by Center for Architecture
In 2021, the Center for Architecture and AIA New York have awarded a total of $102,500 in academic scholarships via their joint Grants and Scholarships Program.
Each year, the Center for Architecture, in partnership with AIANY, awards scholarships and grant awards throughout the year for architectural students, architectural student journals, and practicing architects. Scholarships are open to New York City students and grants are open to applicants nationwide. The program’s goal is make architecture education accessible to all and diversify research in architecture, while connecting students and emerging professionals to AIANY members and initiatives. In recent years, the Center for Architecture has expanded its program to provide more scholarships to a broader range of students pursuing the study of architecture.
Center for Architecture Design Scholarship
The Center for Architecture’s namesake scholarship, the Center for Architecture Design Scholarship, is targeted at students seeking their first professional degree in architecture or a related design discipline from an accredited school within New York State. In 2021, the Center for architecture awarded two merit-based scholarships totaling $15,000.
- Ava Sierra Heckman was awarded $7,500 to pursue her Master of Architecture at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Having lived in both rural and urban environments, her work expresses her sensitivity to nature and her surroundings. Heckman hopes to pursue a career in architecture with a focus on understanding how surroundings impact the way we move, think, and live.
- Abby Stein was awarded $7,500 to continue her studies at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at City College of New York’s Master of Landscape Architecture program. Stein grew up in Memphis, TN and received her Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College in Studio Art. Her current work investigates how the intricacies of our environmental systems can inform our building decisions, from single-celled organisms to our global concrete production chain.
Allwork Scholarship
The Allwork Scholarship supports architecture students with demonstrated financial need seeking their first professional degree in architecture or a related design discipline from an accredited school within New York State. In 2021, the Center for Architecture awarded five $7,500 merit-based scholarships totaling $37,500 to undergraduate and graduate students in architecture.
- Carlos Blanco was awarded $7,500 towards his Master of Architecture at the Yale University School of Architecture. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from University of California, Berkeley and has interned at MBH Architects and Noll & Tam Architects. Blanco is interested in addressing the inequalities faced by many communities by designing better housing, infrastructure systems, and services.
- Denice Guillermo was awarded $7,500 towards her Master of Architecture at the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning. Guillermo serves as a residential advisor on campus in the Architecture Living-Learning Community, providing mentoring and guidance to first- and second-year undergraduates. Denice’s work reflects on the cultural challenges she and her family faced as immigrants to the Unites States from the Philippines.
- Sanjana Lahiri was awarded $7,500 in the pursuit of a Bachelor of Architecture at Cooper Union. Lahiri is the Chair of the Student Lecture series, co-founder of the Cooper Union’s Architecture Lobby Chapter, and an organizer of Cooper’s Climate Coalition, a student-led group advocating for climate action and justice across all aspects of the Institution. One of her projects was acclaimed for making visible the relationship between power, knowledge, architecture, and subject production in Kashmir.
- Michael Sluchevsky was awarded $7,500 as a third-year student at Cooper Union’s Bachelor of Architecture program. Sluchevsky’s studies investigate the spatial and geometric implications of the architectural double. While completing his second year, he was recruited for the Introduction to Architecture Summer Program for high school and college students.
- Lucia Song was awarded $7,500 for her graduate studies at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, pursuing a Master of Architecture. Her work draws on her interest in creating spaces for inclusion and learning by creating connections.
Walter A. Hunt, Jr. Scholarship
The Walter A. Hunt, Jr. Scholarship was founded to promote and encourage the study of architecture by New York City public high school students. The scholarship provides financial assistance to supplement tuition and related costs during their freshman and sophomore years at a NAAB-accredited school of architecture. The scholarship honors Hunt’s dedication to the field of architecture and his wish to specifically support New York City public high school students. In 2021, the Center for Architecture awarded three merit-based scholarships totaling $45,500 to high school students pursuing degrees in architecture.
- Nozima Nurullaeva, a graduate of Stuyvesant High School, will begin her five-year Bachelor of Architecture program at the Pratt Institute with $20,000 in tuition support towards her freshman and sophomore years.
- Brittanie Chen, a graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School, will pursue a five-year Bachelor of Architecture program at Cornell University with $20,000 in tuition support towards her freshman and sophomore years.
- Md Hoque, a graduate of Stuyvesant High School, will pursue a Bachelor of Architecture at Syracuse University. He received an Honorable Mention Award of $5,000 for tuition support during his freshman year.
Thank you to our 2021 Scholarship Committee:
Barry George Bergdoll, Hon. AIANY, Columbia University (Co-chair)
Kimberly Yao, AIA, Architecture Research Office (Co-chair)
Nina Cooke John, AIA, Studio Cooke John
Eve B. Klein, Assoc. AIA, User Design Information Group, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Carol Loewenson, FAIA, LEED AP, Mitchell Giurgola Architects
Sara Lopergolo, FAIA, Selldorf Architects
Hilary M. Sample, FAIA, MOS Architects
Catherine S. Seavitt Nordenson, AIA, Catherine Seavitt Studio
Sharon E. Sutton, PhD, FAIA, Parsons School of Design
Gia Wolff, AIA, NOMA, NCARB, Princeton University School of Architecture
Thank you to the Walter A. Hunt Jr. Committee:
Judy Hunt, wife of Walter Hunt
Keith Frome Rosen, AIA
Madeline Burke-Vigeland, AIA, Gensler
Joshua Katz, AIA, Gensler
Ambrose Aliaga-Kelly, Gensler
Leslie Jabs, AIA, Gensler