2026 KATHRYN MARIE FIRNEIS MEMORIAL STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
From R to L: Asaf Yogev, Kathryn Marie Firneis, Octavio Santurio at the 2019 SARA NY Design Awards
The Kathryn Marie Firneis Memorial Student Scholarship for Excellence in Design is in honor of our friend and honorary SARA member Kathy Firneis, beloved wife of our former treasurer and national past president Robert Firneis, and mother of Kyle and Bryan. Kathy loved being involved with SARA and was truly dedicated to the organization and its mission, showing outstanding support to our student participants. Kathy loved connecting architecture students to the vast network of SARA architects. She made sure to introduce every student award winner to as many attending architects and winners as she could to make sure that they could follow up for employment and mentorship. To honor Kathy’s amazing dedication and spirit of paying it forward, we present this scholarship to the top Student Design Award of Excellence annually at the SARA NY Design Awards.
SUBMISSIONS OPEN JANUARY 5TH, 2026
SARA NY Council celebrates excellence in architecture and design through the SARA NY Design Awards, which attracts entries from across the country and around the world from individuals, firms, and students of architecture and allied disciplines. Awards are granted for a wide range of categories and project types, and all entrants will be invited to attend the awards ceremony held in New York, New York on June 4th, 2026 at The New Yorker Hotel. SARA NY Design Awards offer awards of Merit, Honor, and Excellence to both professional and student architects. Submission is open globally. This year SARA NY will be offering a student scholarship of $5000 to an outstanding student project; additional submission requirements required to be considered. Submissions open January 5th, 2026.
*Please remember to credit ALL participating student architects and designers who worked on the submitted project.
SUBMIT YOUR DESIGN PROJECT HERE
*Under CHAPTER, Please Remember to Select SARA NY Council 2026 Design Awards.
Eligibility
All currently enrolled students are eligible to submit applications to the 2026 SARA NY Design Awards for their design projects as small groups, duos, or individuals; projects by an entire class will not be eligible this year. See Project Categories for a complete list. No project may be submitted which has previously received a SARA NY Council Design Award. Projects must credit ALL participating designers on the project. This year, when submitting through AwardForce there will be new subcategories to select if you are a Graduate, Undergraduate, or Associate. If applying for the Scholarship, there will be a separate application to fill out, please read below for Scholarship Eligibility.
KMF Scholarship Eligibility
If applying for this year’s SARA NY’s Kathryn Marie Firneis Memorial Student Scholarship, please note that only individual projects, not collaborations with other students, will be considered for scholarship. To apply to this year’s Katherine Marie Firneis Memorial Student Scholarship, students must submit additional material via this form: SARA NY’s 2026 Scholarship Application Read below for further details.
Scholarship Criteria
Via AwardForce, submit an architecture project you have worked on through your school that you feel is your best work and/or displays your skills the best. This should be the project you submitted on AwardForce. (This year, only individual projects, not collaborations with other students, will be considered for scholarship.) Submitted projects do not have to be from this year/semester but must be submitted as a pdf; required on AwardForce. Projects that have previously won SARA NY Design Awards will not be considered for submission but may be highlighted in your video.
Once you have submitted a project successfully on AwardForce, please fill out the below form, if applying for the SARA NY 2026 KMF Student Scholarship:
In application form, submit a brief one-minute video recording of yourself explaining your passion for architecture, your future goals and aspirations, and how in the future you can help SARA and help promote SARA’s motto “Architect helping Architect”. (.mp4 or .mov file format required)
Submit a copy of your current academic transcript in the application form.
The scholarship recipient must be in attendance for the SARANY Design Awards on June 4th, 2026, to receive the scholarship. The scholarship recipient should also be prepared to give a brief acceptance speech/acknowledgement.
Important Dates
JANUARY 5th, 2026 - SUBMISSIONS OPEN
APRIL 3rd, 2026 - DEADLINE
Deadline for 2025 Design Award Submissions
JUNE 4th, 2026
2025 SARA NY Design Awards
The New Yorker Hotel - 481 8th Ave., New York, NY 10001
6pm-10pm
Awards
Awards will be given with the following distinctions: Excellence, Merit, Honor
*Students don’t need to apply for scholarship to submit to the awards. The scholarship is a separate component this year, please read above under Scholarship Criteria.
Entries were judged based upon any or all of the following:
Clarity of Concept, Strength and Uniqueness of Solution, and Accurate
Scope of Work
Response to Project’s Context of Rural, Suburban, Urban, Campus, or Other
Unique Neighboring Conditions
Appropriateness, Applicability, and Function
Overall Design Aesthetics
Creativity, Innovation, Ingenuity, and Invention
Social/Cultural/Community Relevance
Award recipients will be notified by May 2026.
Awards will be presented at the SARA NY Design Awards Celebration, June 4th, 2026 at The New Yorker Hotel.
Entrants and winners will be invited to attend along with their clients, consultants, contractors, fellow students, professors, and families.
Categories
Entries are to be submitted into any one of the categories listed below. Category assignments may be revised at the discretion of the jury. Each project will be judged upon its own merit separate from other submissions, regardless of category.
Single-Family Residential
Multi-Family Residential: Condominiums, Apartments
Multi-Family Residential: Affordable Housing, Low Income Housing, Market Rate Housing (Quantity and Percentage required.)
Commercial: Office, Retail, Industrial, Mixed-Use
Institutional: Educational, Health-Related, Religious
Cultural
Government
Urban Design
Additions and Small Projects
Renovation, Restoration, and Adaptive Re-use
Sustainable Design
Unbuilt and Theoretical Projects
Architectural Interiors
Landscape Architecture (in any of the above categories)
Planning: City and Regional, Urban, Feasibility Studies
Related Arts: Industrial Design, Furniture, Lighting, Hardware, etc.
Graphic Communication: Rendering, Computer Graphics, Modeling, Virtual Reality Imaging
Material Sciences
Student Projects (in any of the above categories)
Student Entry Fees
Students $30
Venue
The New Yorker Hotel - 481 8th AveNew York, NY 10001
Stay
Hotel recommendations and room group codes TBD.
Questions?
For any queries, please contact SARA|NY Executive Director, Justin Brown, at webmaster@sarany.org.