Rankings + Awards National Recognition for College, Faculty and Students

National and significant regional and statewide awards are a mainstay for the College of Architecture and Design and our professors and students.

Here are some of the recent kudos:

Rankings

Governor’s Chair for Energy + Urbanism: AMIE

  • 2017 Architect Magazine R+D Award
  • 2017 Fast Co World-Changing Ideas Finalist
  • 2016 Architizer’s A+ People’s Choice Award for Best 3D-Printed Building in the World
  • 2016 U.S. Green Building Council Emerald Green Building Innovation Award
  • 2016 Fast Co Innovation by Design Honorable Mention

Design/Build Program

  • Named in Top 7 by ACSA Study Architecture in 2016

Design/Build Program: Beardsley Farm Education Center

  • AIA Tennessee Design Award of Excellence, the highest award
  • 2017 Brick in Architecture Gold Award from Brick Industry Association
  • 2016 ACSA Collaborative Practice Award for Jennifer Akerman and Bob French
  • 2016 AIA East Tennessee Honor Award, People’s Choice Award and Members’ Choice Award

Design/Build Program: Appalachia Outreach/Red Bird Water Kiosk

  • 2016 C. Peter Magrath/W.K. Kellogg Exemplary Program award from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and presented jointly by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Engagement Scholarship Association
  • 2015 AIA East Tennessee Design Award of Merit

Design/Build Program: A New Norris House

  • 2013 American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Award
  • Named in the nation’s 鈥淭op 10 Green Projects鈥 in 2013 by the AIA Committee on the Environment
  • 2013 Design Build Award from the ACSA
  • 2012 Residential Architect Merit Award for Single-Family Housing
  • 2011 Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education from the National Council of Architectural Registration Board
  • 2009 Environmental Protection Agency鈥檚 People, Prosperity and the Planet Sustainable Design Competition Award
  • One of the first in Tennessee to earn LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in 2009

Design/Build Program: Living Light House

  • 2012 Award of Excellence, Merit Citation, AIA Tennessee
  • 2012 Chancellor’s Citation for Success in Multidisciplinary Research, UT
  • 2011 American Institute of Graphic Artists’ Making the Case Award
  • 2011 (Re)Design Award, Sustainable Design nonprofit, AIGA
  • 2010 Finalist, Wise Award, Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community

Student Awards

Our students continue to amaze us and excel in national and international competitions.

Here are some of the most recent awards our students have earned:

  • Rachel Hunt, an Interior Architecture student, was named聽Highly Commended in the international 2017 Undergraduate Awards, often called the “junior Nobel Prize,” for her research using bioluminescent organisms to inform lighting decisions that use the circadian rhythm, resulting in a more productive work environment. Rachel received a $5,000 award to travel to Ireland to receive her award and collaborate with other student researchers.
  • In 2017, four students in the School of Landscape Architecture earned a top national award from the American Society of Landscape Architects for their publication,聽. The Award of Excellence, which is the society鈥檚 highest award, was given to students Lindsey Bradley, Erica Phannamvong, Kyra Wu and Sarah Newton, who are advised by Asst. Professor Brad Collett.
  • Aubrey Bader, Mike Lidwin and Autumn Ragland, Architecture students, are Haslam Scholars, members of the university’s most prestigious honors program, which admits only 15 students annually.
  • Dillon Dunn, Architecture student, was awarded the $20,000 Aydelott Travel Award in 2017, a prestigious scholarship that funds a summer-long journey to study architecture in four countries across Europe and Asia. Catherine Dozier earned the inaugural Aydelott Travel Award in 2016.
  • Rachel Elbon and Adam Smith, both students in Architecture, were named winners of the 2016-2017聽, a national design competition hosted by the AIA Committee on the Environment and the ACSA.
  • Mary Morgan Smith, Interior Architecture student, was awarded a 2017聽, a national competition that awards a substantial scholarship and internship with Gensler. Taylor Odom, a 2017 Interior Architecture graduate, and Erin Collins, a 2016 graduate, earned the scholarship in 2016 and 2015, respectively.
  • Mustapha Williams, Architecture student, earned first place in the 2017 Gensler Diversity Scholarship. In addition to the monetary scholarship, Williams interned with Gensler during the summer. In 2013, Tabitha Darko received the prestigious honor.
  • Michelle Blackwell and Rachel Larson, Architecture students, were two of 60 honorees nationwide selected to participate in聽, a program that convenes top AIAS members at Walt Disney World Resort to work with Disney’s Imagineers.
  • Cullen Sayegh and Samantha Sowell, students in聽Kevin Stevens鈥檚 Architecture studio, earned an honorable mention in the 17th Annual聽Steel Design Student Competition聽from the ACSA and the American Institute of Steel Construction in 2017. This is the third year in a row we’ve placed in the international competition.
  • Cayce Davis, a 2017 Architecture graduate, was named a 2016 Torchbearer. The Torchbearer Award is the highest honor given to a student at UT in recognition of academic achievement, leadership and service to others.
  • Students and faculty in Landscape Architecture participated in the聽聽Case Study Investigation program, which contributed to the CSI program earning a 2015 American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Honor Award in Research.
  • In 2014, more than 20 students participating in the Green Oak Project traveled to Washington, D.C., where they won the second phase of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency鈥檚 P3: People, Prosperity, and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability.

Faculty Awards

Our esteemed faculty have received numerous national and significant regional awards for excellence in teaching and research.

Some of the most recent honors include these:

  • The college now has nine Fulbright Scholars on our faculty. Read about Liz Teston and Brad Collett.
  • Hansjoerg Goeritz, Architecture, and a professional colleague and former faculty member, Matt Hall,聽guest-edited the September 2017 issue聽of the renowned international architectural magazine,聽.
  • Avigail Sachs, Architecture and Landscape Architecture, published the book聽Environmental Design: Architecture, Politics and Science, 1937-1973, and in recognition, received a 2017 Society of Architectural Historians’ Mellon Author Award for early-career scholars.
  • In 2017, Jennifer Akerman and Bob French, Architecture, were named recipients of the ACSA’s Collaborative Practice Award for Beardsley Farm Education Center.
  • Tricia Stuth, Architecture, was elected to the AIA College of Fellows in 2017. In 2015, Scott Poole, dean, was elected as a Fellow. The college now has six AIA Fellows on staff.
  • In 2016, Ted Shelton and Tricia Stuth, Architecture, were chosen to serve as Affiliated Fellows of the American Academy in Rome then were selected as the 2016 Virginia Design Medalists.
  • Marleen Kay Davis and T.K.Davis, Architecture, were named co-recipients of the 2016聽聽Samuel Morgan Lifetime Service Award for Contribution to Architecture in the Public Realm.
  • The Design Futures Council named James Rose, Architecture, one of the Top 25 Most Admired Educators for 2016. Ryann Aoukar, Interior Architecture, was a 2015 Top 25 Most Admired Educator, and Dean Scott Poole was named to the list in both 2012 and 2014.
  • In 2015, Marleen Kay Davis, Architecture, received the AIA East Tennessee Gold Medal, and in 2014, John McRae, Architecture, received the distinction.
  • Architecture’s Brian Ambroziak, Katherine Ambroziak, Ted Shelton and Tricia Stuth earned a National AIA Award for their transformation of a rural West Tennessee homestead.
  • T.K. Davis, Architecture, received the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Award in 2014.
  • Ted Shelton, Architecture, was named a Fellow of the Institute for Urban Design in 2012.
  • In 2003, Julie Beckman, Student Development, and Keith Kaseman were chosen to design the Pentagon Memorial to commemorate the 9/11 terrorist attacks.