Graduating LTU architecture student named one of North America’s top 100

SOUTHFIELD-Emily Bigelow of Portland, Mich., has been named to the Metropolis magazine Future100 Class of 2024, an elite list of North America's top 100 architecture and interior design students in their graduating year.

Bigelow will graduate May 4 with a Master of Architecture degree from LTU. She earned a Bachelor of Architecture at LTU a year ago.

Metropolis is an internationally recognized design and architecture magazine with a strong focus on ethics, innovation, and sustainability in the creative sector. Metropolis officials say the Future100 is a prestigious national recognition offered to architecture and interior design students who represent the best and brightest in their field.

Bigelow is currently working at the Ferndale architecture firm Fusco, Schaffer and Pappas Inc., with a focus on affordable housing projects. Eventually, she said, she'd "like to move into environmental design work."

Bigelow said she was introduced to architecture as a career when she was in the eighth grade through a cousin's husband, who was working in the field. "I toured a few campuses in Michigan, and being from a small town like Portland, I was just really drawn to a campus like LTU, and how they talked about the program-hands-on and small class sizes," she said.

And, she said, her LTU education prepared her well to hit the ground running in architecture.

Bigelow's portfolio includes everything from design work to save threatened mangrove trees in Indonesia to a design for a sports and recreation complex on the shore of the St. Marys River in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. At LTU, she has been involved in the university's chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students and was inducted into Tau Sigma Delta, the national honor society for architecture and design students.

Bigelow was nominated for the Future100 honor by Scott Shall, professor of architecture in the LTU College of Architecture and Design.

"Emily Bigelow's thesis work developing an architecture capable of nurturing the mangrove forests of Indonesia is thoughtful, grounded and creative," Shall said. "She is an exemplary student, and a worthy inductee into Metropolis' Future100 Class."

In announcing the Future100, Metropolis said in a news release: "The 100 students featured here represent some of the most extraordinary young designers from the class of 2024. Their portfolios are awash with beautiful spaces and buildings, but beyond their visual prowess they demonstrate a deep understanding of their responsibility to make an impact through design. With empathy and maturity, they address community, culture, inclusivity, and sustainability through detailed research, fresh methodologies, and innovative materiality-establishing their rising star status and proving their merit as they embark on their careers."

Lawrence Technological Universityis one of only 13 private, technological, comprehensive doctoral universities in the United States. Located in Southfield, Mich., LTU was founded in 1932 and offers more than 100 programs through its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, Engineering, and Health Sciences, as well as Specs@LTU as part of its growing Center for Professional Development. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation's top 11 percent of universities for alumni salaries. Forbes and The Wall Street Journal rank LTU among the nation's top 10 percent. U.S. News and World Report list it in the top tier of the best Midwest colleges. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, "theory and practice" education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech's 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.

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