top of page

2024

McDowell Opens New Practice in Staunton, Virginia refocusing creative efforts towards projects of a regional and design + build flavor.

2020

The Subterranean Studio receives AIA Virginia Honorable Mention
in the Interior Design Category.

2018

NBC29 and The Daily Progress cover mcdowellespinosa's public presentation in Scottsville, VA

for the adaptive reuse design concepts for The Scottsville Tire Plant

South Carolina Farmhouse Kitchen Shortlisted 

in The Plan Magazine's Kitchen Design Special Contest

Work from McDowell's UVA studio "Building Tolerance" presented at the 106th ACSA Annual Meeting

in Denver, Colorado. 

"Breaking BIM with Abnormal Components" presented at the 106th ACSA Annual Meeting

in Denver Colorado.

McDowell featured in UVAToday

in article called “Architecture Professor’s Firm Takes National Design Award”

2017

mcdowellespinosa architects Win Young Architect of the Year in The Architect’s Newspaper A|N Best of Design Awards

Cornelius Cube wins Second Place

in the Structure of Freedom International Competition for Budapest's Sziget Festival Pavilion

West Heating Rooftop Housing Receives Honorable Mention

NY Build's Affordable Housing Challenge

Sod-Lam Trekking Cabin Wins an Unbuilt Award

in the American Institute of Architects’ DC Chapter Unbuilt Awards Competition

"Unfindable Objects for BIM" selected for ACADIA 2017 Conference

in the Projects Exhibition: Disciplines & Disruption

McDowell showcases "Drift City" in graphic essay for University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture

“The Great Sea Wall—POTUS Jettisons the Southern Wall, Starts Work to

Secure Eastern and Western Borders,” published in Fresh Meat Journal Issue IX Fake Fiction

West Heating Housing Project Highlighted in Lunch Vol. 12

in essay “Ville Spatiale Revisited: Colonizing the Urban Roofscape with Mass

Timber,” within University of Virginia's  Lunch Vol. 12: Tactics.

2016

mcdowellespinosa featured in new book
Young Architects 17: Authenticity. Winners of the 2015 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers 

Drift City Receives Honorable Mention 

in the Laka Competition: Architecture that Reacts 

McDowell's "Breaking BIM" Drawings Receive Honorable Mention

in The Architect's Newspaper A|N Best of Design Awards for Digital Architectural Representation 

Espinosa's "Vessel" Chosen to be Exhibited at University of Texas, Austin

for the The Secret Life of Buildings - Objects Symposium and Exhibition, University of Texas, Austin 

Drift City Receives Honorable Mention 

in Princeton Architectural Press' Pamphlet Architecture 36 Competition: Buoyancy and Floating  

Grundy Youth Center wins an Emerging Professionals Award

by American Institute of Architects DC Chapter

McDowell discusses the future of cities with The Guardian
in article “Story of Cities Future: What will our growing megacities really look like?” by Darran Anderson

2015

mcdowellespinosa wins an Architecture League of NY Prize for "Authenticity"
one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young architects and designers.

Delirious Detroit (The Detroit Incubator for the Avant-Garde) Wins Unbuilt Award

in the American Institute of Architects’ DC Chapter Unbuilt Awards Competition

Turnstile Folly design receives a Jury Citation 

for the Socrates Sculpture Park Folly Competition sponsored by the Architecture League of NY

mcdowellespinosa's "Layered Intelligence" Wins the CHIDesign Competition 
for The Chicago Architecture Foundation's Center for Architecture, Design and Education

“Layered Intelligence” featured in Architecture & Culture No. 415.

an International Journal on Architecture.

mcdowellespinosa’s ‘Layered Intelligence’ Challenges the Typology of Mixed Use Buildings

is title of Eric Oh's article on ArchDaily 

McDowell's "Dear Architecture" Letter wins Honorable Mention 

in Blank Space's Dear Architecture Competition and will be published in upcoming book.  

"City of Blubber" featured in STUDIO Architecture and Urbanism Magazine

in Issue #9: Beyond. An International journal from Milan, Italy. 

"City of Blubber" and "Drift City" featured in New Architecture Assembly Magazine

in Issue 2: On the Edge of Architecture.  An International Academic Journal from the University of Tehran. 

An interview with Seth McDowell published in Catalyst: Lineages / Trajectories

a UVA School of Architecture Journal published by ACTAR. 

UVAToday Features Seth McDowell and mcdowellespinosa

in article by Caroline Newman called “Architecture Professor’s Fantastical Vision for Future Cities Nets Elite Prize”

mcdowellespinosa's work with recycled materials discussed in Triple Pundit

in Jan Lee's article “3 Architects Who are Converting Your Waste to Buildings”

2014

"City of Blubber" featured in LUNCH Vol. 9

in the essay “City of Blubber: a fantasy,” within Lunch Vol. 9: In Excess by University of Virginia's School of Architecture. 

Ghazal Abbasy-Asbagh discusses "Water Fuel"

in "Size Matters" an essay published in Dialectic II: Architecture Between Boom

and Bust —The Journal of the School of Architecture at University of Utah

2013

"My Hair is at MoMA PS1" receives Runner-Up 
in MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program Warm-Up Series Competition

"Water Fuel" Featured in New Book

Architecture For A Green Future, published by LinksBooks, Barcelona. 

"My Hair is at MoMA PS1" Featured in New UVA School of Architecture Book

Catalyst: Conditions/Responses published by ACTAR

"My Hair is at MoMA PS1" receives attention from design and culture blogs

including ArchDaily, Bustler, Archinect, OBJECT LESSON: Architecture and Design News, Inhabitat, and Curbed NY. 

"City of Blubber" selected for the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture in Hong Kong
to be exhibited in  Beyond the Urban Edge: ‘The
Ideal City’ curated by Prof. Colin Fournier

2012

mcdowellespinosa (TempAgency) selected as a Finalist for the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program
by the Museum of Modern Art in NYC

"Water Fuel" wins First Place 
in the 3rd Advanced Architecture Contest: The Self-Sufficient City, sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia

mcdowellespinosa's Water Fuel drawing showcased as cover for new ACTAR book

called Self Sufficient City: Envisioning the Habitat of the Future: 3rd Advanced Architecture Contest

"Drift City" selected as Finalist

in the 3rd Advanced Architecture Contest: The Self-Sufficient City, sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia

 

"Drift City" selected as Runner-Up 

in the Pamphlet Architecture 30 Competition: Investigations in Infrastructure

2021

The Library of Songdo receives AIA Virginia Design Excellence Award
in the Unbuilt Category.

2022

Next New York book released, co-edited by Seth McDowell and Mona El-Khafif
 published by Applied Research + Design Publishing.

McDowell appointed to Director of Graduate Architecture Program at the University of Virginia's School of Architecture.

bottom of page