Awards

Architecture at Zero Competition
Master of Architecture students Ivan Hu, Mehdi Taghavi, and Jayro Lopez won the top student prize and honor award in the 2018 competition.

Construction Management Association of America Scholarship
Student Sarah Cabana won a scholarship from the Construction Management Association of America that was presented to her at their annual awards banquet in April 2018.

ACE Mentor Alumni Scholarship Award
Undergraduate architecture student Holly Horton won the 2018 Alumni Scholarship Award from the ACE Mentor Program.

San Diego American Advertising Awards 2018
Five design students won 10 awards at the 2018 San Diego American Advertising Awards Celebration:

• Mohammed Labban | Best of Show, People’s Choice, Gold, Bronze x2
• Amjad Alotaibi | Gold
• Reham Murshed | Silver & Bronze
• Nicole Kneip | Bronze
• Deelin Francis | Bronze

Architizer A+ Awards Special Mention
The STEAM Pavilion design/build by NewSchool of Architecture & Design undergraduate students received an A+ Awards Special Mention from Architizer in 2016.

The pavilion was designed and built in 2015 for the STEAMConnect’s annual conference focusing on lectures, debates, and workshops revolving around the links between Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. The STEAM Pavilion idea originated from the necessity to accommodate the activities that take place at the annual conferences of STEAMConnect. These activities involve talking, sitting, eating and, above all, meeting. The NewSchool student designers for the project believe that architecture is a clear combination of Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Art, so addressing the necessities of the STEAMConnect annual reception was a perfect example of STEM + Art disciplines coming together, blending creativity, design, and technical skills.

The pavilion was built by architecture students Freddy Bravo, John Colwart, Marika-Anne De Ocampo, Aipeng Fang, Travis Garcia, Guy Hartwig, Emilio Ingrasci, Heiarii Li Cheng, Guillermo Menjivar, Madison Parsons, Austin Richards, Anthony Rodriguez, Andrew Schiffer, Yangyi Situ, Justin Soderlund, Tobey Toney and Salvador Vicente – under the direction of architecture faculty Ramiro Losada-Amor and Victor Navarro, and with design and construction assistance of Alberto García.

In 2016, the design/build received an A+ Awards Special Mention from Architizer.

About Architizer: Architizer is the world’s largest and fastest growing website for architecture has launched the definitive architectural award program with 115+ categories and more than 350 jurors. The Architizer A+ Awards received thousands of entries from a 100 countries and represents the best of architecture and design worldwide. Winners are chosen by our illustrious jury including such industry luminaries as Denise Scott Brown, Bjarke Ingels and Tom Kundig, as well as personalities from beyond architecture like Tony Hsieh (CEO, Zappos), Yves Behar (Fuseproject), John Edelman (CEO, Design Within Reach), Cameron Sinclair (Architecture for Humanity) and Barry Bergdoll (MoMA).

International Design Excellence Awards
The International Design Excellence Awards, also known as IDEA, is a premier international design competition sponsored annually by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and judged by renowned design experts from around the world.

VisualSpeakers is a wireless speaker system with an integrated projector dedicated to images that complement the music experience. With a “Dome Mode” – where images are projected into the VisualSpeakers integrated 12-inch dome – and a “Party Mode” – where images are projected in the ambient (ceiling, furniture, and walls), the VisualSpeakers provide different kinds of images to enhance your sound experience.

Nowadays, music is so ubiquitous that the challenge of this project was to come up with a new way to listen to music, creating a deeper and richer experience. I focused on the relationship between music and visuals, and, inspired by the concept of Cymatics, I decided to tackle the relationship between sound and image creating a new product that not only produces sound but generates and plays images that accompany your music. This design not only provides an excellent music experience with high-quality speakers but also enhances the experience with a visual layer. And with its dual lens projector, the images could be seen projected in the speaker dome, but also they could extrapolate its boundaries and be projected through the whole ambient.

In a world where the musical experience has become so frugal, the VisualSpeakers represents an effort to bring back an emotional connection with music.

The idea is that, through a visual layer dedicated to complementing the sound, we can create an even better experience of music. The VisualSpeakers also creates a new exciting and creative place for exchange between visual artists, musicians, and creatives in general, who will be able to present their artistic visual expression combined with music.

ADDY Advertising Awards 2016
The media design program students at NewSchool of Architecture & Design won 6 advertising awards, including a national ADDY advertising award in 2016. Student work submissions demonstrated proficiency and excellence in brand identity, copywriting, photography, digital production, concepting, art direction, graphic design, creative direction (print and interactive), audio production, video production, and animation.

Marius De La Peña won a Bronze Addy in the Elements of Advertising category for his logo design for Toast Enoteca & Cucina. Greg Rovelo won a Bronze Addy in the Elements of Advertising category for his logo design for Park Boulevard Catering. And Amjad Alotaibi won a Silver Addy in the Online/Interactive category for her 6-second looping stop-motion animation Vine video for Truth (the anti-smoking campaign).

