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While hundreds of students, family, and alumni toured the towering highrise models and home miniatures at the 2024 Open House at IIT College of Architecture, titled “In/Print,” a dozen visiting jurors were exploring S. R. Crown Hall for especially creative or outstanding projects that celebrate what the College embodies. The winners of these awards were presented at the Spring Awards Ceremony on May 10, 2024. The list of scholarships, awards, and merits follows:

The Samuel Horwitz Memorial Scholarship and Dwight T. Black Memorial Scholarship are tuition scholarships awarded to undergraduate students completing their first to fourth year of study whose studio projects demonstrate outstanding merit and professional promise. Students are nominated by their faculty and selected by the Spring Awards jury, listed below.

This year’s recipients are:

• 1st Year Samuel Horwitz Scholarship honorable mention: Anjana Ramachandran
• 1st Year Samuel Horwitz Scholarship recipient: Emiliano Godinez Scroggins
• 2nd Year Samuel Horwitz Scholarship honorable mention: Casey Kowalsky
• 2nd Year Samuel Horwitz Scholarship recipient: Jilliana Pilutti
• 3rd Year Dwight T. Black Scholarship recipient: Reilly Kenney
• 4th Year Dwight T. Black Scholarship honorable mentions: Ashraf Alkurdi, Grantham Bergen, Cristian Contreras, Akshat Goyal, David Holmquist, Dahye Kim, Nicholas Ramirez,and Nayoung Seo for their project “Universal Space Problem,” with professor Vlad Radutny
• Noah Johnson and Jiachen Wang for their project “The School of Architecture,” with professors Kindon Mills and Andy Tinucci
• 4th Year Dwight T. Black Scholarship recipients: Gemma Brizzolara, William Cochran, Marina Delgado Paredes, Caleb Kwok, and Alexis Sanchez for their project “Memory of Place,” with professor Vlad Radutny

The Nagle/Hartray Scholarship, Jerrold & Ruth Wiel Loebl Scholarship, and the Brothers Finfer Scholarship are tuition scholarships awarded to nominated master of architecture students completing their first or second year of graduate study, and whose studio projects demonstrate outstanding merit and professional promise. Students are nominated by their faculty and selected by the Spring Awards jury. This year’s recipients are:

• Nagle/Hartray Scholarship: Eunnyong Lee and Mia Fitzpatrick
• The Jerrold & Ruth Wiel Loebl Scholarship: Riya Anchan, Karen Centeno, Shreya Dadhania, and Eden Ephraim for their project “Porosity” with professors David Brininstool and Andrew Metter
• The Brothers Finfer Scholarship Honorable mention: Tomas Henning, Jarrett Niestroy, and Parthi Pandit for their project “The Liminal” with professor Tom Brock
• The Brothers Finfer Scholarship recipients: Jil Arets, Molly Gildar, and Leigh Kadlec for their project “Hybrid-Linked,” with professors James Baird and Catherine Baker

The George Danforth Traveling Fellowship and the Jerrold Loebl Traveling Prize are awarded to students for their outstanding projects in the Advanced Options Studios to support travel to study and further enhance their education. Students were nominated by their studio professors and selected by this year’s jury. Honorable mention for the George Danforth Fellowship is awarded to:

• Carolina Gonzales and Abhimata Nursilo for their project “Franklin Dining Labs,” with professors Iker Gil & Michel Rojkind
• Samuel Kastan, Mark Schwandt, and Yun Woo Kim for their project “Mile Long Living Room” (with professors Brian Lee, Ann Lui, & Craig Reschke)

George Danforth Traveling Fellowship are:

• Elle Dils for her project “Just Keep Swimming,” with professor Leslie Johnson
• Cheok Chun Chong for his project “The Space(s) In Between,” with professors Vedran Mimica and Chris Groesbeck
• Lara Tekneyan for her project “Same Lake, Unequal Rates,” wiith professor Leslie Johnson
• Jorge Mayorga, Chu-Fan Tzou, Persefoni Stamatis for their project “Los Pinos Community Botanic Garden,” with professors Maria Villalobos, Dirk Denison, and Maurice Cox, in collaboration with Justin DeGroff, and Monterrey Tech Instructors Alejandro Echeverri, Diana Rivera, and Nelida Escobedo

