WSU Professor’s Design Project Honored with AIA Award

SPOKANE, Wash. – A design project by Nancy Clark Brown, an associate professor of interior design with Washington State University Spokane’s Interdisciplinary Design Institute, recently received the Small Project Practitioners Knowledge Community award of the American Institute of Architects.

The Small Project Practitioners Knowledge Community is comprised of AIA members who share an interest in small project work and have a desire to collaborate to deepen their understanding of such ventures.  

Brown’s project, Murphy Residence, was one of nine selected from more than 80 submissions representing a wide range of project types, styles, scales, and construction values, including commercial, whimsical, traditional, and cutting-edge.

The project involved the design of a new home for an artist and her child, which was characterized by the concept of sanctuary.

 “The goals for the client were to create a timeless place with contrasting contemporary and historic elements, modest in scale, with space for the exhibition of a growing art collection,” said Brown.

She looked close to home for inspiration, using as a model a quiet, modest barn, such as can be found on any rolling hill of the Palouse. Her design featured open, unobstructed social spaces and defined and enclosed private spaces, each with active, purposeful storage.

The jury, which consisted of members of the AIA Committee on Design Advisory Group, lauded the elegant simplicity and crisp and expressive forms of Brown’s solution. One jury comment read, “Well defined, wonderful private and public space for both members of the household. A lucky mom and child to share these thoughtful spaces. The client/architect cooperation is apparent and admired.”

Brown received her award certificate during the awards program at the 2005 AIA National Convention in Las Vegas earlier this year. During the convention, her project was part of a formal display of winning projects and was shown at Small Projects Practitioner’s events. Images of the project were also featured in the Small Project Practitioners eJournal.

Brown holds bachelor’s degrees in science and architecture from WSU and a master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she serves as the undergraduate adviser coordinator and is involved in several graduate student thesis committees.

The interior design program at WSU was ranked eighth in the nation in 2005 by Design Intelligence magazine in its annual survey of design professionals. The program is the only undergraduate program in Washington accredited by the Foundation for Interior Design Education Research. It was also named one of the top ten programs in the nation in 1997 by the International Interior Design Association for preparing students to enter the commercial interior design field.

WSU offers what is believed to be the nation’s only articulated bachelor’s/master’s degree program in interior design, allowing students to complete both degrees in five years with an intensive course of study. Undergraduate interior design students begin their studies at the Pullman campus, and complete the third and fourth years of their program in Spokane.

There they study with students in architecture, construction management and landscape architecture at the Interdisciplinary Design Institute. The design institute advances knowledge to enhance the quality of people’s lives in the built and natural environment through interdisciplinary instruction, research and community service in design and construction.

The design institute’s scholarship focuses particularly on the interactions of people and place; history, theory, and criticism; and service learning through community design projects. Faculty and students at the design institute regularly win state, national, and international design competitions for their work.

WSU Spokane is the urban campus of Washington State University, a land-grant research university founded in 1890. The campus features advanced studies and research in health sciences and health professions, the design disciplines, education, social and policy sciences, and science and technology. WSU is ranked by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a research extensive and doctoral-granting university.

Additional Information:

–Interior Design Program: www.spokane.wsu.edu/academic/design/interior_design_overview.asp

–Interdisciplinary Design Institute: www.idi.spokane.wsu.edu

–WSU Interior Design Program Ranked Among Nation’s Top 10 (Jan. 6, 2005): wsunews.wsu.edu/detail.asp?StoryID=4960

–WSU Spokane: www.spokane.wsu.edu