“F. Schenk-Henry Gillette Woodman Scholarship in architecture awarded for travel abroad on the basis of a competition.”

https://www.design.upenn.edu/graduate-admissions/penndesign-awards-and-prizes

This year’s Schenk-Woodman Competition consisted of developing a book-drop for a portion of the underserved neighborhood of West Parkside. The competition is a week long with deliverables consisting of  two boards and a quarter scale model.

The variety of proposals was quite interesting. Some were expected, benches, stairs, trashcans, while others were a surprise, cat containers, lights, popup sidewalk elements. Unlike most competitions this one had a few unique elements which made it more educational than expected. Jurors left comments on some, not all, boards allowing for some insight into the judging process. After the judging was complete jurors were availble for a Question&Answer session. The winners were not revealed at that time and so specific boards were not discussed. However, general ideas of the judging and competitions in general were discussed. The general encouragements were two: break more rules (don’t follow the guideline so strictly that you inhibit your own project) and watch your graphics (one really good image is sometimes all you need).

With these thoughts on our mind it felt like the entire year was anxiously awaiting the awards ceremony held on Friday at Happy Hour. Five winners were annouced  to split the $25000 award as three honorable mentions, second place, and first place. The awarded groups, following the order above, were: Vernacular Fur (P ), Found Identity (K), Pop-Drop (E) Memento (Q), lumiSCAPE (u).

Below are some images of the site, the excitement, and the competition winner reveal!

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