Hooch Architect Students Win Prizes, Publishing Honors

Three Chattahoochee High School Architect students earned monetary prizes and pages in the next house-plan book being published by Atlanta Plan Source. Michael Ditto, the first-place winner, received a $100 Apple store gift card, Lucas Ferreira took second place and won $50, and Arianne Perez, the third-place winner, received $25.

The students are in their second year of Gregg Mervich’s Architecture class at Chattahoochee. This past fall the students learned all the aspects of designing a home, including rooms and space needed in new home design. The students then tackled their own custom design of a four-bedroom, 2.5 bath two-story home. The design parameters were set by Jim Wells, owner of Atlanta Plan Source. Wells has been judging final designs and determining winners for the past four years.

“I am constantly amazed at the level of creativity and talent these high school students display," Wells said. "It is always a challenge to determine the winners because all the designs are so good.” Wells’ plan books are sold at home stores around the nation. One of his house plans has been the highest-selling plan in the U.S. for numerous years.

The architecture students took their design ideas from bubble sketches to line sketches and then used Autodesk’s premier building design software, Revit, to draw their house plans. The software allows students to do exterior and interior 3D renderings of their plans as well as floor plans. The final set of plans included a foundation plan and electrical plan as well.

“It is fun to watch the students develop their skills during the four years they can take the Architecture class here at Chattahoochee High School,” said instructor Mervich. Mervich's upper-level architecture students are now working on designing an observation tower for downtown Atlanta as a part of the American Institute of Architects Atlanta chapter high school design contest.