For the Week of January 5th

Emick Howard & Seibert Inc. (Seattle architecture and interior design firm) has hired Curtis Bales as project manager for corporate and financial projects.

North American Light Spectrum (Danbury, Conn., lighting distributor) announced that Robert Newton has joined the firm as co-owner and managing principal. Newton was previously president and ceo of the industrial division of the Luxo Corp.

The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA, Burbank, Calif., organization supporting the development of the experience industry) has inducted Patrick Gallegos into the office of president. Gallegos is founding principal of Los Angeles-based Gallegos Lighting Design.

The Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee (Washington, D.C., group responsible for making stamp subject and design recommendations to the U.S. Postmaster General) has named Maruchi Santana to its board. Santana is co-founder of Parham Santana, a New York-based brand strategy and design firm.

The DeBartolo Property Group (Tampa, Fla., real estate development and investment firm) has received the rezoning approvals it needs to build a 120,000-square-foot retail center in Newark, Ohio. A Bob Evans restaurant and Tire Kingdom have committed to the site.

Tim Hortons (Oakville, Ont., restaurant chain) will utilize the web-based project management tool from Expesite (Columbus, Ohio) to streamline the opening of its U.S. stores.

The Planning and Visual Education Partnership (St. Louis organization that encourages students to study retail design and planning and visual merchandising) announced the winners of its annual student design competition at the PAVE Gala in New York on Dec. 4, 2003. The competition was open to college students enrolled in two- and four-year visual merchandising, interior design and store planning programs.

Students in four-year programs were challenged to create a name, logo and design for a 600-square-foot toy department within a department store targeting “digital generation” shoppers. Winners in this category were: Yasuhito Haneda, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT, New York), first place and $2500 for the “Europa” concept; Maiko Watanabe, FIT, second place, $1750; Kris Pienschke, Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD, Columbus, Ohio), third place, $1500; and Yoshie Suyama, Academy of Art College (San Francisco), Erin Rountree, CCAD, and Adrienne Tancibok, CCAD, honorable mentions, $500 each.

Students in two-year programs were challenged to design a pair of fixtures for a hypothetical chain of boutique-style toy stores. Winners in this category were: Michael Lebovics, FIT, first place and $2500 for his “replay” fixtures; Youngyeah Sohn, FIT, second place, $1750; Nafsika Lourentlatos, FIT, third place, $1500; and Hyunkyung Cho, FIT, and Aram Chang, FIT, honorable mentions, $500 each.

Also at the PAVE Gala, mannequins decorated by visual merchandisers were auctioned off to raise money for the PAVE student design competition, as well as for financial aid and internships for those studying store design and visual merchandising. Mannequin forms for the auction were donated by sevencontinents (Toronto).

Lamin-Art (Schaumburg, Ill., laminates provider) announced that Jim Sims, president of Indianapolis-based Sims Cabinet Co. Inc. is the winner of its “Where in the World is Annigre Found?” contest. Sims, who correctly answered that Annigre is found in tropical east Africa, won a $3000 travel voucher. Lamin-Art ran the contest to increase fabricators' awareness of the wood species available in its Veneer-Art collection of premium veneers.

Lighting Services Inc (Stony Point, N.Y., lighting systems manufacturer) has received the 2003 Architect's Choice for Excellence (ACE) Award from Architectural Lighting Magazine.