The prize will be awarded annually to the best thesis project in SCI-Arc EDGE’s postgraduate program

In expanding its mission to support bold, emerging architects, SCI-Arc is pleased to announce the inaugural "Hsinming Fung and Craig Hodgetts Thesis Award." This prize, to be awarded annually to the best postgraduate thesis project selected by critics and jurors in the Graduate Thesis Weekend hosted in September, is sponsored by Hsinming Fung and Craig Hodgetts, principals and co-founders of Hodgetts + Fung studio.  H+F's award-winning projects include the design of the new Hollywood Bowl, Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, CalArts' Wild Beast Pavilion, Jesuit High School Chapel of the North American Martyr, and Nashville's Ascend Amphitheater, in addition to being awarded the AIA Gold Medal and AIA CC Firm of the Year Award. Fung and Hodgetts have contributed $100,000 to SCI-Arc to establish an endowed fund to support the annual award.

“Ming and Craig have always been a part of the SCI-Arc family both as faculty and Ming in her previously held positions of Graduate Programs Chair and Director of Academic Affairs,” says SCI-Arc Director Hernan Diaz Alonso. “Their practice is exemplary of the ambitions towards which our students aspire. We couldn’t be more thrilled with their commitment to supporting SCI-Arc’s future graduates.”

"SCI-Arc is an institution where the culture of innovation and design excellence thrives—these are qualities that Craig and I have been proud to support since the early days of its founding." Fung says, "We are delighted to help spread SCI-Arc's influence throughout the world of architecture by this gift, which will recognize the work of exceptional students for years to come."

With the addition of the Fung and Hodgetts Thesis Award, SCI-Arc now grants thesis prizes for graduating students in every program, joining The Blythe and Thom Mayne Undergraduate Thesis Prize and the Gehry Prize for Best Graduate Thesis. Such awards, granted as they are on the cusp of a student's graduation, don't merely encapsulate a student's experience at SCI-Arc, but mark their point of departure, and encourage the work they are about to do. “We are delighted that the top thesis project of SCI-Arc EDGE’s postgraduate programs will be recognized by the Hsinming Fung and Craig Hodgetts Thesis Award," says SCI-Arc Postgraduate Programs Chair David Ruy. "Ming and Craig have been committed to excellence and innovation throughout their career together and couldn’t be better role models for our graduates. We are honored by their devotion and generosity.”

About Hsinming Fung:

Hsinming Fung, AIA, has been principal and co-founder of Hodgetts + Fung since 1984, a studio with expertise in the design of unique places for learning, cultural events, and civic functions. Fung has taught at Yale, Ohio State, and Cal Poly Pomona. She is a Past President of both AIA Los Angeles and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. She was appointed by Bill Clinton as a Council Member of the National Endowment for the Arts, and has served as a national peer for General Services Administration.

About Craig Hodgetts:

Craig Hodgetts is principal and co-founder of Hodgetts + Fung, and presently a professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Previously, Craig was a Founding Dean of the School of Design at the California Institute of the Arts. With Hsinming Fung, he has twice held the Eero Saarinen Chair at Yale University, and served as a visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Rice University and the University of Arizona. Known for his enthusiasm for innovation and experimentation, he is the holder of four international patents.

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About SCI-Arc Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future. It is an independent, accredited degree-granting institution offering undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture. Located in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles, the school is distinguished by its vibrant studio culture and emphasis on process. SCI-Arc’s approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members, most of whom are practicing architects, work together to re-examine assumptions, create, explore and test the limits of architecture. SCI-Arc faculty and leadership have garnered more than 500 national and international design awards and recognitions, including Progressive Architecture awards, American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards, and the prestigious Jencks and Pritzker architecture prizes. U.S. DesignIntelligence recently ranked SCI-Arc #4 in Graduate Programs Most Admired by Deans and Chairs in its 2018 America’s Best Architecture Schools survey. SCI-Arc’s Undergraduate program ranked #8 in the DesignIntelligence 2018 survey. SCI-Arc is located at 960 E. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. www.sciarc.edu