Westfield San Francisco Centre wins 2008 ICSC International Design & Development Award for the Renovation or Expansion of an Existing Project

CLEVELAND (December 4, 2008) – On December 3rd, ka , RTKL Associates Inc., and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates along with their clients, Forest City and Westfield were proud recipients of the Design Award in the Renovation or Expansion of an Existing Project category at ICSC’s 32nd International Design and Development Awards held at the ICSC Centerbuild Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

“We are honored to be part of the team to receive such a prestigious award,” says James Heller, president at ka, executive architect on the 1.5 million square foot, $460-million project.

Serving as the Executive Architect for Westfield San Francisco Centre, ka guided the project through several phases of programming and planning. Other team members included RTKL Associates Inc., serving as design architect, and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, design architect for the contemporary exterior of Bloomingdale's. The coordinated team effort was led by ka.

“This project was a true collaboration between the developers, architects, and engineers. The combined effort of all members of this distinguished team resulted in the re-birth of an award-winning historic landmark,” says Al Richner, studio leader at ka who was the lead on the project.

Westfield San Francisco Centre is the largest urban shopping center west of the Mississippi. It contains over 1.1 million square feet of retail space, 245,000 square feet of Class A office space, a 53,000 square foot Century Theatres ninescreen multiplex, and a variety of restaurants. It is the only urban retail center distinctively anchored by two stores, the West Coast flagship of Bloomingdale’s and the second largest Nordstrom in the country.

The International Design and Development Awards are based on the global recognition of outstanding projects and are designed to honor the industry’s best and brightest.

About ka

Founded in 1960, ka has evolved into a nationally recognized, 75-person firm based in Cleveland, Ohio with a second location in Tampa, Florida. The firm’s mix of services include site and land planning, architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture and environmental graphic design services.

ka’s architectural and design creativity and detail driven project delivery in the commercial and corporate marketplaces has culminated in the design of projects in 41 states and Puerto Rico. These include millions of square feet of large scale, mixed-use projects comprised of residential, retail, office, and entertainment components, condominiums/apartments, open-air lifestyle centers, 60 regional malls, over 300 department stores as well as developer and corporate headquarter office space.

To learn more, visit www.kainc.com.

Media contact: Abigail Dachille, ka, 216.830.1584 adachill@kainc.com
Images available upon request