Westlake Students Win Model Home Contest

WESTLAKE, OH — A team of Westlake High School students won five of the top 10 awards at The Great Big Home and Garden Show's Student Model Home Design Contest. The students' work will be displayed during the show, which runs from Jan. 31 to Feb. 9.

The Westlake team of Jacob Meyer, Mickey Hamila, Drew Mather and Arya Kirpekar took first place and the overall grand prize, winning a $1,000 scholarship. They also won the specialty categories of "Best Model," "Best Presentation," "Best Smart Home Technology," "Best CAD/3D Drawings," and the "Architectural Design Award of Merit."

Westlake High teams also won third, fourth, fifth and sixth place prizes in the overall contest. The students' work will be displayed during The Great Big Home & Garden Show, in booth 922, near the Ferris wheel.

This year, students worked with developers to design model single family houses. Each group of students was given the parameters of a typical housing lot to use as the basis for the design. Participants had to adhere to Cleveland's building and housing codes in their designs.

The goal of the program was to design affordable, full-time homes for families who want to live in Cleveland. Smart and green technology had to be incorporated into the design, wherever possible. The total possible budget for the program was $242,000.

This year's contest included the work of 93 students from seven Ohio schools. Participating schools include Westlake High, Avon Lake High, Auburn Career Center, Excel TECC (Mayfield Schools), Theordore Roosevelt High (Kent), 4 Cities Compact (Wadsworth) and Cuyahoga Valley Career Center.