Amjad Alotaibi continued on to the regional and national level of the competition, winning a Silver ADDY at the regional competition and a National ADDY® award. She received a silver designation during the American Advertising Awards Show hosted by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) in Anaheim, California on June 7, 2016. The awards show was part of ADMERICA, the AAF’s annual national conference.

Amjad received recognition in the Social Media category for her six-second looping stop-motion animation Vine video for the anti-smoking campaign, Truth. The student spec ad entitled Truth: “Ash to Ashes,” which incorporated photography, animation, art/creative direction, Photoshop compositing, and audio production.

ASC Design/Build Competition 2016
A NewSchool student team won first place at the region 7 Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Design/Build Competition in 2016. This is the third time in four years that a NewSchool team has taken first place, as well as the first time a NewSchool student who participated as an alternate in the competition took an award.

The University of Southern California took second and a team from the University of Washington placed third in the 2016 region 7 ASC Design/Build competition. The Annual Design/Build ASC Competition is widely regarded as one of the largest recruiting events in the construction management industry, with top employers in attendance.

Orchids & Onions 2015
Of the 17 awards given to companies and professionals recognized at the 39th annual Orchids & Onions event in San Diego, three awards went to NewSchool of Architecture & Design alumni for their architecture design and innovation. NewSchool alumni specifically took home an Orchid for Architecture, Orchid for Interior Design and an Orchid for the Miscellaneous category.

Orchids & Onions is an annual fundraising program of the San Diego Architectural Foundation, which aims to educate the public on what makes good architecture, planning, landscapes, graphics, and interiors. The event also raises awareness and practical discourse about the environment in order to effect positive change and more thoughtful design.

• Orchid for Architecture: Kettner Exchange, designed by NewSchool alumni from the San Diego firm Tecture.
• Orchid for Interior Design: Patio on Goldfinch, designed by NewSchool alumni from the San Diego firm Tecture.
• Orchid for Miscellaneous Category: Quartyard, designed by NewSchool alumni from the San Diego firm RAD Lab.

ADDY Advertising Awards 2016
NewSchool of Architecture & Design senior Armando Roman received an ADDY Award presented by SDX, formerly the San Diego Ad Club, at the local American Advertising Awards Gala in March 2015. Roman was awarded a Bronze ADDY in the student Elements of Advertising category for a logo he created as part of a branding and integrated advertising campaign project for an upscale East Village sushi restaurant, The Parlour.

Roman created his branding — which included the award-winning logo, mock-up of a billboard, t-shirt design, business cards, magazine ads and direct mailers for the local Japanese eatery — as part of NewSchool’s Comp Studio II class. As a result, The Parlour now has plans to use the new branding materials later this year.

ASC Design/Build Competition 2015
A NewSchool of Architecture & Design student team won the first place in the Region 7 Design/Build competition of the 28th Annual Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Student Competition event that took place in Sparks, NV Feb. 4-7, 2015. This is the second time in three years that a NewSchool team has taken first place. In 2013, they won the Virtual Design and Construction portion of the competition.

More than 1,300 college students participated in this year’s annual competition for college students studying construction management. George Welch, NewSchool Construction Management Department Chair and team coach for the ASC competition, credits NewSchool’s success to the collaborative spirit between the Architecture and Construction Management departments.

“We are one of the few truly collaborative schools, in that most other universities have Architecture and Construction Management programs but the students don’t work as closely together,” said Welch. NewSchool participants included students from both the Architecture and the Construction Management departments, including construction management majors Obhi Dewan (’15), Chris Lerma (’15), Victor Maple (’15), Jaime Mello (’15) and Brian Zenz (’15), as well as architecture majors Ruben Bravo (’16), Athena Dadiz (’15), Jose Ponce (’16), Beatrice Soto (’16), and Luis Valdovinos (’15).

The Annual Design/Build ASC Competition is also widely regarded as one of the largest recruiting events in the construction management industry. More than 70 of the largest construction management companies attended the conference this year, including Balfour Beatty, Swinerton Builders, and Turner Construction. In previous years NewSchool participants have received excellent networking opportunities during the event. This year’s NewSchool attendees also had multiple job interviews and after their win, were treated to a dinner by one of the largest construction management companies in the U.S.

Design-Build Institute of America 2015
For the second year in a row, a NewSchool team of students took first place in the initial stage of the Design-Build Institute of America’s (DBIA) 2015 National Student Competition – Western Pacific Region. According to the Executive Director of DBIA and the Competition Chair, “the competition was extremely strong, and the regional jury members were very impressed with [the] team’s qualifications and responses to the RFQ.”

The NewSchool team will advance to the next stage of the competition and won a $1,500 stipend.

Participating students and alumni include Jose Ponce (team captain), Chris Lerma, Jaime Mello, Beatrice Soto, and Luis Valdovinos. They will work with NewSchool Construction Management Chair George Welch as they begin the preparation of a design/build plan for a virtual project.

Red Bull Creation Competition Finalist 2014
Four NewSchool of Architecture & Design students were selected to the finals at the 2014 Red Bull Creation Competition, a 72-hour innovation competition which challenges the nation’s best and brightest makers, hackers, and inventors to innovate around a secret topic.

