Clemson architecture students win national sustainable design awards from the AIA

Two Clemson projects were selected among the winners of the 2025 AIA COTE® Top Ten for Students Competition.

Clemson University architecture students have once again earned national recognition for their commitment to sustainable and socially responsible design. Two Clemson projects were selected among the winners of the 2025 AIA COTE® Top Ten for Students Competition, one of the premier student design competitions in North America.

The annual competition, organized by the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment (COTE) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), recognizes 10 outstanding student projects that, according to AIA, “meaningfully address the impacts of climate change with designs that imagine a healthy, sustainable and equitable future.”

“Fish House”

One winning project, “Fish House,” was created by students Ciela Stark and Leah Gripp with faculty guidance from Associate Professor Ulrike Heine, Assistant Professor Amy Trick and Lecturer Rayshad Dorsey. The design transforms a working fish dock on Hatteras Island into a self-sustaining system that weaves together ecology, culture and livelihood. Competition jurors praised the project’s rigorous site analysis and its ability to holistically address all ten measures of the AIA Framework for Design Excellence.

“The students explored how architecture and landscape design can serve as both physical and cultural mediators in the face of sea level rise, increasing storm activity and the erosion of deeply rooted community traditions,” explained Heine. “Through interdisciplinary collaboration, community engagement and hands-on experimentation, they developed context-sensitive strategies that were both imaginative and grounded in real-world challenges.”

Stark and Gripp’s Fish House project was designed in ARCH 8510: Design Studio III, an award-winning studio supported by the Design Interventions Grant awarded by The LS3P Foundation during their inaugural grant cycle.

“Firewise Futures”

The second winning project, “Firewise Futures: A Community-Centered Model for Wildfire Resilience,” was developed by Jennifer Layer with support from the Director of Undergraduate Architecture Sallie Hambright-Belue, Assistant Professor Matthew Nicolette and undergraduate landscape architecture collaborators Andrew Poole and Alexandra Ugan. The project tackles the increasing threat of wildfires with an adaptive visitor center, located at Wind River Arboretum in Carson, Washington, that functions as an education center, shelter-in-place bunker and a base for relief coordination. Jurors noted the project’s success in reimagining public infrastructure as an engaged, living system that empowers residents.

“The January 2025 Southern California Wildfires highlighted the need for better building strategies to protect people, communities and infrastructure,” said Hambright-Belue. “I was honored to help lead her to such a thoughtful and well-developed project. It’s students like Jenn that are going to go into the profession and make a difference by creating buildings and spaces that serve our communities.”

Clemson’s recognition for the ninth year in a row affirms the Richard A. McMahan School of Architecture’s strength in preparing students to lead in shaping a more sustainable and responsible future for communities across the globe.