Thom Mayne Announces Winners of the 2013 Julius Shulman Emerging Talent Award

In our previous post, we reported about this year's winners of the Los Angeles Architectural Awards which were recognized this week at a public ceremony hosted by the Los Angeles Business Council. Also unique to this event was a student design contest among the top seven schools of architecture in Los Angeles. Teams of three students from each school participated in a three-day competition in February to design a Continuing Care Retirement Community that will promote social interaction and community on the MLK Medical Center Campus in the South Los Angeles community of Willowbrook.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas joined Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne to honor the team from Woodbury University in Burbank with the Julius Shulman Emerging Talent Award. Their design was titled “Augmented Connectivity – Bridging Neighborhood and Wellness.” Honorable Mentions went to the teams from CalPoly Pomona and USC.

2013 LABC Julius Shulman Emerging Talent Award Competition

Competition Details:

Over the course of the intensive weekend in February, the participating student teams visited the project site, created materials for a comprehensive design and presented their projects before a six-person jury.

The project for the 2013 Julius Shulman Emerging Talent Award Design Charrette is a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) serving the neighborhood of Willowbrook in the County of Los Angeles. The 205,700-square foot site for the 320-unit CCRC is located at the corner of Compton Avenue and 120th Street on the MLK Medical Center Campus. The site is part of the overall Master Plan for the Willowbrook MLK Wellness Community, and consists of three components: Independent Living, Assisted Living and a Community Center.

The schools participating in the charrette were:

• University of Southern California
• Otis College of Art and Design
• University of California, Los Angeles
• California State University, Long Beach
• California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
• Woodbury University
• Southern California Institute of Architecture

The charrette jury members were:

• Michael Anderson, AIA, President, BASE Architecture, Planning & Engineering, Inc.
• Frances Anderton, Host, DnA: Design & Architecture, KCRW; Producer, “To the Point” and “Which Way L.A.?”, KCRW
• Mia Lehrer, FASLA, President, Mia Lehrer + Associates
• Thom Mayne, FAIA, Design Director, Morphosis Architects
• Kirk Rose, AIA, DBIA, Managing Principal, HMC Architects
• Olivier Sommerhalder, AIA, Design Director, Gensler

Winning Team
School: Woodbury University
Team Members: Michael Sotona, Gabriella Colmenares, Jennifer Pope
Project Title: “Augmented Connectivity – Bridging Neighborhood and Wellness”

Honorable Mentions
School: California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Team Members: Juhee Park, Noam Saragosti, Andrew Lords

School: University of Southern California
Team Members: Jessica Chang, Yoon Her, Zack Matthews