HIGH POINT — The Bienenstock Furniture Library has named winners of its annual student design competitions for furniture and interior design in 2023, awarding a total of $16,000 to the top performers and their schools.
For this year’s Dudley Moore Sr. Furniture Design Competition, students submitted an original design for a chair that is suitable for marketing to either or both residential and contract trade industry segments.
Of the nine finalists, Mariana Anzures from the University of Texas at Houston received first place recognition and a $5,000 cash award for her chair, Siva Afi, named after the traditional Samoan fire dance, which Anzures said “captures the raw beauty of movement in fire and dance through its dynamic form.” Her home school received a cash prize of $1,000.
Sebastian Solloa from Savannah College of Art and Design was awarded second place and a $1,500 cash prize.
For this year’s Barbour Spangle Interior Design Competition, interior design students were tasked to design for a young couple who purchased two adjoining, three-story brick row houses dating to the turn of the last century, and to combine two units into a single art gallery for displaying the work of cutting-edge artists in a variety of mediums.
First place and $5,000 was awarded to Elle Yanez of Saddleback College for her work entitled EM Gallery. The school’s design department was awarded $1,000.
Elizabeth Holtzclaw of University of North Carolina at Greensboro was recognized with second place and a cash award of $1,500. A third-place honor for interior design was bestowed on Yu Liu from Savannah College of Art & Design. Liu received a $1,000 cash award sponsored by June Anderson, legacy board member at BFL.
The first place winning project briefs may be viewed on the Bienenstock Furniture Library website.
See also: Bienenstock Furniture Library names new president, board members
