong decidedly in the first category of someone who loves spending time in nature, which is why I was thrilled to see the AutoCamp Catskills project in our July/August issue. Aside from the ultra-cool and modern Airstream trailers available, what struck me about this beautiful outdoor getaway was the Catskills Clubhouse, which draws inspiration from traditional agrarian architecture and the local music scene. 

The open, light-filled spaces make abundant use of glass to blur the lines between inside and out, perfectly in step with the biophilic design trend we’re seeing. And the warmth of the wood beams, paneling and furniture that sets a “mid-century yet campy” mood helped earn a spot on my list of this year’s Best Of projects. 

Our September/October education issue illustrated a movement in the market of schools morphing into major community resources, rather than strictly learning centers for youth—which Multistudio’s Michelle Obama School in Richmond, Calif., featured in our closing On the + Side column, did beautifully.

It took a village here for sure, as the design is truly the joint vision of the firm, school district and this historically underserved community with a Parent Room, community room and library as well as the 4000-sq.-ft. Multipurpose Room & Dining Commons. They all can play host to a variety of events throughout the year, including continuing education opportunities that help strengthen these families attending school. The MPR is an impressive mass timber structure with 20-ft. ceilings and two operable glass garage doors that open to an outdoor dining plaza. It can house up to 560 people and students eat here daily.

Equally as impressive are three project-based learning suites, structured off the tenets of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The range of spaces gives new meaning to the phrase “hands-on learning” with access to outdoor gardens, a mobile library and much much more. The school brought this neighborhood alive with access to amenities they were devoid of prior to the pandemic, and for this, it earned a top spot in my book out of all our featured projects this year.

1 Hotels has such an original mission and culture as a brand, which was why I thought it was genius of both SH Hotels & Resorts and Workshop/APD to place one right across from the coppery waves of the Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn. Draped in a cloak of ivy, it creates a visual juxtaposition you can’t look away from and made it one of my favorite projects this year.

But look away you must because once you walk through the doors, you’re led on a journey through some of Tennessee’s greatest landmarks and resources that help define the city in a different way than the “Nash-Vegas experience” it can be notorious for.

I love how the firm photographed their travels outside of downtown and used them to craft the interiors, such as with their trip to the city’s Belle Meade Plantation, reflected in the guestroom furniture that screams handcrafted. They also studied barn structures and tobacco farms, found in little easter eggs throughout the property like the check-in desk back drop. Go find some for yourselves in the full story.