Georgia Tech's chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS) prevailed at the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) nation-wide conference in St. Louis, MO. The group received the top prize for its entry in the design competition, and was named Chapter of the Year, besting heavyweight NOMAS chapters at Cornell, the University of Florida, Syracuse and University of Illinois, among others.

The NOMA competition guidelines set in Spring 2009 issued a challenge to analyze, absorb and engage the culturally fertile and diverse urban landscape of Benton Park--a St. Louis neighborhood in transition. The client for the competition is an immigrant family from Bogota, Columbia. Consisting of a husband, wife, two children, and two grandparents (one who uses a wheelchair), the family recently inherited a piece of land in Benton Park and needed a home. Georgia Tech's entry, Casa de Espacio Chispa, "blew the jury away," according to Bill Stanley, one of the first African-American graduates of the Architecture Program at Tech.

The jury was made up of seasoned academics and professionals--Sean Vance, AIA, NOMA (NC State University); Chris Hinton-Lee, AIA, SES (US Army Corps of Engineers); and Michael Willis FAIA NOMA(MWA). They noted that Georgia Tech NOMAS's passion for design was extremely evident in the team's verbal presentation, and that the entry showed a was a clear notion of universally accessible design, which reflected their understanding for the client's needs.

The group's work was guided by three volunteer instructors--Herman Howard and Nekia Strong of HOK Atlanta; and Georgia Tech instructor Dawn Trimble. Participating students included Chad Boone, Saa Camanor, Ashley Johnson, Inbeom Lee, Ken Mai, Arpan Patel, Audrey Plummer, Ralph Raymond, Joi Ricks, Chi Chi Ugenyi, Donniece Wright and Vincent Yee.

Georgia Tech NOMAS aims to build a strong chapter of design students and professionals whose sensibilities and interests include a strong promotion of diversity. The group's recent activities include the highly successful Women in Architecture Symposium and mentoring program.