Three students win Michigan interior design awardsMay 1, 2010 KALAMAZOO--Three Western Michigan students brought home top awards in their divisions after competing in the Student Design Competition of the Michigan chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers. Claire VanBemmelen of Ypsilanti, Mich., and Kirsten Strauss of Milford, Mich., won first and second place, respectively, in the senior division. Elizabeth Riggan of Farmington Hills, Mich., won first place in the junior division. All three are majoring in interior design. The awards were presented during Student Career Days, held last month in the Michigan Design Center in Troy. Students participating in the 2010 competition were asked to design an assigned project over the course of one eight-hour session. This year's assignment involved the state of Michigan and a resort community's business association. It required the students to design a tourist welcome center located in southwest Michigan, the northern Lower Peninsula, the Upper Peninsula, or the Southeast Michigan-Thumb region. The competitors were judged on the creativity of the design and ideas they presented, graphic quality of their presentation boards, functional quality of their design concepts, quality of their lighting designs, and sustainable nature of the materials, fixtures, furnishings and equipment that they selected. The American Society of Interior Designers is the oldest, largest and leading professional organization for interior designers. Its more than 36,000 members in the United States and Canada include interior design students, practicing interior designers and industry partner representatives. For more information, contact Bernard S. Proeschl, associate professor of family and consumer sciences and interior design program coordinator, at bernard.proeschl@wmich.edu or (269) 387-3724. Media contact: Jeanne Baron, (269) 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu WMU News |
