Daniel Modlin accepts $2000.00 scholarship prize from selection committee
chair Robert Imboden and Councilwoman Tita Smith.

Student architect wins scholarship

By Annalisa Goode
Communication

A large, treeless space sealed in concrete and asphalt is usually not a welcome site in any community. However it is a welcome challenge to Daniel Modlin, an up-and-coming architect and winner of the 2010 Old Towne Preservation Association Anne Siebert Scholarship.

Modlin, 26 is in his last year of the Masters of Architecture program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. His thesis project, to be presented in January, proposes an adaptive re-use for a 1965 automotive dealership.

“Daniel is extremely interested in the built environment and how it evolves,” said Lauren Bricker, professor of architecture at Cal Poly Pomona.

Ingenuity and hands-on experience were factors that impressed Robert Imboden, Historic Preservation Consultant and chair of the Anne Siebert Scholarship committee.

“Daniel’s initiative and ability to step out at the level of a master’s student is quite impressive, and is more in line with what one might expect from a doctoral candidate” said Imboden.

Outside of school he stays involved with preservation issues by volunteering on behalf of the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Modern Committee. He helped prepare a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument nomination for an imperiled house that was designed by noted architect Rudolph Schindler.

“Daniel is a terrific writer,” said Bricker. “The written portion of his thesis is outstanding and the proposal he wrote for a Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Monument was really unheard of. My colleagues and I were very impressed that a student would do that," she said.

“He clearly demonstrated his interest and connection to Southern California history and architecture, which was also important to the committee,” said Imboden.

The nomination was eventually approved by Los Angeles City Council and the property is now L.A. Historic-Cultural Monument #974.

Seeking new resources between school terms Modlin is currently working with the Annenberg Foundation Trust, archiving the architectural drawing collection of the historic Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage.

He will be seeking an internship with an architecture firm when he completes his degree and hopes to find an opportunity to pursue his involvement with historic preservation on a professional level.

The application period for the 2011 OTPA Anne Siebert Scholarship is from Jan 31 - March 4, 2011. For more information regarding OTPA please visit http://www.otpa.org/scholarship.html.