Brandon Shigeta, 2009 Rotch Scholar

Brandon Shigeta of Torrance, California, has been named the 2009 Rotch Travelling Scholarship recipient. Shigeta received a $37,000 stipend to spend eight months studying architecture in Japan, China, Vietnam and Thailand.

As first runner-up, Eric Weyant of Somerville is invited to compete in next year’s final competition without re-entering the preliminary stage and is the 2009 alternate if Shigeta declines the scholarship.

This year’s finalists also included Edward Baxter of Jamaica Plain, Christian Blomquist of Walpole, Alice Carey of Cambridge, Snehal Intwala of Providence, Rhode Island, Christopher Johnson of New York and John Mitchell of Revere.

Thirty-seven competitors participated in the preliminary competition. They were asked to design a canopy system in Downtown Crossing so the Brattle Annex Book Shop could operate a temporary storefront on an empty parcel next door. The design challenge called for a solution that encourages both daytime and nighttime pedestrian traffic.

Eight finalists then moved forward into the second stage of the design competition, where they were charged with developing an interdisciplinary design incubator for the creative economy on a site in Boston’s historically industrial New Market area. The problem focused on the adaptive reuse and transformation of the Boston Ice Company’s ice-storage warehouse.

In his winning scheme, Shigeta presented a solution that preserves the building’s existing concrete shell while introducing natural light into the occupied spaces by punching small holes in the exterior.