Two Award Wins at NOMA Design Awards

Two AC Martin designed projects have won awards for design excellence in the 2024 National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) design awards program. Together California: A Village for Brothers and Sisters in Palmdale, California won the award for Design Excellence in the Community Oriented Project category, and The Autodesk Technology Engagement Center at California State University, Northridge won the award for Design Excellence in the Large Unbuilt Project category. AC Martin is grateful to NOMA for this honor.

 Together California: A Village for Brothers and Sisters

Together California: A Village for Brothers and Sisters in Palmdale, California transforms the foster care experience by providing a holistic sanctuary where siblings can grow, learn, and thrive together. This innovative environment, rooted in sustainable design principles, offers a supportive community that fosters their development and well-being. Our design ensures that children in these homes, under the temporary custody of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, have a stable living environment. Full-time live-in foster parents, employed by Together California, do not have a lease or rental agreement and are not charged rent during their employment, as per the foster agreement. This model reduces financial burdens, allowing foster parents to focus on providing quality care and support for the children. The project broke ground in 2024.

CSUN Autodesk Technology Engagement Hub

The Autodesk Technology Engagement Center at California State University, Northridge includes the Global Hispanic Serving Institute Equity Innovation Hub. The project focuses on closing equity gaps in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways and inspiring historically underrepresented minority students to pursue careers in STEM. This 34,000 square-foot center emphasizes interdisciplinary design, featuring labs for engineering, prototyping, pre-manufacture, and iterative design, and an incubator space for collaboration with Industry. Flexible spaces support ideation and innovation, while the campus and community makerspaces foster creativity and cross discipline collaboration. The project is currently under construction and will be completed in 2025.