Meet the Curbed Young Guns Semifinalists for 2013

After months of sifting through hundreds of nominations, interviewing panelists on the official selection committee, and examining supporting materials, the shortlist for the 2013 class of Curbed Young Guns is complete and ready for its debut.

As previously mentioned, Curbed Young Guns aims to identify the most promising up-and-coming talent in the fields of architecture, interior design, and urban development, whether they're a junior architect or draftperson, interior design assistant or fearless head of a newly launched firm. The criteria are simple: nominees must be under 35 years of age (or have worked in their chosen field for less than five years) and must be currently employed in the United States. All must show extraordinary promise.

Before we pull back the curtain on this year's semifinalists, and in the spirit of transparency, a few words about the process. There are a ton of people doing amazing and creative things all over the country, and we were floored by the response to this debut Young Guns competition. That said, as the program grows in the years to come we hope to unearth as much emergent talent in small towns as we do in large cities, and we intend to make a stronger push for supporting materials (e.g. photos and renderings, project descriptions, prior press coverage) during our public-nominations period. It's our hope that future Young Guns panelists will all receive thorough, well-organized portfolios for each promising nominee.

Another lesson learned: the idea of collaboration is intrinsic to these industries. The nominee redecorating a historic house in Houston and the one who won an AIA award for the modern renovation of the common spaces in a Chicago loft building spoke much the same language: neither wanted to take full credit for their accomplishments, both wanted to tip the cowboy hat to their colleagues. In fact, a major firm—hint: the big-boss starchitect's last name rhymes with the word "flier"—withdrew its two truly stellar nominees late last week to avoid creating competition in the office. So while each person on the list below absolutely deserves to be here by their own accord, we will honor not only the projects they've headed, the rooms they've designed, and the spaces they've created, but also their roles within their larger teams, whether that's as a manager overseeing a staff of 20 or as a brand-new, fresh-out-of-school hire.

While some of the below will be complete unknowns and others, perhaps, have enjoyed a hint of public attention already, all will have distinguished themselves in some way, whether it's by cutting their teeth in old-school decorating firms, where tenets of space-planning and proportion are considered gospel; planting a cluster of stylish affordable housing in an impoverished city in need of some; overseeing much of the interiors of Brooklyn's new Barclays Center, or eschewing the notion that a developer cannot, too, be obsessed with every single decorative accessory and trim that fills his projects. Starting this week, Curbed will present profiles of many of these semifinalists, including recommendations from the selection committee, video profiles, and much more. And in mid August, our Young Guns Class of 2013 will be unveiled. Without further ado...

The Curbed Young Guns Semifinalists for 2013

Venesa Alicea, Dattner Architects, New York
Andres Arcila, Naturalficial, Inc., Miami
Sam Batchelor, DesignLAB Architects, Boston
Carina Bien-Willner, Bien-Willner Architects, Los Angeles
Sally Breer, Commingle Home and Shopclass LA, Los Angeles
Pam Campbell, COOKFOX Architects, New York
Bachman Clem, Bachman Brown Design, New York
Allison C. Cooke, CORE, Washington DC
Alison Davin, Jute Home, Mill Valley, Calif.
Tamara Eaton, Tamara Eaton Design, New York
Joshua Greene, Sawyer Berson, New York
Ari Heckman, ASH NYC, New York
Max Humphrey, Burnham Design, Los Angeles
Catherine Kwong, Cathering Kwong Design, San Francisco
Jason Lederer, Charles River Conservancy, Cambridge, Mass.
Alfonso Medina, T38 Studio, New York
Daniel Miller, Fundrise, Washington DC
Krista Ninivaggi, SHoP Architects, New York
Catherine Olasky and Maximilian Sinsteden, Olasky & Sinsteden, New York/Houston
Vladimir Radutny, SIDE Architecture, Chicago
Dylan Salmons, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, Philadelphia
Matthew Strange, Thomas Balsley Associates, New York
Eric Tan, Gensler, New York
Michael Walczak, Stratum Builders, Chicago
Kyle Weeks, Jennifer Post Design, New York
Jeff Weinstein, UIA Management, Miami
Justine Zielinski, AvroKO, San Francisco

· All Young Guns 2013 coverage [Curbed National]