Honorable mention for the Jerrold Loebl Traveling Prize is awarded to:

• Jonah Laduca for his project “Planar Things,” with Professor John Ronan
• Jerrold Loebl Traveling Prize: Helen Leach for her project “Töölönhalli,” with Professor Leslie Johnson

The AIA Chicago Foundation administers the juried Chicago Award in Architecture, which recognizes outstanding work by upper level students pursuing professional degrees in architecture in Chicago. One thousand dollars in prizes are awarded to projects of exceptional merit that are the work of 4th or 5th Year Bachelor of Architecture students or final year Master of Architecture students. The 2024 nominees from the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture are:

• “The Space(s) In Between” by Cheok Chun Chong (MIMICA & GROESBECK STUDIO)
• “Just Keep Swimming” by Elle Dils (JOHNSON STUDIO)
• “Planar Things” by Jonah LaDuca (RONAN STUDIO)
• “Same Lake, Unequal Rates” by Lara Tekneyan (JOHNSON STUDIO)
• “Mile Long Living Room” by Samuel Kastan, Yun Woo Kim & Mark Schwandt (LEE, LUI & RESCHKE STUDIO)

The Schiff Foundation Fellowship for Architecture, administered by the Department of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago, recognizes the work of young, talented architects. The $15,000 prize is awarded to a winning project of exceptional merit that is the work of graduates or undergraduates in their final year of study in architecture from a selection of projects nominated by the faculty at IIT, SAIC, or UIC. The 2024 nominees from the College of Architecture are:

• “Töölönhalli” by Helen Leach (JOHNSON STUDIO)
• “Planar Things” by Jonah LaDuca (RONAN STUDIO)
• “Same Lake, Unequal Rates” by Lara Tekneyan (JOHNSON STUDIO)
• “Franklin Dining Labs” by Abhimata Nursilo & Carolina Gonzales (GIL & ROJKIND STUDIO)
• “Mile Long Living Room” by Samuel Kastan, Yun Woo Kim & Mark Schwandt (LEE, LUI & RESCHKE STUDIO)

The Caldwell Medal is given to a 1st Year Master of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism student who exemplifies the commitment and convictions of the role of landscape architects in cities that distinguished Alfred Caldwell's public landscapes of democracy. This year, the Caldwell Medal is awarded to:

• Erik Norwood

The Landscape Architecture Book Award in History, Theory, and Criticism is awarded in recognition of a landscape architecture student's scholarly achievement as selected by the landscape architecture faculty. This year, the Book Award in History, Theory, and Criticism is awarded to:

• Quang Son Hai Truong

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Scholarship for Masters in Landscape Architecture is a tuition scholarship open to continuing landscape architecture graduate students. This year’s recipients are:

• Mohammad Arabmazar
• Mistika Jimenez
• Ruth Muniz
• Outstanding Contribution to Landscape Specialization: Omar Rodriguez

The Hilberseimer Medal is given to a 2nd year M.LA+U student who excels in critical thinking on city and regional planning and design that distinguished Ludwig Hilberseimer's career and work.

• Maurice Gaston

The Garden Club of Americas’ Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture/Landscape Architecture provides funding to a well-qualified graduate student or undergraduate student specializing in tropical horticulture, botany, or landscape architecture for the purpose of studying abroad at botanical institutions. This internationally competitive award goes to:

• Maurice Gaston

The Illinois Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects Awards of Honor or Merit are given to a graduating Master of Landscape Architecture student as nominated by the Landscape Architecture faculty. This year, a jury of Illinois ASLA leadership selected:

• Honor Award: Jorge Mayorga for the Honor Award
• Award of Merit: Juliana Cardozo Chamorro for the Award of Merit
• Outstanding Contribution to Community Service: Jorge Mayorga

The Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Olmsted Scholars program recognizes and supports students with exceptional leadership potential who are using ideas, influence, communication, service, and leadership to advance sustainable design and foster human and societal benefits. The Landscape Architecture Foundation has awarded a 2024 University Olmsted Scholarship to graduating MLA student:

• Jorge Mayorga

The Landscape Architecture Foundation's Honor Scholarship for Inclusive Community Design recognizes students who show commitment to underserved urban communities and addressing community-scale design that is safe, healthful, economically productive, and beautiful. 

