11.12.25
The 2025 Student Design Exposition and SmithGroup Office Tour
On Thursday, November 6, the LA City Center hosted the Student Design Exposition at SmithGroup‘s LA office. The combined effort of the Student Affairs and Professional Development teams created the first ever expo that also featured an exclusive design tour of the host’s brand new office space.
Interior design students from all over southern California displayed and presented their work to over 100 attendees.
- Cal State Long Beach – Hannah Marzouk, Nixy Yamauchi
- Cal State Northridge – Alexey Pozdnyakov
- Otis College of Art and Design – Vic Hsu, Wally Kelly
- Orange Coast College – Georgia Grisham, Malia Contreras
- Woodbury University – Amy Lopez, Cora Priebe, Gabby Grimm
- Saddleback College – Yearang Song, Natascha Kruusi
- UCLA Extension – Semee Song
- Santa Monica College – Coco Martino, Mia Carreto
The work was judged by Tara Donnelly, Interior Designer at Gensler and IIDA So Cal’s VP of Student Affairs; and Riz Walker, founder of SCALA Studio and Design Professor at UCLA. These esteemed design leaders spent significant time reviewing each project, asked questions and provided feedback to reach their judgement. They awarded:
1st prize:
Hannah Marzouk
Cal State Long Beach
2nd prize:
Cody “Coco” Martino, Santa Monica College
Mia Carreto, Santa Monica College
A vote was taken by all attendees to provide a “People’s Choice” award to:
Nixy Yamauchi, Cal State Long Beach
It was an excellent evening that showcased the talent of rising designers and gathered many to enjoy and explore a gorgeous corporate office project at SmithGroup. Click here to see more photos of the event!
Thank you to the awesome event committee who pulled this together and got over 100 people to attend:
Tara Donnelly, Gensler (VP of Student Affairs)
Asha Perez, SmithGroup (Co-Chair of Student Affairs)
Julie Schettino, Interface
Jill Potts, Interface (Co-Director of LA City Center)
Allison Lim, AECOM
Jillian Robertson, JK&CO (Co-Chair of Professional Development)
Derek Kuksdorf, Arper (Co-Chair of Professional Development)
Vincent Sales, Steelcase (Co-Chair of Student Affairs)
Ryan Peterson, SmithGroup
A huge thank you to the sponsors who contributed the this event’s success:
Event Sponsors
Prize Sponsors