SAMARA House survey wins national architectural honors

Architecture students from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis have placed third in the National Park Service’s 2021 Charles E. Peterson Prize Competition.

A rendering from the SAMARA House 3D scanning survey. (Photo: Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts)

Presented annually by the Park Service’s Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) — in coordination with The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, the American Institute of Architects and the Association for Preservation Technology International — the Peterson Prize celebrates the best measured drawings prepared to HDP standards and donated to HDP by students.

The Sam Fox School team, which will receive a $2,000 award, was recognized for its digital survey of Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic SAMARA House in West Lafayette, Ind. Completed in 1956 for Purdue professor John Christian and his wife, Catherine, the house takes its name from the winged seeds found in pinecones, which Wright spotted while visiting the heavily wooded property. The natural motif is reflected throughout the home’s design elements, including its clerestory windows and interior furnishings, which also were designed by Wright.

Read more on the Sam Fox School website.

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