Studio 804 at KU wins $25,000 national architecture grand prize

LAWRENCE -- Studio 804 Inc., a nonprofit organization at the University of Kansas, has won the $25,000 grand prize in the 2003 Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy competition offered by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

The council announced the winner during its recent conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Two courses taught by Kent Spreckelmeyer and Dan Rockhill, both KU professors of architecture and urban design, compose the two-semester graduate-level experience that Rockhill created. During the fall semester, Spreckelmeyer teaches a preparatory management course that leads into the actual construction in the spring semester, taught by Rockhill. The two courses synthesize practice with the construction industry. KU's Studio 804 has designed and constructed a house in Lawrence for each of the past five years. Upon completion, the houses were sold to buyers meeting income qualifications.

The council's prize jury recognized the studio's long-term contributions to the Lawrence community, its innovative restoration efforts and its emphasis on sustainability and accessibility issues.

Jurors described Studio 804 as raising the bar of student design quality and buildability. Spreckelmeyer said this is the seventh year the class has completed a full-scale project and the fifth year the students have built a house. Other projects have included restoring the roof on the Barber School at Clinton Lake and constructing a canopy behind Marvin Hall, the home of the KU School of Architecture and Urban Design.

Rockhill had estimated the house constructed last spring would cost about $160,000, but construction costs were kept to about $80,000 through the use of recycled materials as well as discounts and donations by local businesses.

In the past few years, more architecture schools across the country have started to incorporate design-build programs in their curriculum, sometimes seeing KU as a model school.

"We've almost become the poster child for a really thorough and unique experience in synthesizing education in architecture," Rockhill noted earlier this year.

The prize recognizes efforts creatively linking education and practice. Architecture schools with degree programs accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board were invited to submit established projects, completed or in progress by the end of the fall 2002 semester, that demonstrated creative initiatives that bring together academia and the profession within the studio curriculum. Former council president Peter Steffian laid the groundwork for the competition and continues to play an integral role in its search for outstanding programs.

A jury comprising members of the council's Practice Education Task Force and five deans of NAAB-accredited architectural programs, chosen by the council's regional leadership, selected six overall winners from 49 entries.

Other NCARB Prize-winning submissions each received a $7,500 cash award. They are Clemson University School of Architecture's Center in Charleston, S.C.; Mississippi State University; a combined entry from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Washington; the University of Maryland; and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Projects from Yale University and the University of Puerto Rico received honorable mention.

Photographs of this year's project in progress and previous Studio 804 projects are available online at www.studio804.com.