John Knox Shear Award

Carnegie Mellon Architecture is currently accepting applications for the 2025 award. Applications are due on Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 11:59pm ET. Submit your application at the link below.

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John Knox Shear (1917-58) was a Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) alumnus, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture in 1938. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and a professor of architecture, teaching at both Princeton and Carnegie Tech. He served as head of the Department of Architecture (now School of Architecture) at Carnegie Tech from 1948-55. Shear served as Editor in Chief of Architectural Record magazine from 1955 until his death in 1958. His work included residential, commercial and religious architecture. He was an accomplished architect, academic, editor and a leader in the profession.

The John Knox Shear Award recognizes exceptional design and representation as demonstrated through studio work in the Bachelor of Architecture program.

To be considered for the John Knox Shear Award, applicants must submit a complete application that includes the following information:

• A positioning statement (200 words maximum) that frames the work in terms of a theme chosen by the applicant and explains how this theme is represented in their portfolio
• A portfolio (<20 MB, 25 pages maximum) that includes up to five (5) studio projects relating to the theme in the positioning statement

Note: Applicants may include collaborative projects but must state which projects were done in collaboration with others. Applicants should only show work examples that they directly contributed to. For each collaborative project, the applicant must indicate the names of all authors and which aspect(s) of the project they worked on.

Spring 2025 Jury: Doug Cooper (Chair), Gloria Chang, Jimmy Wei-Chun Cheng, Jackie Joseph Paul McFarland

Spring 2025 Award Amount: $4,000 (first place) and $3,000 (runner-up) each (multiple awards available up to $18,000 per year)

The John Knox Shear Award is open to all fourth-year Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) students.

Carnegie Mellon Architecture is currently accepting applications for the 2025 award. Applications are due on Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 11:59pm ET.

• 2024: Chengming (Jacky) Jia (B.Arch ’25)
• 2023: Yonghao Zhang (B.Arch ’24) & Sharon Fung (B.Arch ’24)
• 2022: Franklin Zhu (B.Arch ’23)

Prior to 2022, this award was offered as a graduation travel award for B.Arch students.

• 2021: Emmanuel Nwandu (B.Arch ’21)
• 2020: Keon Ho (Hugh) Lee (B.Arch ’20)
• 2019: Gunn Chaiyapatranun (B.Arch ’19)
• 2018: Anthony Nitche (B.Arch ’18) In Pursuit of Paradise: Morocco, Egypt, Andalusia
• 2017: Sinan Goral (B.Arch ’17)
• 2016: Kirk Newton (B.Arch ’16)
• 2015: Laura Gonzalez (B.Arch ’15)
• 2014: Peter Salim (B.Arch ’14)
• 2013: Matthew Adler (B.Arch ’13)
• 2012: Jacob Douenias (B.Arch ’12)
• 2011: Joseph Koon (B.Arch ’11)
• 2010: Ranjit Korah (B.Arch ’10)
• 2009: Craig Rosman (B.Arch ’09)
• 2008: Xianghua Wu (B.Arch ’08)