Awards
2023
APA Hawaiʻi Chapter Awards; Urban Design Award
”Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor” - Phoebe White, Priyam Das, and team
SEGD Global Design Awards; Honor Award
“Wayfinding & Signage-University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa” - Brian Strawn, Karla Sierralta, and team with Sig Zane Kaiao
Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards; Best Designs for Social Justice in 2023
“UH Hilo ‘Ōlelo Hawaiʻi Campus” - Brian Strawn, Karla Sierralta, and team
AIA Honolulu Design Awards; Award of Excellence
“UH Hilo ‘Ōlelo Hawaiʻi Campus” - Brian Strawn, Karla Sierralta, and team
AIA Honolulu Design Awards; Distinctive Detail Award
“Wayfinding & Signage-University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa” - Brian Strawn, Karla Sierralta, and team with Sig Zane Kaiao
Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Award 2023
“Wayfinding & Signage-University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa” - Brian Strawn, Karla Sierralta, and team with Sig Zane Kaiao
2022
Architectural Education Awards: ACSA Collaborative Practice Award
”Future of Hawaiʻi’s Housing, A Bottom-Up Exploratory Research Collaboration: Karla Sierralta, Brian Strawn, and team
2021
Hawaii ASLA Professional Design Awards; 2021 Urban Design Award
”South Shore Promenade and Coastal Open Space Network Study”
- Judith Stilgenbauer and team
Hawaii ASLA Professional Design Awards; 2021 Malama ʻĀina Award
University of Hawaiʻi Community Design Center, Cathi Ho-Schar, Director on behalf of UHCDC
Hawaii ASLA Professional Design Awards; Award of Excellence (Analysis and Planning)
”South Shore Promenade and Coastal Open Space Network Study”
- Judith Stilgenbauer and team
Hawaii ASLA Professional Design Awards; Honor Award (Research and Communication)
”Lake Wilson: Wahiawa Freshwater State Recreation Area Study and Proof-of-Concept Design” - Judith Stilgenbauer and team
APA Hawaii Professional Awards; Urban Design Award
”South Shore Promenade and Coastal Open Space Network Study”
- Judith Stilgenbauer and team
ACSA Annual Meeting “Best Project” award
”Practicing Engagement: A Post-COVID Field Report” - Cathi Ho Schar, Dan Milz, and team
UH Student Employee of the Year Awards: Student Employee Team of the Year
Wahiawā Civic Center Team: Angel Kiu Ki Au, Dustin Chang, Kaylen Daquioag, Hana Fulghum, Moises Lio Can, Beau Nakamori
2020
AIA Honolulu Design Awards: Institutional Category, Honorable Mention
”Lawn Loungers": Portable Spaces for Community Engagement”
- Karla Sierralta, Brian Strawn and team
AIA Honolulu Design Awards; Distinctive Detail Award
”UH Cancer Center P1CT” - Brian Strawn and team
Architectural Education Awards: AIA/ACSA Practice + Leadership Award
”UHCDC: Exploring Public Sector Practice” UHCDC team
Architectural Education Awards: ACSA Collaborative Practice Award
”Waipahu Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Collaboration” - Simon Bussiere, Priyam Das, Wendy Meguro, Colin Moore, Hyoung-June Park, Cathi Ho Schar, Danielle Spirandelli and team
2018
UH Student Employee of the Year Award: Category Winner
Christopher Gaydosh
2017
AIA Honolulu Design Awards: Institutional Category, Honorable Mention
”Design Islands” - Karla Sierralta, Brian Strawn and team
UH Student Employee of the Year Awards: Student Employee Team of the Year Award
Keola Annino, Christopher Gaydosh, Glenn Grande, Kristoffer Jugueta, Catherine Kenjo, Elliot Lazo, Jay Moorman, Melise Nekoba, Christopher Songvilay
Karla Sierralta and Brian Strawn accepting a 2017 AIA Honolulu Design Award for “Design Islands”
News Articles
“Mānoa signage featuring ancient place names wins international award”, featured in UH News, May 2, 2023
“New Mānoa signage features ancient place names, cultural knowledge”, featured in UH News, July 19, 2022
“Hawaiʻi Study Offers Design Change to Fight Climate Change”, featured in U.S. News & World Report, April 5, 2021
“University of Hawaiʻi study offers ways Honolulu can adapt to rising ocean waters”, featured in Honolulu Star Advertiser, April 5, 2021, front page
“UH projects plans for sea-level rise from Diamond Head to Pearl Harbor”, featured in UH News, March 30, 2021
“To combat rising sea levels, UH professors propose plans to redesign Hawaiʻiʻs infrastructure”, featured in Hawaiʻi News Now, April 4, 2021
“UH Mānoa Study: Climate Change Solutions for Oʻahuʻs South Shore”, featured on Hawaiʻi Public Radio, April 5, 2021
“Design Tank event generates ideas to improve public spaces”, featured in UH News, January 22, 2021
“Ala Wai Harbor gets planning help from UH students”, featured in UH News, December 22, 2020
“Micro-architecture ʻLawn Loungersʻ win award, engage community”, featured in UH News, December 2, 2020
“Student-designed UH Cancer Center clinical trial suite wins award”, featured in UH News, November 24, 2020
“UH launches free architecture program for keiki”, featured in UH News, September 4, 2020
“Re-imagining the Ala Wai Marsh”, featured in the Honolulu Star Advertiser August, 9, 2020, by Chip Fletcher and Judith Stilgenbauer
“Community offers redesign ideas for Wahiawā Park”, featured in UH News, July 30, 2019
“Community asked to help reimagine historic Varney Circle”, featured in UH News, June 17, 2020
“UH team launches new website to help public housing residents”, featured in UH News, April 15, 2020
“UH Community Design Center wins two national awards”, featured in UH News, February 4, 2020
“Planning on making a difference”, featured in UH News, February 25, 2019
“Visioning Hawaiʻi’s First Vertical School”, Honolulu Business Magazine, 2017 with comments from Karla Sierralta.
