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ince its inception in 2000, the NOMA Student Design Competition has aimed to foster creativity and innovation among aspiring architects. Each year, participants are challenged to address real-world architectural problems through a lens of equity, sustainability, and social responsibility. By integrating principles of design justice, emerging architects are empowered to create spaces that prioritize inclusivity and address systemic inequalities within the built environment.

In 2013, the annual NOMA Student Design Competition was renamed in honor of Barabara G.  Laurie, AIA, a lifelong friend, supporter, professor, mentor, and active member within the NOMA family. An accomplished architect in her own right, Barbara dedicated her life to the education and mentorship of young students as a professor of architecture at Howard University.

The 2025 Barbara G. Laurie NOMA Student Design Competition is "The Highway to Healing”, a transit-oriented development (TOD) master plan that will be the epicenter of transportation, development, and engagement in Harlem Park, Midtown-Edmonson, and the surrounding neighborhoods. Project teams must propose a design for a new transit hub that addresses the needs and desires of the immediate community, provides an efficient and effective solution to the addition of the Red Line through the I-40 corridor, and supports future inclusive and responsive development. Now is the time to exchange ideas as designers; to rebuild and heal the scars that have been left from decades of neglect and economic inequity. A successful proposal will approach this project holistically, acknowledging the past and celebrating a bright and inclusive future.

To Access the Competition Brief, contact your University Liaison. (See FAQs below)

First Place 2024: Tulane University (New Orleans, LA) – Restoring Common Ground

Second Place 2024: Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw, GA) – The Backyard

Third Place 2024: Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) – Mending the Divide

• Boston Architectural College

• Cal Poly

• California Baptist University NOMAS

• California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

• Carnegie Mellon University

• Clemson NOMA

• Clemson University

• College of the Canyons

• Cornell University

• CUNY City College of New York

• Drexel University

• Dunwoody

• Florida International University

• Hampton University

• Harvard Graduate School of Design

• Harvard GSD

• Harvard GSE

• Howard University

• Illinois Institute of Technology

• Iowa State University

• Kansas State University

• Kennesaw State University

• Kent State University

• Louisiana State University

• MIT

• Mississippi State University

• Morgan State University

• New York Institute of Technology

• New York Institute of Technology, Long Island

• NOMAS - North Carolina State University

• NOMAS at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• NOMAS Oklahoma State

• NOMAS Oklahoma State University

• NOMAS University of California Los Angeles

• NOMAS/ University of Tennessee, Knoxville

• NOMAS-SAIC

• North Carolina State University

• Oklahoma State University

• Pratt Institute

• Princeton University

• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

• Santa Monica College

• Savannah College of Art and Design

• SMCNOMAS / Santa Monica College

• Southern California Institute of Architecture

• Syracuse University

• The Ohio State University

• The Pennsylvania State University

• The University of Texas at Austin - NOMAS

• The University of Virginia

• Thomas Jefferson University

• Tulane

• Tuskegee University

• UBC

• UCLA

• Umn

• University of California Berkeley

• University of California, Los Angeles

• University of Detroit Mercy

• University of Florida - School of Architecture

• University of Kentucky

• University of Maryland

• University of Michigan NOMAS Chapter

• University of Minnesota

• University of Oklahoma

• University of Southern California

• University of Texas at Austin - NOMAS

• University of the District of Columbia

• Washington University in St. Louis

• Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania

• Wentworth Institute of Technology

• Woodbury University

• Yale School of Architecture