• Jorge Mayorga
• Ph.D. Program Spirit Award: Aamena Bakarmom

This year’s award for the Best Defended Doctoral Dissertation in the 2024 academic year and the 18th Annual Architectural Research Centers Consortium | King Student Medal for Excellence in Architectural + Environmental Design Research, given to one student per ARCC member school, that acknowledges innovation, integrity, and scholarship in architectural and/or environmental design research:

• Alejandro Saldana Perales for “Parks take Command: Public Space centered Design Frameworks for Chicago’s Large-scale Private Developments”

The Graham Resource Center Book Award assists students in building their personal libraries. Applicants submit essays on the role books play in their learning, growth, and studio work, with awardees selected by this year's College of Architecture Library Committee: Chair Colleen Humer, Ryan Roark, Kindon Mills, Jonathan Miller, and Kim Soss

• This year’s honorable mention is: Darius Magada-Ward
• The Continuing Student Award recipients are: Catherine Economopoulos and Logan Plaisted
• The Graduating Student Award recipient is: Oana Tamas

The Peterhans Visual Training Prize is given by faculty in the Design Communications and Visual Media courses nominate students whose work demonstrates the visual training principles of Walter Peterhans, the noted architecture professor and colleague of Mies van der Rohe. We are very grateful to The Gertrude P. Kerbis Trust for their continued support of this award. Many thanks, as well, to the 2024 Peterhans Prize jury: Casey Jones, Julie Michiels, Kristin Jones, and Julian Kerbis Peterhans. The recipients of this year’s Peterhans Visual Training Project Prize are:

• Jusang Lee for their work in Visual Training I with professor Jones
• Abhimata Nursilo for their work in Architectural Photography with professor Zbaren
• Helen Leach for their work in Freehand Rendering with professor Majkrak
• Inga Mazur for their work in Reflective Recordings (Japan) with professor Wetzel

Faculty Awards

The studio faculty recognize students for going above and beyond the expectations of the studio by fostering a strong and positive studio culture throughout the year. The 2024 Studio Faculty Awards go to the following recipients:

• B.Arch. 1st Year: Anjana Ramachandran, JP McCullough, & Emiliano Godinez Scroggins
• B.Arch. 2nd Year: Andrew Nichols
• B.Arch. 3rd Year: Maddigan Cox
• B.Arch. 4th Year: Jlees Ahmed
• M.Arch. 1st Year: Yesenia Contreras, Elizabeth Escobar, Catherine Economopoulos, Mia Fitzpatrick, and Eunnyong Lee
• M.LA+U 1st Year: Calyn O’Banion
• M.LA+U 2nd Year: Jincheng Chen

The Peer Mentor Program unites groups of 1st year undergraduate students with qualifying students in their final year of study. In the fall semester of each year, the Peer Mentors conduct weekly afternoon field trips for the 1st year students to various locations around Chicago, focusing on discussion of the built environment, critical thinking, and sketchbook development. This program gives those entering our college a student mentor for their first semester of study and provides Peer Mentors with their first taste of teaching and mentoring. This year’s Peer Mentor Scholars are:

• Jlees Ahmed
• Jack Archer
• Gemma Brizzolara
• Ethan Casalins
• Matt Fabbioli
• Molly Gildar
• Nicholas Ledonne
• Breanne Long
• Soumya Pandit
• Julian Sarria
• 1st Alternate Leigh Kadlec
• 2nd Alternate Caleb Kwok

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards the Medal for Academic Excellence, formerly known as the Henry Adams Medal, for the top graduate of the NAAB-accredited B.Arch., M.Arch., or D.Arch program who has displayed general excellence in their program. This year’s recipients of the AIA Medal for Academic Excellence are:

• B.Arch. Medal: Jonah LaDuca
• M.Arch. Medal: Ezgi Yilmaz

The Alpha Rho Chi Medal, provided by the National Professional Fraternity for Architecture and the Allied Arts, is awarded to a graduating student who has shown outstanding professional leadership; provided generous service for the college; and has demonstrated remarkable potential for professional merit. This award is nominated and voted upon by college faculty. This year’s recipient of the Alpha Rho Chi Medal: 

• Jayhawk Reese-Julian