Knowledge-sharing presentations + papers
“Equity and Social Justice in the Built Environment”, ACSA 110th Annual Meeting, Special Session, May 2022, panel presentation by Cathi Ho Schar, Karla Sierralta, Brian Strawn, Shalini Agrawal, Ann Yoachim, Sekou Cooke, Brian Mouton
“The Business of Community Design: A Round Table” ACSA 110th Annual Meeting, Special Session, May 2022, presented and moderated by Cathi Ho Schar, Ceara O’Leary, and Ann Yoachim.
“Post COVID Community Outreach”, AIA Honolulu Young Architects Forum, May 2021 presented by Rebecca Denzer and Nicole Biewenga.
“Practicing Engagement: A Post COVID Field Report”, ACSA 109th Annual Meeting, March 2021 presented by Cathi Ho Schar and Dan Milz and published in proceedings
“Cultural Infrastructure” NCBDS Conference After Form, March 2021, presented by Cathi Ho Schar and published in proceedings
“Distributed Resources: A Studio Approach” 2020 AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference Carbon, September 2020, presented by Cathi Ho Schar
“UHCDC: Exploring Public Sector Practice” ACSA 108th Annual Meeting OPEN, June 2020
“Hawaiʻi Housing Lab” ACSA 108th Annual Meeting OPEN, June 2020, presented by Karla Sierralta and Brian Strawn and published in proceedings
“Decolonizing Frameworks: A Cultural Design Resource for Corrections”, ACSA 108th Annual Meeting OPEN June 2020, presented by Cathi Ho Schar and published in proceedings
“The University as a Public Sector Practice” EDRA 51 Transform: Socially Embedded Collaboration, April 2020, presented by Cathi Ho Schar
“The Future of Housing in Hawaiʻi” Building Voices: Housing for All, October 2019, presented by Karla Sierralta, Brian Strawn, with Snoweria Zhang, Kevin Auger, Kevin MIyamura, Andrew Neuman, Jonathan Lee, and Vicky Takamine
“Top-down, Bottom-up” American Architectural Organizations Annual Conference Design Matters November 2019, presented by Cathi Ho Schar
“Design in Government” ACSA Fall Conference Less Talk More Action: Conscious Shifts in Architectural Education September 2019, presented by Cathi Ho Schar and published in proceedings
“Proof of Concept” Hawaiʻi State Capitol, presented by Hyoung-June Park, Suwan Shen, Judith Stilgenbauer, Brian Strawn, with introductions by Cathi Ho Schar, Dr. Randall Holcombe, and Alan Carpenter
“Toward Public Sector Practice” ACSA/EAAE Teachers Conference June 2019, presented by Cathi Ho Schar and published in proceedings
“How Community Design Can Support Campus Facilities Planning and Design” SCUP Regional Conference The Role of Discourse, March 2019, presented by Cathi Ho Schar
“Notes on Community-led Collaboration: Waipahu Transit Oriented Development”, CELA Annual Conference Engaged Scholarship, March 2019, presented by Cathi Ho Schar and published in proceedings
“An Ecotourism Model for Kekaha Kai State Park, Hawai’i Island”, CELA Annual conference Engaged Scholarship, March 2019, presented by Simon Bussiere and Zachary Streitz
“The Case of Wahiawā Freshwater Park” CELA Annual conference Engaged Scholarship, March 2019, presented by Judith Stilgenbauer
“A New Community Design Platform for Hawaiʻi” APA Monthly meeting, November 2018 presented by Cathi Ho Schar, Danielle Spirandelli, and Judith Stilgenbauer
“Rethinking Outcomes: Mutual Benefit in Community Engaged Teaching” Association for Community Design Conference, June 2018, presented by Cathi Ho Schar and Liz Kramer
“Placemaking, planning, visioning, and design” Hawaiʻi State Capitol, September 2016, presentation by Cathi Ho Schar and Stephen Luoni
“Design for the Public Interest” CSI Pacific Building Trade Expo, 2016, presented by Daniel Friedman and Cathi Ho Schar
*No UHCDC project or OH funds were used to support travel to any of the conferences listed above.