Westlake Students Sweep Top 3 Prizes In Home Design Contest

WESTLAKE, OH — A team of Westlake High School students have won the overall grand prize in the 21st annual Student Model Home Design Contest. The students' work will be on display at the Great Big Home and Garden Show, February 2-11 at the I-X Center.

The student contest theme was “The Great Modern Frank Lloyd Wright Spec House”. Students were asked to design a house that’s marketable, innovative, energy-efficient, and addressed the wants and needs of a family of four.

The competition was hosted at the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center in Brecksville on Jan. 27.

Katie Willi, Ethan Simon, Robert Fulop and Scott Rennard took first place and overall grand prize in the competition. The group also won the categories of “Best Model”, “Best Presentation”, “Best Smart Home Technology”, “Best Green Building”, and the coveted “Architectural Design Award of Merit”.

The rest of the top three was swept by other Westlake students. The second place overall team were Westlake High's Michael Rees, Connor Reis, Neil McGrogan, Jacob Meyer and Henry Levenberg. The third place team was Westlake's Jillian Eddy and Catherine D'Amico.

Eddy and D'Amico also won the best CAD/3D Drawings category.

“The students did an outstanding job using architect Frank Lloyd Wright as their inspiration to design a modern day home!” said Jeff Bee, Engineering and CAD technologies instructor at Theodore Roosevelt High School (Kent). "The “The Great Modern Frank Lloyd Wright Spec House” theme helped students realize and appreciate that a timeless design can be seen not only as an object, but also design as an experience, giving a house character, permanence, useful beauty, and integrated with the environment.”

During the awards ceremony on Jan. 27, local Frank Lloyd Wright historian Fred Unwin served as keynote speaker. Unwin told the story of the Weltzheimer-Johnson House, a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Oberlin. He also discussed some of the other Ohio homes designed by Lloyd Wright.

All of the top ten winning entries will be displayed at the I-X Center in booth #1693 during The Great Big Home & Garden Show. A list of the ten winners is below:

1. Westlake's Katie Willi, Ethan Simon, Robert Fulop and Scott Rennard
2. Westlake's Michael Rees, Connor Reis, Neil McGrogan, Jacob Meyer and Henry Levenberg
3. Westlake's Jillian Eddy and Catherine D'Amico
4. Theodore Roosevelt's AJ Tassone, Richard Morrocco and Jeff Shaver
5. Auburn Career Center's Adam Retych and Aidan Zalar
6. Orange High's Jillian Szachury and Jacqueline Russel
7. Excel TECC's Alex McCullough, Zach Bergeron and Will Mascha
8. Westlake's Erike Hoke, Patrick Gheen, Austin Loosli and Tim Gerent.
9. Auburn Career Center's Alex Koppel and Jacob Rush
10. Theodore Roosevelt's Arien Grant, Xavier Seib, Dylan Gaian and Ian Cramer

Photo from Westlake Schools