Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Student Places 2nd in Design Contest

A Hart High School student placed second in a national architecture competition Monday for his design of a community youth center.

David Duarte, 18, won a tuition scholarship worth $27,500 to the New Jersey Institute of Technology, which sponsored the competition. Sixty-two high school students entered the competition.

Duarte received the award Monday night at a ceremony at the school in Newark, N. J.

“What we had to design was a community youth center including a gymnasium, a classroom, a game room, a library and other small rooms on the site of our choice,” Duarte said.

Duarte sketched a 17,000-square-foot center to be located near the city’s civic center, between the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station and Valencia Town Center mall. Stacey Hersh, an NJIT spokeswoman, said judges were impressed with his choice of location and color to match the surrounding landscape.

The school received more than 700 requests for packets to enter the competition, but most failed to enter in time due to the complexity of the project, Hersh said.

Duarte said he has wanted to become an architect since the age of 14 and “loves entering contests.” As a freshman he placed third in a high school competition to create a city civic center, and he built a waist-high, wheelchair-accessible garden planter for a Valencia senior center.