August 24, 2012

KNOXVILLE —Annie Stone, who received a bachelor of architecture from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, this past May, was named the recipient of the 2012 SOM Travel Research Fellowship for Architecture, Design and Urban Design this month. A value of $20,000, Stone receives the honor for her proposed research to map, re-present and interpret Cistercian monasteries in France.

Students from 34 schools across the U.S. submitted entries for the SOM Prize, a research and travel fellowship that enables one outstanding student, and a second place winner (Stone) to pursue research, design collaboration, and independent study after graduation. Both graduate and undergraduate students were eligible to apply.

“The ability to travel - to look, to observe, and finally discover - will provide Annie with an even greater understanding of how an architecture, centered upon the thoughtful use of light, sound, materiality, and spatial definition, enables a culture of place,” said Brian Ambroziak, an associate professor of architecture, who both served as Stone’s faculty advisor and recommender to the fellowship.

“This will play a vital role in her continued development as a designer and critical thinker.”

Entries were reviewed by an independent jury of prominent professionals, which included Ronald Krueck, FAIA, Krueck & Sexton Architects; John Ronan, AIA, John Ronan Architects; and the jury’s chair, Brian Lee, FAIA, Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM).

“The research agenda proposed is an in depth study of specific Cistercian monasteries in France and will privilege the acts of writing, sketching, photography, and measuring in order to obtain an honest reading of the cycles existing within a specific architectural typology,” said Stone.

“As landscapes may be considered over the course of a year, the cycle of a monastery exists within a period of twenty-four hours. The research aims to document subtle shifts in one’s perception of the architecture through changing light at different times of day, temperature, and sounds associated with liturgical rituals.”

The SOM Prize, in its 31st year, is funded by the SOM Foundation, an organization, according to its mission, that “supports individuals with the highest design aspirations and enables them, through research and travel, to broaden their horizons and achieve excellence in their professional or academic careers.”

Stone claimed secondary honors after Pavlo Kryvozub, a recent graduate of the master of architecture program at the University of Cincinnati, who won the SOM Prize for his topic, “Synthesis of Art & Architecture.”

Stone notes that her experiences at UT helped her achieve this success: “It has been an honor to spend the past five years surrounded by so many thoughtful, talented, and critically minded individuals, both students and faculty, within our college,” she said.

I am thrilled to represent our college with this award and very grateful for the time and energy that has been given to me and to my classmates.”

For her undergraduate thesis project, “The Garden in Exile,” Stone, a native of Franklin, Tennessee, received the Tau Sigma Delta Bronze Medal, an award given to one graduating student from each accredited architecture program for overall design excellence. The project addressed concepts of representation, design, narrative, and physical site within the context of her studies abroad in Finland, Germany and Sweden.

All UT bachelor of architecture students are required to participate in study abroad as a means to fully develop architectural, design and cultural awareness.

“Annie’s love and passion for design was quite obvious as demonstrated by the overwhelming number of hours that she was willing to commit to the required coursework as well as all the other possibilities that study abroad affords,” said Ambroziak.

“Annie’s technical expertise, creative ability, thoughtfulness, and maturity place her in the perfect position to engage and advance the field of design in the most significant way imaginable.”

To see Stone’s SOM fellowship submission, “Cistercian_ an analysis of sight[e],” visit here

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