Contact: Jim Gardner, Executive Director of Communications, (973) 596-3443
Contact: Carla Anderson, Director of Public Relations, (973) 596-3436
Washington, D.C. High School Student Wins College Scholarship in National Architecture Design Competition NEWARK -- Monday, May 4, 1998 -- Eighteen-year-old Adam Frampton of Washington, D.C., turned a personal spring design project into a five-year college scholarship as the winner of the 1998 New Jersey Institute of Technology Architectural Design Competition for High School Students.
Frampton’s design of a branch library netted him a five-year, full-tuition scholarship to NJIT’s School of Architecture valued at $55,000. His design was selected from a field of 54 entries from across the country. The competition drew more than 1,000 registrations from 48 states.
Jonathan Ninnis of Mahopac, N.Y. claimed the second prize: one five-year half-tuition scholarship to NJIT’s School of Architecture valued at $27,500. Prizes of $250 were awarded to Ben Blowers of Ramsey, N.J.; John Burton of Blackwood, N.J., Charlie Chaiwan of Bloomfield, N.J., and Mercedes Castro of McAllen, Texas.
This year’s challenge, "A Branch Library for Your Community," required students to design an accessible and useful complement to the established public library that services a local community. In the branch library, consideration must have been given to the various methods in which information is now obtained. The branch library becomes an extension of the main library but with the ability to complement the services offered by it.
Project submission included photographs of the proposed site and drawings of the site plan, floor plans with spaces labeled and identified, sketches of the building’s main entrance, building cross section drawing, and an axonometric/perspective drawing of the main reading room and related spaces.
"The first prize winner was a unanimous choice in terms of his completeness and the organization of his spaces and the clarity of his presentation," said Craig Konyk, competition coordinator and a School of Architecture special lecturer. "It was exceptional in terms of its resolution of geometry and layout in the way the public would enter the branch library and use it and how it was sited."
Frampton is a senior at Sidwell Friends School in downtown Washington, D.C., and has taken an introduction course to architecture taught by Peter M. Donovan, a residential and construction architect in the city. Donovan acted as Frampton’s faculty advisor on the project.
Frampton worked this past summer at an architectural firm in Colorado.
"He took my course as an independent study and had been looking for a spring design project to do on his own when he found out about the NJIT School of Architecture competition," Donovan said.
"He designed a low-rise building adjacent to the towers of a local radio station. He drew his theme from that, with the new concept of library science being delivered through the Internet and computers.
"Peter is one of my best architecture students. He has a genuine interest in it and one of the best to come along in my class."
Ninnis is a junior at Mahopac High School, which is located 45 minutes from Danbury, Conn. His interest in architecture sprang from helping out his father, a dentist, with remodeling projects around the house.
"I learned about the competition from my drafting class. In school, I’m always working on minor projects. I decided it would be exciting to get knee-deep in something and go all-out," said Ninnis, a former varsity wrestler and club ice hockey player.
"What made this competition so interesting was that the library in my town had been talking about expanding and they were interested in new ideas rather than knocking it down. I talked to the director of the library and what was needed," Ninnis said.
Ninnis’ design included a glass wall with a view of the nearby lake and the mountains beyond.
"The mountains are the defining point. My idea was a building with a flow through it. I doubled the height of the room with a cathedral ceiling and skylights. I also designed different computer areas for different uses, such as Internet, cataloging and magazine referencing."
The NJIT National Architecture Design Competition for High School Students, now in its ninth year, was the first national design competition for high school students to be sponsored by a school of architecture. Past design themes include a café, fire station, youth community center, a movie theater, kindergarten, and a visitors center.
The competition is open to all citizens and permanent residents of the United States that have an interest in architecture and are currently attending high school. Students must have a teacher from their school sponsor their project, and submit an affidavit stating the work was unassisted.
The NJIT School of Architecture is the fifth largest architecture school in the United States and offers both an accredited Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degree program. The School is a national leader in the integration of computer-aided design into the studio curriculum.
NJIT is a public research university enrolling nearly 8,200 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students in 76 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science. U.S. News and World Report's "1998 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges" ranked NJIT among the top 175 national universities. Money Magazine's "Best College Buys 1998" rated NJIT as the sixth best value among U.S. science and technology schools.
-end- #3362{Back to News Releases Index}