The project, which was developed in a fourth year Urban Issues class with Luisa Shultz, an instructor at NewSchool of Architecture & Design, was selected as one of six finalists from across the country to compete against five well-established organizations. Competing under the name Tactical Urbanists, this was the only student group selected to compete. Julio A. Media, David Harrison, Anastasia Podolskaya, and Boyd Wheeler traveled to Detroit to participate in the competition. “Our theme is to activate space through problem-solving derived from our urban background mixed with the challenges which will be faced from the competition and the location. With our architectural background, we have attained the ability to look at problems through a different lens than most. One of our greatest strengths is our ability to see hidden potentials in areas which most people would not recognize. Architectural studies have provided us with a diverse background of experience, which allows us to make connections across various topics,” said David Harrison, Co-Founder/Designer.

Eco Innovators Award of Excellence 2014
A NewSchool of Architecture & Design student received the first place Eco Innovators Award of Excellence during the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s annual ECO Innovators Showcase on May 1, 2014. The organization gave high marks to the design by NewSchool student Nick Wilson, and also noted the school’s “innovative teaching philosophy that inspires… students to develop sustainable environmental solutions.”

The competition, part of the Metropolitan’s annual Spring Green Expo, attracted projects from 20 universities and community colleges throughout Southern California in individual and team categories. Wilson’s project, which was one of three NewSchool entries, featured examples of single-family sustainable “Eco Houses” for desert climates such as Phoenix, Ariz. The project incorporates wind flow patterns and a pond and fountain element to encourage the flow of cool air through the homes, resulting in greater energy efficiency. The concept was developed by Wilson, who is in the Bachelor of Architecture program, under the guidance of NewSchool instructor Don Mirkovich.

The other NewSchool entries included a project by student James Darby that was also guided by Don Mirkovich, and a submission by student Joshua Nunnally that was guided by NewSchool instructor Victor Navarro.

A panel of judges from Metropolitan’s Engineering, Water Resource Management, and External Affairs groups scored the entries for the ECO Innovators Showcase competition, resulting in a tie for top individual honors in the Eco Innovators Award of Excellence category that Wilson received. The event and competition serve to bring awareness to topics related to water conservation and sustainability and includes exhibitions highlighting related technology, products, services, and programs.

Design Village 2014
A team of NewSchool of Architecture & Design students earned two out of five awards at the prestigious Cal Poly Design Village 2014 competition on April 11-13, 2014 in the categories of “People’s Choice/Most Contagious” and “Most Habitable.” NewSchool has a long tradition of winning top honors at the annual event, which draws architecture and design students from all over California.

The teams developed entries based on this year’s design competition theme of “Biologics.” The winning NewSchool structure, called “The Rotation of Living,” was inspired by the shape of a cell. The resulting wheel-like design was made of wood sheets, steel tubes and solar panels for the project’s LED lighting. Members of that team, which won the two awards, were: Guillermo Menjivar, Salvador Vicente, Aipeng Fang, and Juan Cruz. Two other NewSchool teams participated in the event. One of the teams – consisting of Alex Angeline, Daniel Facanha, Mallory Boyd and Paula Sigala – created a design inspired by the structure of a sunflower using cables, steel tubing, and seat belt material to create mesh “petals.” Another team built a pyramid-like structure designed to adapt to changing needs, notable for engineering elements such as a leveling mechanism created from chair springs. That team consisted of Ryan Stangl, Devin Lee, Andrew Schiffer, and Guy Hartwig.

For the competition, held by California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif., students must carry their materials three-quarters of a mile, build the structure on site, and then live in it for three days and two nights. The class and competition provides NewSchool students with the chance to demonstrate their mastery of creative and functional design, which is emphasized throughout the NewSchool curriculum.

All the NewSchool student teams developed their entries as part of a design studio course at NewSchool. This is at least the seventh time in the past eight years NewSchool school teams have taken home top awards, according to records, though the winning tradition goes back further than that.

ASC Virtual Design & Construction 2013
A team of NewSchool of Architecture & Design students won first place in the category of Virtual Design and Construction at the Associated Schools of Construction (Regions 6 and 7) 2013 Student Competition near Reno, Nevada, February 5–8, 2013. NewSchool competed against student teams from 11 other schools around the country. The school’s winning team was composed of six students from the architecture and construction management programs.

This was NewSchool’s first time participating in the competition, making the win particularly significant for the school’s relatively new construction management department, which introduced a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management program in 2010.

NewSchool student team members included Jake Jaenicke, Vincent Macias, and Joe Kovac, who are all enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Construction Management program, and Steven Hansen, Antonio Barragan and Athena Dadiz, who are all in the Bachelor of Architecture program. Other NewSchool students involved in the competition were German Morales, who served as a team alternate, and Charles Marion, who served as student coach. Both are enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Construction Management program. The team’s faculty coach was George Welch, who is the chair of NewSchool’s construction management department.

Former Construction Management Chair Linda Thomas-Mobley and Construction Management Advisory Board members also provided support to Welch and the students. Specialists with Balfour Beatty Construction — including Brad Hardin, national vice president–technology, and Elizabeth Angel, BIM manager — assisted the students in preparing for the competition.