The Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) annual conference wrapped in Boston last month by honoring excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. Among the many award categories were the Student Design Competitions, where representatives from Endicott College, Virginia Tech and Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) took home top honors.
The four-day conference followed the theme “Human-Centered Design,” which was highlighted by architect Jack Travis’s keynote on the low rates of African American and Latino student enrollment in interior design and architecture programs in the United States.
The theme carried over into the honors, with Rebekah Radtke, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky School of Interiors, winning the Media Award for her text “Reimagining Living and Learning Spaces on Campus,” and the Book Award going to Dak Kopec, an associate professor at the University of Nevada–Las Vegas, for his tome Health and Well-Being for Interior Architecture.
Designer Vanessa Deleon and Design Works International founder and creative director Nancy Fire served as guest judges for the IDEC Student Design Competitions. Here’s the rundown of winners:
Graduate Studio
First: Alyssa Garvey, Endicott College
Second: Sarah Morgan Nix, Montana State University
Advanced Undergraduate
First (tie): Kelsey Muir and Kirsten L. Montalbano, Virginia Tech
Third: Yasaman Saeidi, RCC Institute of Technology
Honorable Mention: Alexandrea Sosalla, University of Minnesota
Beginning Undergraduate
First: Sasha Weleber, FIT
Second: Chloe Cudney, Kansas State University
Third: Dana Calinisan, British Columbia Institute of Technology
Find the full list of IDEC Award winners at the organization’s website.
