FIU students’ trees shine at Festival of the Trees

Three trees designed by CARTA students had their moment in the spotlight at the annual event’s opening Nov. 18.

Twenty holiday trees created by leading design firms, as well as architecture and interior design students at FIU, were on display at the opening of the 24^th Annual Festival of the Trees at Coverings Etc. in Miami on Nov. 18.

More than 500 FIU faculty, students, alumni, administrators, friends and family, as well as community supporters and art aficionados attended the event, which serves as a fundraiser for FIU’s Interior Design Endowed Scholarship Fund.

The festival provides and opportunity for the design community to come together and fosters creativity among Panthers like interior design student Nicole Yousefi.

“We were really inspired by the different departments in the College of Architecture + The Arts and wanted to make sure that each one was represented in our tree,” she said of her team’s creation, which utilized “materials that normally people would throw away or not recycle” to keep with “DOING THE RIGHT THING – better design, better world, better lives” theme.

Take a look at these students’ trees, as well as other trees displayed at the festival’s opening.

Throughout the evening guests were encouraged to bid on the original creations and cast their vote for the People’s Choice Award, which this year went to the FIU-student design team of Mohammed Shanti and Pablo Lalaguna. Their tree, sponsored by Lamin Art, also was chosen the Most Responsible by the festival’s panel of judges.

The evening’s other winners were:

Most Inspired Award: M.C. Harry Associates (designer), Workscapes & Turner Construction (sponsor)

Most Global Award: RTKL (designer), Steelcase Group (sponsor)

Most Humanitarian Award: DKOR Interiors (designer), Luxe Cable + Light (sponsor)