The James Britton Awards for best final thesis projects were given on May 14th during the convocation ceremony in Hendricks Chapel. King & King “Leadership by Design” prizes were awarded on May 7 at the School.
James Britton Memorial Awards
Fifth-year undergraduate students Stephanie Tager’s and Jessica Ordaz-Garcia’s “Wonderland: An Architectural Interpretation of Children’s Literature” was selected as the Best Thesis. The project drew from the spatial qualities of picture book texts and illustrations and proposed new learning prototypes to inspire the creativity and imagination of public school students. Fifth-year undergraduate Fang Fan received the Faculty Prize for her project “Imaging the Near Future,” a wondrous film that narrates the experiences of a young woman coming to terms with life in an unnamed city in the near future; Graduate student Alyssa Goraieb’s “Other Wildernesses, Other Realities,” earned the Jury Prize.
The James Britton Memorial Awards were created by James “Jack” Britton Jr. to honor his father, James Britton, a 1925 graduate of the School of Architecture and long-time architect in the Syracuse community. The first Britton Memorial Award was given in 1983 to recognize the best final projects by graduate and undergraduate students in the professional degree programs. Every year since, three thesis projects have been chosen by a jury of faculty and guest critics and awarded at graduation.
“Thesis projects are defining efforts for our students at the end of their studies when they demonstrate their abilities and declare their ambition,” says Professor Mark Linder, 2016 Thesis Coordinator. “Recognition with a Britton Award is an affirmation by the faculty and visiting jurors that the student is prepared to make a distinct impact on the field, and to continue to pursue the ideas and knowledge that are crucial to their education.”
King & King “Leadership by Design” Competition Awards
The King & King Comprehensive Studio “Leadership by Design” competition is an annual event for all students who are part of a vertical studio and have completed their core studies in the undergraduate and graduate professional degree programs. As part of the competition, teams of students present their final studio projects to partners at King & King Architects, as well as faculty members, over the course of an afternoon.
“The partners at King + King Architects look forward every spring semester to the Comprehensive Studio ‘Leadership by Design Prize Competition,’” says Kirk Narburgh, CEO/Managing Partner, M.Arch 1990. “We thoroughly enjoy the jury/student interactions and ultimately recognizing those projects whose undergraduate and graduate teams showcase the highest level of overall design leadership, sustainability, and building systems integration. The impressive array of projects highlight the inherent creativity of the faculty and students at the Syracuse University School of Architecture”
“For over a decade the King & King Prize has promoted excellence in integrative design. The support and participation of the local profession is a great opportunity for academia and those who practice to see what the other group is doing,” said Larry Davis, associate professor and coordinator of the King & King competition at the School. “Most importantly, the competition promotes outstanding student work at a key moment in the education of the students. It directly connects their understanding of building technology and systems to their intellectual development, illuminating the essential relationship between ideas and technique in architecture.”
The following students were the top King & King Prize recipients:
- Top Graduate Prize (Asst. Profs. Shanks and Krietemeyer)
“Tower,” by Andi Li, Yen-Hsi Tung, and Yuchi Kuo - Top Undergraduate Prize (Assoc. Prof. Davis)
“Micro City NVRC,” by Armand Damari and Yiwei Wu - Undergraduate Second Prize
“Sustainability Superstore,” by Celeste Pomputius and Russell Scheer (Assoc. Prof. Lonsway) - Undergraduate Third Prize
“Black Holes,” by Hye Rim “Angela” Shin and Nicholas “Max Kronauer (Prof. Korman)
