APDesign In the News

The College of Architecture, Planning, and Design celebrates two recent national medal winners for student research

Each Spring, the international Architectural Research Centers Consortium awards King Student Medals for Excellence in Architectural + Environmental Research. Each member university is able to specify their selection process for a single medalist nominee, so long as selection is based upon criteria that acknowledge innovation, integrity, and scholarship in architectural and/or environmental design research.

The College of Architecture, Planning, and Design convenes a confidential jury of K-State faculty researchers across arts, humanities, social sciences and education, and natural and physical sciences, to select the medalist by reviewing student research projects and theses.

The 2024 ARCC King Medal jury selected landscape architecture graduate, Landon Ochsner (MLA’24) for his master’s project report, “Heartburn: mitigating wildfire risk to interface communities in America's heartland.” According to Ochsner, “Wildfire is one of many natural processes becoming an increasing threat to communities as climate change intensifies and development expands into vulnerable landscapes. Though the Great Plains often feels insulated from the most obvious effects of climate change, we remain vulnerable to unprecedented weather events and need to act before they happen. Landscape architects are uniquely positioned to address this challenge by shaping land use and development, influencing environmental policy, and designing resilient landscapes—especially in the Great Plains, where much of this work has yet to occur.” Associate Professor Hyung Jin Kim (department of landscape architecture and regional and community planning) supervised Ochsner’s master’s report.

The 2025 ARCC King Medal jury selected regional and community planning graduate, Bethany Stock (MRCP’25) for her master’s project report, “Zoned out: Land use policy and the unhoused in Des Moines, Iowa.” According to Stock, “The findings reveal that land use policy is not a neutral framework but a significant force in shaping urban inequality.” Stock’s project abstract notes, “Importantly, the research focuses on a mid-sized Midwestern city—an area often overlooked in contemporary housing scholarship, which tends to privilege large coastal metropolitan regions. By centering the Midwest, this work challenges dominant narratives about where housing crises occur and provides nuanced insights applicable to a broader range of urban contexts.” Associate Professor Susmita Rishi (department of landscape architecture and regional and community planning) supervised Stock’s master’s report.

Jurors for both the 2024 and 2025 medals noted that the quality of student research submissions far surpassed their expectations and represented thorough, creative, and valuable research inquiry.