The National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) and GE Appliances have announced the winners of the NKBA/GE Charette competition, which awards students more than $20,000 in scholarships. The competition recognizes students who demonstrate advanced design skills by planning a safe, functional kitchen within a three-hour period.
More than 400 students from 31 colleges participated in the challenge, which included creating a kitchen floor plan with specifications, along with a design statement and perspective or elevation of a kitchen featuring GE appliances, completed within three hours. Each of the 31 colleges chose up to three local winners to receive $50.
“We are proud to support the programs that will help develop student designers into the future generation of professional designers,” said Alan W. Zielinski, CKD, 2012 NKBA president. “When students have targeted their area of interest in the kitchen and bath industry, we want to offer them opportunity to hone their interest and ability and turn it into a real skill and a solid career.”
The design challenge was to create a kitchen using GE Monogram brand appliances for clients Joshua and Ashley Henderson and their 14-year-old daughter Taylor. Taylor is a player on her school’s softball team. The Henderson’s often have the team over to celebrate their wins. They want the team to have quick access to drinks, so a conveniently located GE undercounter beverage center was desired.
The 2012 award recipients included first-place winner Alicia Meeker of Vancouver Community College in Vancouver, BC, Canada (work pictured top and above); second-place winner Valene Edwards from Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg, ID; third-place winner Julie Arthurs of Lakeland College, Vermillion, AB, Canada; fourth-place winner Rebecca Johnston from Lakeland College in Vermillion, AB, Canada; and fifth-place winner Alexandra Williams a student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA.
For more information on the design challenge, solution generated by the first-place winner and a complete list of finalists, click here.
