Gindroz Prize for Summer Travel and Study in Europe

Carnegie Mellon Architecture will announce the call for applications for the next award cycle in the fall of 2025.

The Gindroz Prize for Summer Travel and Study in Europe was originally established by the Marilyn and Ray Gindroz Foundation and formerly known as the Gindroz Prize for Travel. Its mission is to enrich lives and enhance education through travel and the study of traditional architecture, urbanism and music in Europe.

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The award provides a prize to each of the following: one (1) School of Architecture student, and one (1) School of Music student pursuing study in European towns and cities. BXA Architecture students are also eligible to apply. The prize recognizes the life-changing potential of becoming immersed in a culture, language and environment that is different from one’s own. The prize emphasizes both intellectual and craft development.

Applicants must submit a travel proposal that includes independent experiences in at least three towns or cities of major cultural and architectural significance. Applicants should demonstrate an understanding of the proposed locations and their relevance to the specific subjects of study. The proposal must also include:

• A detailed schedule of proposed travel
• A detailed, one-page, line-item budget
• A portfolio of hand drawings and sketches in various media

During the summer in Europe, Architecture students produce hand drawings and analyses, and Music students attend performances and seek performance experience or training. Musicians are encouraged to experience the visual arts, especially the urban spaces of European cities, while architects are encouraged to attend musical performances. After their return, award recipients are required to present a three-minute digital presentation of their work, which can be either scans of selected drawings or recordings of performances, or a combination of both. Presentations are due on the first day of classes of the fall semester following their experience abroad.

Fall 2024 Jury: Joshua Lee (Chair), Doug Cooper, Francesca Torello, Tommy Yang

Fall 2024 Award Amount: Proposals of up to $10,000 will be accepted (one (1) available) 
Note: The school will fund the proposed amount up to $10,000. For example, if the proposal is for $6,500 then that amount will be awarded. If the proposed amount is over $10,000, then only $10,000 would be awarded.

This award is open to Carnegie Mellon Architecture students and BXA Architecture students in the second or third year of a four-year undergraduate program, in the third or fourth year of a five-year undergraduate program, and master’s students in their first year. All recipients must have a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.

Carnegie Mellon Architecture will announce the call for applications for the next award cycle in the fall of 2025.

• 2024: Tai Le (M.Arch ’26), Proposal: Local Architecture Reflections in Venice, Grado and Camargue Laguna
• 2023: David Vargas (B.Arch '26), Proposal: Canal Cities of the Netherlands and Belgium
• 2022 (fall): Graham Murtha (B.Arch '25), Proposal: Studies of stone architecture in Ireland, Scotland and England
• 2022 (spring): Meghan Pisarcik (B.A. '21, M.Arch '24), Proposal: Drawing Portugal: Architectural Experience Captured by Hand
• 2021: Not awarded due to CMU Covid-19 travel restrictions
• 2020: Vincent DeRienzo (B.Arch '21), Proposal: Vibrancy of the European Streetscape
• 2019: Louis Suarez (B.Arch '21, MSSD '22), Proposal: Drawing as a Process for Discovery and Invention
• 2018: Rebecca Lefkowitz (MUD '19), Proposal: Between Times; Ramin Akhavijou (Music), Proposal: Opera and Composition Based on Sounds from Nature
• 2017: Elizabeth Levy (B.Arch '19), Proposal: An Intervention in Public Performance; Theodore Teichman (Music), Proposal: Musical Heterotopias
• 2016: Abigayle Roemer (Music), Proposal: Classical and Folk Violin Pedagogy Traditions Across Europe
• 2015: Ashley Archie (MUD '15), Proposal: A Spatial Analysis of the People and Places of London
• 2014: Allyson Edington (Music), Proposal: Clarinet Pedagogy in London, Amsterdam, Madrid, and Vienna
• 2013: Peter Salim (B.Arch '15), Proposal: Composition of Conversations in the Chambers
• 2012: Talia Perry (B.Arch '13), Proposal: Dance and Dynamic Modernity
• 2011: Weronika Balewski (Music), Proposal: A Musician’s Space in Society
• 2010: James Harvestus Locus III (B.Arch '11), Proposal: The Practical and Theoretical Integration of Composition and Architecture
• 2009: Kaitlin Miciunas (B.Arch '11), Proposal: Perception through Sound and Image, Architecture of the Ages
• 2008: Christian Kriegeskotte (Music), Proposal: Byzantine to Gothic and Baroque in the Spiritual Foundations of Eastern Europe
• 2007: Michael O’Gieblyn (Music), Proposal: Architecture as Frozen Music: Acoustics & Performance in the World’s Great Concert Halls
• 2006: Joshua Cummings (B.Arch '08), Proposal: Architecture and Music: Creations of the Grand and the Intimate
• 2005: Emma Hancock (Music), Proposal: Violin Performance and Absorption of Culture in Munich, Salzburg, and Prague