Payette Prize in Building Science

This award was previously available from Carnegie Mellon Architecture and has now concluded. Information about the award is archived below. 

Payette Associates, a prestigious, international architecture firm in Boston, Mass., established the Payette Prize in Building Science to recognize the accomplishments of a Carnegie Mellon Architecture student who had achieved exceptional performance by integrating the fundamentals of building science in the execution of their design work.

The intention of the award was twofold: 1) Encourage students to explore the intersection of architecture, sustainability and building science; 2) Demonstrate and cultivate the significant positive impact that can be made on design through an understanding and application of the fundamentals of building science.

The awarded student would receive a non-qualified scholarship.

To be considered for the Payette Prize in Building Science, applicants submitted a complete application that included the following information:

• A 400-word essay commenting on their approach to integrating principles of building science in their design work
• A reduced size portfolio (<10 MB) of their most relevant project

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

A faculty jury reviewed the applications and made the selection. There was one (1) award made in the amount of $4,500 each year.

The Payette Prize in Building Science was open to all students who had achieved exceptional performance by integrating the fundamentals of building science in their design work, including students in the Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch), Master of Architecture (M.Arch), Master of Science in Architecture–Engineering–Construction Management (MSAECM), Master of Science in Building Performance & Diagnostics (MSBPD) and Master of Science in Sustainable Design (MSSD) programs.

• 2025: Ella Moon (B.Arch ’26)
• 2024: Jeffrey Li (B.Arch ’25)
• 2023: Colin Walters (B.Arch ’24)
• 2022: Madeline Cotton (B.Arch ’23)
• 2021: Emily Edlich (B.Arch ’22) & Shanice Lam (B.Arch ’22)
• 2020: Ryu Kondrup (B.Arch ’21)
• 2019: Cotey Anderegg (B.Arch ’20)
• 2018: Timothy Khalifa (B.Arch ’19)