Three California State University, Fresno interior design students have won top regional and national honors in recent student design competitions while two others won honorable mentions.

Andrea Gaestel, a senior from Merced, took first place in the International Design Association (IIDA) Student Competitions last month using computer generated 2D and 3D images to show conversion of a Victorian building in Oakland into a modern hotel.

Gaestel won an $850 award sharing first place with a student from San Francisco’s Academy of Arts.

“It is a very demanding and time consuming competition and I feel quite honored to have been successful in gaining the first prize,” said Gaestel who is now employed by TMR Enterprises, a subsidiary of Table Mountain Casino.

Her design included 18 guest suites, a lobby area, cafe, business area, kitchen and a night club done on AutoCad R14 and brought up in 3D but rendered by hand due to time constraints

Amy Phornprathipdeva, a senior from Fresno, won first place nationally in the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Educational/Foundation Yale R. Burge Competition in which student work was judged from submitted slides.

Earlier this year, Brook Levin, a senior from Fresno, took first in the Universal House design category of the ASID/KBA 2000 Student Career Forum Competition held in San Francisco.

She hand-drafted and rendered her design solution for a universal house design which would serve the special needs of aging and/or non ambulatory populations while being an attractive and livable retirement space. The house was 2,500 square feet in size.

Gaestel and Phornprathipdeva also won second and third place honors in the ASID/KBA Bathroom Design competition that was held in March in San Francisco.

More recently, four students, including Gaestel and Phornprathipdeva, won honorable mention at the Pave Design Competition that will be awarded in August.

The other two honorees are Lee Sang Woo and Lusiana, who were required to create and design a teenage shoe store.

The accomplished students worked under the direction of Fresno State interior design professors Patricia Hennings, herself an award-winning designer with expertise in the health care field; Diane Seah, an expert in computer generated design and 3D rendering; Richard McQuione, a registered architect who is a lighting expert and helps the students with all aspects of structural architecture; and Nancy Brian, an expert in residential and commercial design, and space planing and rendering.

“The interior design program at Fresno State is considered by many experts as one of the best in the nation,” said Brian, who is chairperson of the Department of Art and Design where the Interior Design Program is housed in the university’s College of Arts and Humanities.

The program is accredited by the Foundation for Interior Design Education Research (FIDER ), which Brian said “is an organization whose approval is most difficult to get.”

Fresno State graduates have worked for major national firms such as Skidmore Owens and Merrill, Herman Miller, and others throughout the nation, she said.

“All of our graduates for the last several years have obtained very good positions in Fresno, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego and in other parts of the nation,” Brian said. “Our graduates are sought after for their broad knowledge in all of the majors aspects of the profession.”

For more information, contact Hennings at 278-2916 or Seah at 278-2046.