Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-10
BETTER HOME PLAN
Jury MEETS TODAY
Design Contest Prize Winners
in This Region Will Be
Selected.

The first National Better Homes
Architectural Competition, the largest
contest for small house designers ever
developed in this country, which is be-
ing conducted by the Home Owners In
stitute and sponsored in this region by
The Star, will reach the judicial stage
here this afternoon, when the Washing
ton regional jury of award meets In
The Star Building to pass upon the
merits of designs submitted in the Dis
trict and the States in this area.
Prizes totaling $4,000 are offered for
winning designs in the national contest
and $500 will be awarded to the best
three designs selected today by the local
jury. There will be 80 regional prizes
OF $500, and in addition, there will &c
a first grand national prize of $4,000,
a second grand prize of $4,000, and a
third national prize Of 81 500.
r. v. Murphy Will Preside.
Frederick Vernon Murphy, dean Of
the School of Architecture of Catholic
University, chairman of the jury, will
preside over this deliberative session.
Other members Of the jury are: Horace
w. Peaslee, president Of the Washington
chapter of the American Institute of
Architects; Louis Justement, a past
president of the local architects chap
ter; William c. Miller, a past president
of the Washington Real Estate Board,
who recently was elected chairman of
the home builders and subdividers'
division of the National Association of
Real Estate Boards; Samuel H. Kauff-
mann, assistant advertising manager of
The Star, who represents this paper on
the jury; Felix Mahony of the National
School of Fine and Applied Arts, rep
resenting the interior decoration field
on the jury, and Edwin w. Schneider,
Of the firm of Schneider-S pliedt Co.,
representing the building industry.
Regional juries in the IL other areas
in the national contest. under the
sponsorship of IL other leading news
papers, also are to meet this week to
select the three winning designs and
three others deserving honorable men
ton, and when these have been for
warded to the Home Owners Institute,
national jury will proceed to select
the three winners of the grand national
prizes.
Competition Closed June 80.
The actual competition closed June
80 at midnight, the last moment when
plans could be received for considera-
ton In the awarding of prizes
The washington Star received sug-
geSted house plans from architects and
designers in the District of Columbia
and in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia,
West Virginia and North Carolina.
According to reports received here
from the Home Owners Institute, 5000
plans have been entered in the contest
Being about four times the oontestants
ever entered before in similar archi-
tectural competition.
To assure absolute fairness in the
decisions on designs submitted, each
designer has signed nom de plume
to the house designs and In a separate
envelope, is identified by the correct
name. A clerk this afternoon will open
each package of designs received, and
number the plans and privately record
the name of the owner. according to
the numbers given the plans. The jury
thus will have no way of knowing by
nom the plans have been drawn until
after the awards have been decided
upon.
When the prize winning designs have
been selected in the Washington Star
region, these and the honorable men,
ton designs designated by the local
regional jury will be published in The
Star. A public exhibition of all designs
submitted, also is being planned, to be
staged in Washington under the
guidance of the Washington chapter of
the American Institute Of Architects,
the Home Owners Institute and The
Star.
In addition three houses are to be
erected in Greater Washington from
prize winning designs, to give concrete
demonstration of these plans for the
benefit of the public interested in
modern trends in house design, con-
struction and decoration. These three
houses, under present plans, are to be
erected here regardless Of whether local
designers and architects, who have sub
winners.