Emerging Professionals Design Competition

2017 Jurors

Tony Nazaka, Assoc. AIA, EPN Chair
Christina Marais, Assoc. AIA
Keegan Carmichael, Assoc. AIA
Josh White, Assoc. AIA


The AIANH Emerging Professionals Design Competition (formerly the AIANH Intern/Young Architect Design Competition) was created in 2003 to provide an opportunity for interns and young architectural professionals to strengthen their design skills, gain recognition, and assist a community with their design challenges. It is open to all architectural interns and architects within five years of registration living or working in New England. Participants do not need to be members of AIA.

2017 Competition  

The 2017 Call for Entries is available here.

2017 Competition Results

This year’s competition revolved around a hot-button topic of revitalizing the recently closed Rockingham Park in Salem, NH, into a small scale “inner city” or “lifestyle center”, which have started gaining popularity around the country outside of major cities. Currently, the majority of the site is being used or has a planned future use under development, which is comprised of mainly residential and commercial property. The idea for the competition was to introduce a planned community aspect into these future developments, which these days seems like an afterthought, if thought of at all. This project is seen as both an architectural and planning design challenge, although final building(s) had to be realized.

General Jury Comments: In general, the jury was pleased with the work presented.  This years design program was a challenge in the fact that the submitters had to think as a designer, architect, planner, and developer.

Scroll below to view the 2017 winners. Click on the big image to further enlarge. Click on the first small image to scroll through the others.

Past Design Award Winners:

2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016

First Place

Katie Cressall AIA and Ben Wan, RODE Architects, Boston, MA

Jury Comments: Overall, the jury found this submission to be quite strong.  While the competition was open to interpretation on what community building, or buildings, the submitters wanted to incorporate, this team went above and beyond.  Their project, dubbed the “Civic Mile”, introduces a number of community spaces, such as a library, performing arts building, child and elder care, and an art studio, among others.  The number of building forms introduced were treated as one cohesive idea, and the way in which the team both integrated them into the site, and connected them to the surrounding area was elegantly done, and would be a great addition to any growing city.

First Place: Katie Cressall AIA and Ben Wan
First Place: Katie Cressall AIA and Ben Wan
First Place: Katie Cressall AIA and Ben Wan
First Place: Katie Cressall AIA and Ben Wan
First Place: Katie Cressall AIA and Ben Wan

Second Place

Kim McCarthy of Lavallee Brensinger Architects 

Jury Comments: Kim's plan for Salem introduced two main community buildings; an arts museum and a performing arts center.  The two buildings flank each end of the long, narrow site, and are infilled with proposed housing.  The proposed buildings provide a strong presence of community along a very commercial stretch of road.  The overall scale of the site and how one enters and uses it was well thought out, and overall a strong idea.

Second Place: Kim McCarthy of Lavallee Brensinger Architects
Second Place: Kim McCarthy of Lavallee Brensinger Architects
Second Place: Kim McCarthy of Lavallee Brensinger Architects
Second Place: Kim McCarthy of Lavallee Brensinger Architects
Second Place: Kim McCarthy of Lavallee Brensinger Architects