Sixth Year in a Row, SARA NY Recognizes Student Excellence

Three student projects from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Architecture have been honored with awards from the Society of American Registered Architects, New York (SARA-NY) Council Design Awards program.

SARA-NY recognized former master architecture students Hannah Christy and Craig Findlay with a Design Award of Excellence and scholarship for their project “Tower of Babel” and an Award of Honor for their “WaTeRS” project.

The “Tower of Babel” was previously honored as a grand prize winner in Architizer’s 2020 One Drawing Challenge. Associate Professor Brian Kelly mentored both projects. The “Tower of Babel” originated from Kelly’s ARCH610 design research studio and “WaTeRS” was designed in ARCH611.

A third award was given to former master of architecture student Hannah Schafers who received an Award of Honor for her project titled “The Cloud House” which was designed in Associate Professor and Architecture Program Director David Karle’s ARCH511 studio. This project also earned an Award of Merit from SARA National, an Unbuilt Honor Award and People’s Choice Award from AIA Nebraska, the 2019 UNL Graduate Research Fair Winning Project Award and an Honorable Mention in the AIA/CRAN sponsored HERE+NOW: A House for the 21st Century Student Design Competition. This is Schafers’ second award from SARA-NY. In 2018, Schafers and her teammate Felix Chen were given an Honor Award for their project “Remembrance” which originated in Mark Bacon’s spring 2018, ARCH411 studio.

“These awards are great examples of our faculty facilitating learning experiences and course outcomes that go beyond the traditional classroom environment,” said Karle. “It is especially rewarding when student authored outcomes are recognized by a national jury and professional organization. This type of recognition is a reflection of the collective effort put forth by all faculty and student-to-student peer mentoring.”

This is the 25th year, SARA-NY has held their national, prestigious Design Awards Program. SARA-NY is the local chapter for SARA. SARA is a professional organization of architects and industry related partners. Founded in 1956, they are a national organization with active councils and chapters throughout the country, as well as international members.