”Gateway to Miami Design District” Competition at Design and Architecture Senior High School

MIAMI - May 6, 2013 - PRLog -- (MIAMI)  – Design and Architecture Senior High School (DASH), seniors will take on a new assignment this semester with a strong community focus: designing a Gateway to the Miami Design District. DASH is a Miami-Dade Magnet high school recognized across the United States for innovation in design education and also highly ranked magnet school in the US. It has a history of graduating students who are the most highly recruited design visionaries to top colleges around the globe.Over forty students from DASH will receive recognition and reward from this competition, with $30,000 in scholarship funds to be awarded.

Senior students in the Industrial Design and Architecture classes at DASH will design a project based on how they envision a Gateway to the Miami Design District. The theoretical design project will be on a plot of vacant land owned by Dacra in the Miami Design District. Craig Robins,  Chief Executive Officer and President of Dacra, is a longtime supporter of DASH, and of this project.

Participating students will prepare drawings and three-dimensional models for the design of the site. They will develop ideas on how they envision both the physical form as well as the surrounding outdoor space. DASH has played a major role in the rebirth of the Miami Design District and the students will be asked to treat the new design as a cultural hub for the community.

Local architects and designers will jury the student work. The competition will result in a community exhibit and scholarship award presentation in May.

Sponsored by Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, forty-one students will receive scholarship money for merit and participation.

·         Five students will receive $2,000 for first place awards,

·         Four students will receive $1,500 for second place awards,

·         Four students will receive $750 for honorable mentions and

·         Twenty-eight students will receive $500 for participation.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz have sponsored the scholarship award competition and the third year that Knight Foundation has matched the de la Cruz donation. Both the de la Cruz and Knight Foundation have committed funds for five years to continue this scholarship award.

Project Timeline:

April 2       Introduce Students to project and begin research

April 19      Preliminary Review of Student Work

May 23      Final Jury and Awards Ceremony

May 30      Exhibit open to Community

ABOUT DASH

DASH is an award-winning, A-graded Miami-Dade County Public Magnet School with a unique curriculum.  Students acquire life and professional skills in a context that speaks to their individual abilities and personal goals.  “Education by Design” represents the philosophy of the school, which offers its students programs in architecture, industrial design, fashion design, fine arts, visual communications and entertainment technology.  All programs are developed and taught by a dedicated team of industry and design professionals.  DASH was named the #2 U.S. Magnet School in the United States and the Top High School in Florida by US News & World Report in 2012. For further information please visit http://www.dashschool.org/.