Carnegie Mellon Architecture Awards
Recognizing excellence, supporting innovation
Firth of Forth, Scotland. By Graham Murtha (B.Arch '25), recipient of the 2022 Gindroz Prize for Summer Travel and Study in Europe for the proposal “Studies of stone architecture in Ireland, Scotland and England.”
Carnegie Mellon Architecture offers the following awards, prizes, scholarships and design competitions to students, faculty and alumni of the school.
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Student Awards
Carnegie Mellon Architecture offers awards for students in the fall and spring semesters of each academic year. More information is available on each award's page linked below.
Fall Awards
Project & Internship Support
- Burdett Assistantship | B.Arch & M.Arch Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
- Alwin Cassens, Jr. Memorial Fund in Architecture | Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
- Measuring & Monitoring Services, Inc. Internship Fund | Undergraduate Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
Research Award
- Ferguson Jacobs Prize in Architecture | Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2025
Sustainable Design Award
- Ralph H. Burt Jr. and Alva L. Hill Scholarship | B.Arch & M.Arch Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
Travel Awards
- Gindroz Prize for Summer Travel and Study in Europe | Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
- Luther S. Lashmit and Louis F. Valentour Traveling Scholarships | Student Awards | Call for Applications Fall 2024
Spring Awards
Design & Representation Awards
- EPIC Metals Competition | 3rd-Year B.Arch Student Award | Next round Spring 2025
- John Knox Shear Award | 4th-Year B.Arch Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
Professional Promise Award
- Stewart L. Brown Memorial Scholarship | 4th-Year B.Arch Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
Public Interest Design Awards
- George W. Anderson, Jr. Award | Graduate Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
- David Lewis Community Engagement Design Scholarship | Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
Real Estate Award
- Deller Prize in Sustainable Architecture and Real Estate | 4th-Year B.Arch Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
Sustainability Award
- Payette Prize in Building Science | Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
Travel Award
- Master of Architecture Travel Awards | M.Arch Student Award | Next round Spring 2025
Graduation Award
- Alumni Design Award | 5th-Year B.Arch Student Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
Commencement Awards
Carnegie Mellon Architecture recognizes the outstanding achievement of graduating students through its annual commencement awards program. The winners are announced during the annual Diploma Ceremony.
- Alumni Design Award: This award is granted by the faculty to a graduating student in the Bachelor of Architecture program. The award recognizes exceptional design and representation as demonstrated through studio work within the last two years of the program.
- Alpha Rho Chi Medal: This award recognizes graduating architecture students for their leadership and service and what they offer the future of the profession. One graduate from either the Bachelor of Architecture program or the Master of Architecture program is eligible to receive this award each year.
- AIA Medal for Academic Excellence: This is awarded to the top-ranking graduate in each architecture program accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. Graduating students in the Bachelor of Architecture program and the Master of Architecture program are eligible for the award.
- ARCC King Student Medal Program for Excellence in Architectural + Environmental Research: This award is given by the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) based upon criteria that acknowledge innovation, integrity and scholarship in architectural and/or environmental design research.
Faculty Awards
Fall Awards
Research Awards
- Ferguson Jacobs Prize in Architecture | Faculty Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
- Isabel Sophia Liceaga Discretionary Fund | Faculty Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
- PJ Dick Innovation Fund: Faculty Grants Program | Faculty Award | Call for Applications Fall 2024
Alumni Award
Travel Award
- Delbert Highlands Travel Fellowship | Alumni Award | Call for Applications Spring 2025
External Awards & Scholarships
The following awards and scholarships are available from organizations outside the school.
- AIA Pennsylvania Emerging Professionals ARE Grant: This award is dedicated to the remembrance of Paula Maynes, AIA. Her inspirational legacy of mentorship, service to the profession, stellar work ethic and collaborative nature are the qualities AIA Pennsylvania seeks to develop in ARE Grant recipients. The award provides a grant to students graduating with a degree in architecture to cover the cost of testing for three (3) divisions of the Architect Registration Examination® (ARE®).
- Applications are due in August of each year.
- John Belle Travel Fellowship: This is a $10,000 annual award by the Beyer Blinder Belle Foundation in honor of John Belle, FAIA, RIBA, Hon. PhD, a founding partner of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners. John devoted his career to the public realm — the planning, design, restoration and adaptive reuse of public buildings and urban centers. The purpose of the Fellowship is to expand students’ understanding of the public realm in existing cities through travel and research and how the knowledge gained might be applied to contemporary urban needs and design challenges.
- Applications are due in February of each year.
- John Stewardson Memorial Fellowship in Architecture: This is an annual competition of the seven accredited architecture programs in Pennsylvania. The fellowship provides a $10,000 traveling award for a young architect to study architecture abroad. Each entrant has ten days to complete a solo design exercise for submission to the jury. Upon completion, the fellowship recipient must give a public formal presentation of their travels.
- The competition registration and brief are issued in January of each year.
Archived Awards
The following awards were previously available from Carnegie Mellon Architecture. These awards have now concluded and archived below.
- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) Internship: This was a summer job opportunity for Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) students at one of the most noted international architecture practices in the world. The internship provided two (2) paid summer positions in the firm’s New York office for exceptionally talented and dedicated rising fifth-year students in the B.Arch program.
- Margaret B. Gruger (A’41) Faculty Fund: The fund was established to support the needs of the school and its faculty. To that end, the Head of the School solicited project proposals from the faculty that advanced the mission and reputation of the School. Upon completion of the project, the recipients of funding were required to make a public presentation of their work to the School community.