Baylor Students Win Multiple Awards at Interior Design "Boot Camp"

November 1, 2011

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Baylor University students won four first place awards, including two team awards, at a Dallas Interior Design Boot Camp known as the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Texas Chapter 2011 Student Symposium. The students competed over Baylor's "Fall Break" weekend on Oct. 14 and 15 and won after contending with other Texas universities, including the University of Texas and Texas Tech University.
Senior Kailey Rawson of Colleyville, Texas, won first place in the "One Unique Space" category for her "Retail Kiosk" design. Rawson created a kiosk design for a mall based on inspiration from a well-known architectural designer, said Adair Bowen, Ph.D., the program coordinator for the interior design program at Baylor.
Rawson also was awarded a $2,000 scholarship based on her academic merit, financial need and involvement in the interior design profession.
Senior Christine Clark of McKinney, Texas, won first place in the "Residential" category for her "Low Country Project," which she designed in her fall 2010 studio class.
"The overall project was based on a couple from Charleston, S.C.," Clark said. "The husband was handicapped, so everything had to follow ADA (American Disabilities Act) standards. The inspiration of the project was a youthful retreat of a child's tree house. The husband was a landscape architect and the wife was an artist, who drew inspiration for her art from nature, so incorporating the outside into their home felt very natural."
Clark, senior Jan Jordan of Georgetown, Texas and senior Natalie Rosato of Brownwood, Texas, also won first place in a collaboration category for their "Pediatric Eye Clinic" design, which the team designed in their spring 2011 commercial studio class.

"I really enjoyed being able to work as a team," Clark said. "We worked well together, and it made the overall experience really enjoyable. The project itself was based on a Pediatric Eye Clinic in McLennan County. Services at the clinic were free, so the design had to be functional for adolescents of all social and economic backgrounds."

"A lot of time went into researching the clinic to see how it served the community best," she said. "We wanted it to be comfortable for different age group, incorporate up-to-date technology, and be environmentally friendly. We named the clinic 'Sprout,' and from there it served for the inspiration of the design."

According to the students' project description, the "Sprout" clinic is based on the "needs of the growing child by offering optical needs and engaging activities that respect the varying ages." The clinic also was designed to meet the needs of children's cultural development and social changes.
For Baylor's second team win, Clark collaborated with interior design students from other Texas universities to win the "Speed Charette" onsite competition. In this competition, students are given about an hour to develop a design concept for a given scenario. Clark said this year's scenario was to design a lounge or coffee shop area for a veterans' center.

Along with award presentations and collaborative onsite competitions, Bowen said the ASID Student Symposium is a career day in which students are given the chance to network with other interior design professionals, tour design showrooms and listen to panelists and a keynote speaker.
Bowen said the interior design department, housed in the Mary Gibbs Jones Family and Consumer Sciences Building, is proud of the students' accomplishments and hopes to see more in the future.
"If you came over to the FCS building right now...we have posters of all of our students and site winners for the past years, and it shows our students are competitive among their peers in the region," Bowen said. "Competing with other programs like the University of Texas, Oklahoma University and Texas Tech has a tremendous impact, and it is a very positive thing."
For more information about Baylor's Interior Design Program, visit https://www.baylor.edu/fcs/index.php?id=62109.
by Carmen Galvan, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805