Two LSU Interior Design students and two Interior Design faculty won awards at the International Interior Design Association’s (IIDA) Delta Regional Chapter Awards, RE:Awards 2011, in New Orleans last month. The Delta Regional Chapter includes interior designers in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Professional-in-Residence Matthew Edmonds and Instructor Tracy Burns, both principals of Commercial Design Interiors (CDI), placed in three of 16 categories. CDI won the Award of Excellence in Hospitality Design for “The Body Café” for which café owners requested a design that combined the social scene of a coffee shop, the niche market of a health conscious café, and the wellness products of a life supplement store.

CDI won an Award of Recognition in Institutional Design for NAS JRB Credit Union, creating a welcoming space that provides branded banking services to its members.

And CDI won Award of Excellence in Residential Design for a vacation home in Orange Beach with a three-story internal core that was wrapped with custom millwork wall panels. The design integrated teak finishes with accent wood shapes that abstractly mimic the surrounding sand dunes and piers.

Students Christine Diggs, and Beverly Gaudin, respectively won an Award of Excellence for “Immense Networks” and an Award of Recognition for “Baton Rouge Art & Cultural Center.”

Diggs was inspired by the sleek design of the classic children’s toy the Slinky to design the office space for a young IT Firm. The design elements include flexible collaboration spaces, repeating circular forms, stainless steel and glass finishes and a playful, energetic color scheme.

Gaudin’s project creates a cultural center in downtown Baton Rouge. Using LEED as a guiding criterion, she uses recycled shipping containers for the building structure in this mixed-use facility, incorporating an auditorium, community classrooms, a café, retail space, a music hall, and a gallery showcasing an educational sustainability exhibit.