WMU interior designers bring home national honors

KALAMAZOO—Western Michigan University took home four awards, including first place for the University's new Charles C. and Lynn L. Zhang Legacy Collections Center, from a national interior design competition for higher education facilities.

WMU interior designers Sheri Harper and Julie Lenczycki were honored for their work out of a total of 13 awards given at the Association of University Interior Designers conference held this year at the University of Texas-Austin.

About 40 people from universities from across the country competed in this year's conference with winners selected by a panel of judges from the Austin-area architects and design firms.

Sheri Harper

Harper, AUID board publicist, won three third place awards for remodel under $50,000 of the Seibert Administration Building women's third floor restroom, remodel between $50,000 and $150,000 of the Bill Brown Team Meeting Room in the lower level of the Bill Brown Football Alumni Center and remodel over $150,000 of the College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Advising Office. 

Julie Lenczycki

Lenczycki, a past president of the Association of University Interior Designers and a current member of the organization's board, won first place for new construction for the Zhang Legacy Collections Center. Besides the design honor, she also claimed the "Seriously" award, a fun award that shows something on campus that was done without design input that is funny.