Interior design students win two IDEC Student Design Competition awards

Interior Design students in the School of Architecture + Design at Virginia Tech won two of the four awards presented in the 2004-2005 Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Student Design Competition. Winners were selected at the International IDEC Conference in Savannah, Ga. with Virginia Tech Interior Design students winning second place and honorable mention.

Sponsored by Honeywell Nylon Inc., the competition called for the design of a three dimensional exhibit space which illustrated the ideas promoted by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, a renowned work that calls for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design. Student designs were required to educate the public on an issue important to sustaining the environment and to emphasize the importance of the designer’s role in protecting not only the public but the physical and built environment in the future.

All Virginia Tech winners were seniors in the Interior Design Program, part of the School of Architecture + Design, in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies. The second place team members winning $550 are:

==> Ashley Compton of Highland, Md., who is newly employed at ForrestPerkins in Washington, D.C. as an interior and graphic designer.

==> Julie Tice of Arnold, Md., who is employed by WDG Architecture in Washington, D.C.

==> Rebecca Brownlee of Oak Hill, Va., who is newly employed at ForrestPerkins in Washington, D.C. as an interior designer.

Team members winning honorable mention are:

==> Sarah Jones of Raleigh, N.C., who will graduate in May of 2005.

==> Chuck Hoover of Pittsburgh, Pa., who will be a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University in the Entertainment Technology program beginning in the fall of 2005.

==> Ashley McRaven of Free Union, Va., who graduated in December 2004. She is currently employed by Pye Interiors, Inc. in Charlottesville, Va.

Greg Tew, chair of the interior design program at Virginia Tech said, “We are extremely proud of our students. Their success with this important competition demonstrates the high quality of our students and the outstanding education we offer at Virginia Tech.” Tew and Marilyn Whitney a Ph.D. student in interior design served as faculty sponsors for Virginia Tech.

The IDEC Student Design Competition was judged in three phases. Schools with interior design programs could forward three projects to their respective regional review. Each of the five regional reviews selected three projects to move on for review at the International IDEC Conference in Savannah, Ga., where the projects were eligible for first, second, third or an honorable mention award.

The third project from Virginia Tech’s Interior Design Program that was selected to compete in the south region competition was a team consisting of:

==> Megan Brogley of Newark, Del., who is working as an interior design at MGZA in Wilmington, Del.

==> Landon Smith of Lynchburg, Va., who is now an assistant manager with the Charles E. Smith division of ArchstoneSmith Residential, the 3rd largest real estate management company in the United States.

Some of the IDEC Student Design Competition goals were to encourage students to reflect about socially responsible design, to create an awareness of human, economic, environmental, and ethical concerns for future interior designers, to redefine design goals in relation to human and ecological health now and in the future, to strive for excellence in design, and to introduce students to McDonough & Braungart concepts such as “a radically different approach to designing” and “remaking the way we make things.”

“The competition is a wonderful opportunity to create an awareness of human, economic, environmental, and ethical concerns for future interior designers,” said Shari Park-Gates, assistant professor of interior design at West Virginia University and IDEC Student Design Competition coordinator. “The experience should also encourage students and faculty alike to reflect about socially responsible design and the importance of design in our society.”

Virginia Tech’s Interior Design Program is a FIDER-accredited program in the School of Architecture + Design. The School of Architecture + Design, part of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, offers a Bachelor of Architecture (NAAB-accredited), Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design (NASAD-accredited), and Bachelor of Science in Interior Design (FIDER-accredited), as well as Master of Architecture, Master of Science in Architecture, and Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning.