(Left to right) SMC Architecture and Interior Architectural Design students Beau Carter, Rico Santana, Jacob Presogna, Kaya Gips, Candice Sledd, River Jordan, Arya Rahmanian, Coco Martino, Prof. Michael Rocchio, Mia Carreto, Prof. Josephine Hao, Marilyn Palacios, Ornella Dubuche, Youxian Luo.
Students visit MAD Architects for industry feedback on their competition project. During an office tour, Flora Lee shows a model of the soon-to-open George Lucas Museum. (Left to Right) Marilyn Palacios, Youxian Luo, River Jordan, Mia Carreto, Beau Carter, Arya Rahmanian.
Goethe famously called architecture “frozen music.” A team of SMC architecture and interior architectural design majors recently put that lofty idea to work—and gained national recognition for their efforts.
In October, the Corsairs made history at the annual Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition, hosted by the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). Their entry, titled Cadence, was inspired by Kansas City’s deep roots in jazz and blues.
SMC is the only community college ever to reach the finals of this prestigious competition, let alone to bring home a trophy. The Corsairs finished third in a field of more than 40 universities, right behind UCLA and Cal Poly Pomona. They leapfrogged ahead of dozens of nationally ranked powerhouses. It was a stunning follow-up to SMC’s performance at the 2024 NOMA conference in Baltimore, where it had come in fifth behind Tulane and Cornell, earning Special Recognition.
A Steep Climb
In an eight-month process that began last February, SMC professors Josephine “Jo” Hao, Javier Cambron and Michael Rocchio shepherded the students along a steep path.
Mia Carreto, 20, was both exhausted and energized by the climb.
“If it wasn’t for Jo, Javier and Michael, I honestly don’t think I would have pushed myself mentally and physically to do so much in terms of design and overall mindset,” says the interior architecture student from Van Nuys, who works part-time with her parents, cleaning an office building.
The original Cadence project had emerged from Mia’s IARC/ARC 30 class, also known as Studio 3. Jo and Javier, who co-teach the advanced design workshop, had tasked last spring’s cohort—a combination of architecture and interior architecture students—with creating a mixed-use development for a blighted neighborhood of Kansas City. Adhering strictly to the NOMA competition guidelines, the semester-long assignment called for three major elements: multi-generational housing, a cultural center and a wildcard of the students’ choosing.
A jury of LA-based architect-mentors chose Cadence as the best of five proposals. Mia was on the original team. The project was then opened to members of the NOMA-affiliated student chapter (NOMAS) for further development as SMC’s official entry. Twelve students—including four original Cadence creators—signed on to work through the summer while earning independent study credit.
The team picked Paseo West in northeast Kansas City for the development site. An underserved community hurt by years of racialized disinvestment, the neighborhood is an easy walk from historic 18th and Vine, where jazz legends Count Basie and Charlie Parker got their start.
None of the SMC designers is a musician, but extensive research into Paseo West’s rich cultural heritage and present-day needs paved the way for practical architectural spaces inspired by concepts of syncopation, harmony and dissonance.
Frozen music, in Goethe’s words.
The Art of Teambuilding
After Cadence was selected as SMC’s competition entry, Jo and Javier had cautioned its designers that an expanded team might propose major changes. But that didn’t happen.
“Everyone was on board once they saw the care and effort and love we’d put in,” says Beau Carter, 30, pointing to many all-nighters the original crew had pulled in his Mar Vista apartment.
It helped that Beau, the son of a carpenter from Lompoc, is an architecture competition veteran. He had presented SMC’s previous award-winning project at the 2024 NOMA national conference in Baltimore.
This year’s presenters were Candice Sledd and Coco Martino, both also original Cadence team members. Current NOMAS club president River Jordan did the voiceover for the presentation video. Rounding out the 13-person Kansas City squad were Rico Santana, Jacob Presogna, Kaya Gips, Arya Rahmanian, Ornella Dubuche, Toma Evans, Marilyn Palacios and Youxian “Roxanna” Luo.
Beau coached the newcomers, setting a brisk pace and shouldering responsibility for the public-facing side of Cadence.
By early August, they were ready to give the required 1-minute Zoom presentation of their concept. An independent jury of architecture professionals selected the top 16 college entries to advance to the final round in Kansas City.
SMC was the only two-year institution to make the shortlist. The remaining teams to beat included California heavyweights UCLA, UC Berkeley and Cal Poly Pomona, and out-of-state powerhouses like the Pratt Institute, Tulane, Texas Tech, University of Washington and University of British Columbia. Several elite architecture programs like USC and Georgia Tech didn’t reach the finals.
Youxian “Roxanna” Luo, an international student from Shanghai, couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Cornell—last year’s third-place winner—knocked out of the race.
“She kept saying: ‘Cornell didn’t make it? We beat Cornell?’ She kept asking me that all day,” Jo recalls, smiling.
Kansas City, Here They Come
Over the next two months, the SMC students raced to execute their ambitious model and fine-tune their long presentation in time for the October 9 competition day in Kansas City.
Roxanna took the lead on landscape design. Mia stepped up on interiors, taking responsibility for two presentation boards detailing Cadence’s ambitious residential housing program, comprised of four loft and townhome plans. Beau produced the architectural animation for the team’s 2-minute presentation video.
Marilyn Palacios, 21, played a key role in fabricating the physical model, operating the architecture lab’s laser cutters and newly installed UltiMaker professional 3D printers. With just one week to go, she’d hustled to output hundreds of files. (Sparks from botched topography laser cuts would occasionally catch fire, so she kept a spray bottle handy.)
When it was finished, the section-cut model was so large it had to be transported piecemeal in carry-on luggage for rapid assembly at the hotel.
Their first night in Kansas City, the bleary-eyed team members toiled into the wee hours, carefully gluing down each miniature wall, tree and human figure. “I think we finished at 4 am,” Marilyn says.
Everyone worked hard, but towards the end, the original Cadence team was losing steam. “They’d been dealing with this since February. We really needed that extra fire from the newer people,” Jo says.
Roxanna and Marilyn cranked up the energy level. Both had joined the Cadence team through SMC’s NOMAS chapter, where they are current board members.
In addition to two years’ experience in landscape architecture from East China Normal University, Roxanna brought a rock-ribbed work ethic to the project.
Marilyn, too, knows all about hard work. Originally from Houston, she’s the child of immigrants from Mexico and El Salvadorwho resettled in Southern California after fleeing Hurricane Harvey. At SMC, she balances a full course load with her internship at an architectural firm in Agoura Hills.
Model Magic
Marilyn sensed Cadence was a strong contender the moment they lugged their trunk-sized model into the Sheraton’s competition area.
“It was humongous. It took two guys to carry it,” she recalls. “Everybody was staring at us. I had to keep my composure, but I felt so excited. I was thinking: ‘We’ve got this. We’re going to win.’”
Privately, Jo agreed. “It was very evident that our project, especially our interior spaces, was really fully developed,” she says.
When it came time for the six-person competition jury to weigh in, they had few words.
“Wow,” one juror had mused. “I’m just looking for something negative to say, and I can’t find it.”
“You went far and beyond what we expected,” another juror commented.
The Corsairs presented early—fifth out of 16. By the time Coco and Candice finished their 10-minute tour de force, the entire team was in tears. The presentation was pitch perfect.
“Everybody’s work, representing countless sleepless nights, was just on display there for all to see,” Marilyn recalls, emotionally.
The Room Where It Happens
It was Mia’s first national conference, and she admits, “I was a little nervous.” But her jitters passed as she looked at the other student projects and fell into conversation with people from different universities.
Wandering around the exhibition hall, Marilyn recalls, “it hit me, like a wave: This is real. We’re competing against schools that offer the master’s degree and other accredited BArch programs.”
Jo was delighted to see university admissions officers actively scouting the Corsairs as potential transfers. They were approached by architectural firms from different cities, all talking up internship opportunities and handing out business cards.
Javier noticed a change in the Corsairs’ attitude: their list of transfer options was growing.
Before, he says, they’d been narrowly focused on local schools: Cal Poly Pomona, Woodbury University in Burbank, or Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in downtown LA.
“Many of them are now looking at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), Pratt, Parsons (School of Design), Tulane and Syracuse. They got exposed, and there’s a sense of confidence,” Javier says.
Though Beau’s first choice remains SCI-Arc, he is now casting a wide net along the Pacific Northwest and as far as Austin, Texas, and Brooklyn, New York.
Roxanna’s top transfer choices remain USC and SCI-Arc, but she’ll also apply to Pratt and Cornell.
A pipeline from SMC to these elite schools is rapidly forming. Several of last year’s architecture cohort were admitted to Tulane, Pratt, RISD, Syracuse and University of Michigan.
More Contests, More Prizes
NOMA isn’t the only competition where SMC is racking up wins. For the last two years, architecture and interior architecture teams have been winning top honors in the Design Village challenge, hosted by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
In 2024, Corsairs took the Most Innovative Design prize in that contest. In 2025, they claimed two out of three top prizes. Team Tentsion (captained by Beau) won Best Theme, and Team Phage won the Best Overall title. (Three separate SMC crews competed in a field of 90 teams drawn from 16 California colleges.)
More SMC teams will be back in the spring now that the Design Village challenge is fully integrated with the ARC 32 (Construction Materials and Methods) course.
As for NOMA, the Corsairs are hoping for a three-peat next October, when the 2026 conference meets in Miami.
Finishing third isn’t good enough, though. Asked about their aspirations, SMC’s architecture faculty exude giddy school spirit.
“We have to beat UCLA and Cal Poly Pomona,” Jo demands, referring to the 2025 NOMA champs.
“We have to get first!” Javier adds, pumping a fist.
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