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| “It's not just about the study of architecture alone. It's also seeing the students like Colin hit a turning point and find their life's work." - Kip Dickson, |
“Colin talked about architecture all the time,” says his friend, Steve Key, a Cal Poly Pomona architecture student who graduated last May. “He really had a knack for it and loved designing. It’s just what he was about.”
Colin Lewis Hotaling was in his fourth year of Cal Poly Pomona’s five-year architectural degree program when he died unexpectedly from a heart attack during a study trip in Copenhagen in February 2004. He was 22. His passion for architecture and his love of the university led his parents, Patti Lewis and Keith Hotaling, to establish a memorial scholarship to honor him and to support future Cal Poly Pomona students who share the enthusiasm and talent for architecture he had.
“He loved being a student, and he loved traveling and seeing buildings.
He especially loved modern art and design. When he went to Cal Poly
Pomona, he was very happy because the Los Angeles area is so rich in
architectural design,” says his mother. “Colin really came into his own at
Cal Poly Pomona, and he was the happiest there, so we chose to honor
him by focusing on that period in his life in creating this scholarship.”
With the generosity of Colin’s friends and family, a $12,000 endowment was established, and his parents continue to contribute $2,000 annually. This year, the inaugural $2,500 scholarship was awarded to Lucas Reames, a fourth-year architecture student who is also the president of the on-campus chapter of American Institute of Architecture Students at Cal Poly Pomona, and by all accounts — from professors to friends — Reames shares Hotaling’s love of both school and his field of study.
“Becoming an architect is not a decision, you just are one,” says Reames, who recognized his life’s goal while in an elementary school technical-drawing class. However, it’s an expensive major, he says.
“Tuition is the least expensive part of it. For each project, we want to knock the socks off our professors, and the supplies — basswood and plexiglass — are expensive. One of the best things about this scholarship is that I was able to buy 3-D modeling software.”
Reames will focus on designing “buildings that affect a lot of people and designs that make people’s lives better and fit into the environment. Right now, there are a lot of crazy designs set over the same old box, but I’m interested in creating a space and not just an envelope.”
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| Steve Key shares the love of architecture that undeniably meant a great deal to friend Colin Lewis Hotaling, whose parents established a scholarship in his name. | |
This year, the architecture department could accept only 100 of the 1,500 students who applied. With sought-after graduates and an award-winning program that is now impacted, the college is in need of expansion.
To that end, Dean Karen Hanna is leading the charge to raise funds for a new building that will house the college’s offices, classrooms and studios used by faculty and students that are currently housed in more than eight different campus locations, under one roof.
“We are turning away a lot of quality students, and with a new facility, we could easily grow to 2,500 students in the college,” says Hanna. “Right now, we are limited only by the space that we have, and truthfully, it’s also crucial that we do so in order to guarantee continued accreditation.”
Support and recognition of Cal Poly Pomona’s superior architecture program in the form of gifts such as the Colin Lewis Hotaling Scholarship are continued testament to the value and quality of Cal Poly Pomona’s programs and their ability to inspire students to launch into successful careers.
“Colin was the quintessential example of a student who found his home and mission here,” says Kip Dickson, professor of architecture.
“It’s not just about the study of architecture alone. It’s also seeing students like Colin hit a turning point and find their life’s work.”
For more information about the
College of Environmental Design
Carrie Geurts
Director of Development
(909) 869-4468
clgeurts@csupomona.edu
©
2005 California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
3801 W. Temple Ave. Pomona, CA 91768