SPOKANE, Wash. — The Interior Design Educators Council has named work by WSU Spokane assistant professor of interior design Matt Melcher Best in Show for the second time. The award was announced at its international conference in March and will be highlighted in the Journal of Interior Design.
Melcher received the award for his remodel of an existing 1970s rancher home on a 9-acre site in Hangman Valley. The clients, a yoga instructor and a photographer, asked that the design emphasize a strong connection to natural light and the surrounding landscape, materials and colors that relate the project to the site, and eco-friendly strategies. Melcher utilized natural light for a dramatic reduction in the need for electric light during daylight hours and provided heating and cooling through a geo-thermal system to take advantage of the earth’s latent heat.
In 2001, Melcher and fellow WSU Spokane faculty member Nancy Clark Brown, with local designer Juliet Sinisterra, won Best in Show from IDEC for their work on an office space in the Holley-Mason Building. That project also received last fall the American Institute of Architects Spokane Chapter’s Honor Award, the highest award granted by AIA.
IDEC judges the design solution as it relates to client requirements, the experimental and aesthetic achievement of the design, and quality of execution.
Melcher teaches in WSU’s interior design program, which is being named a department of the university. WSU offers the only interior design degree in the state accredited by the Foundation for Interior Design Education Research. The program is ranked among the top 10 in the nation by the International Interior Design Association, and faculty and students routinely win national and international awards for their creative design scholarship.
Web links:
WSU Spokane Interdisciplinary Design Institute
Design Institute honors and awards
News release on previous Best in Show award (April 20, 2001)
Interior Design graduate program
Interior Design undergraduate program
Interior Design Educators Council
