Ralph H. Burt Jr. and Alva L. Hill Scholarship

Carnegie Mellon Architecture will announce the call for applications for the next award cycle in the fall of 2025.

The Ralph H. Burt Jr. and Alva L. Hill Scholarship was established in 2010 in honor of Ralph Burt and Alva Hill, the founders of Burt Hill Architects. Following their service in World War II, the two became close friends as students in the architecture program at Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating in 1952, they joined the small Butler, Pa., firm of Howard & Murphy Architects, later Burt, Hill & Associates. Ralph and Alva, in their 40-year careers, built Burt Hill from a small western Pennsylvania practice to a multi-office national corporation. The partnership laid the foundation for Burt Hill's culture of thoughtful design and prudent management built on a national reputation for design and service to clients.

This merit-based scholarship provides financial support to students whose work focuses on sustainable environments, performance-based design, and systems integration throughout the design process in alignment with the legacy of the work of Burt Hill. Recipients need not qualify for financial aid to receive this scholarship, and the award will not be part of a student's financial aid package.

To be considered for the Ralph H. Burt Jr. and Alva L. Hill Scholarship, applicants must submit a complete application that includes the following information:

• Statement (200-word maximum) about how your work focuses on sustainable environments, performance-based design and systems integration throughout the design process.
• Current resume and portfolio or sketchbook (maximum twenty (20) pages) that demonstrates examples of your work that focus on sustainable environments, performance-based design, and systems integration throughout the design process in alignment with the legacy of the work of Burt Hill.

Note: Applicants may include collaborative projects but must state which projects were done in collaboration with others. Applicants should only show work examples that they directly contributed to. For each collaborative project, the applicant must indicate the names of all authors and which aspect(s) of the project they worked on.

Spring 2026 Jury: Matthew Huber (Chair), Vicky Achnani, Neal Lucas Hitch, Yiqun Pan

Spring 2026 Award Amount: $2,500 each (two (2) available for undergraduate students and two (2) available for master's students)

The Ralph H. Burt Jr. and Alva L. Hill Scholarship is open to all undergraduate and master’s students whose work focuses on sustainable environments, performance-based design, and systems integration throughout the design process. Eligible applicants must have one year remaining in their degree program after the year in which they apply; for example, they must be in the third year of a four-year undergraduate program, in the fourth year of a five-year undergraduate program, or a master’s student in their first year.

Carnegie Mellon Architecture will announce the call for applications for the next award cycle in the fall of 2025.

• 2024: Alexandra Wang (B.Arch ’25)
  Khevna Modi (MSSD ’25)
• 2023: not awarded
• 2022 (fall): Rebecca Cunningham (B.Arch ‘24), Title: Haptic Materials: Upham’s Corner Library
  Priyanka Thakur (M.Arch ‘24), Title: Poetics of Bamboo: Exhibition Pavilion
• 2022 (spring): Xiaoyu Kang (B.Arch ‘23)
  Hardik Makrubiya (M.Arch ‘22), Title: PLAYSCAPE: Inclusive Early Childhood Education Center, The Children's Institute of Pittsburgh
• 2021: Ellen Zhu (B.Arch ‘23)
  Elena Marzina (M.Arch ‘22), Title: Propinquity: Environment, Form, Feedback
• 2020: Louis Suarez (B.Arch ‘21, MSSD ‘22)
  Shailaja Patel (M.Arch ‘21), Title: Versatility: Earthen Beehive to Ikea Flat Pack
• 2019: Christine Zhu (B.Arch ‘20)
  Joao Castro (M.Arch ‘20)