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# Architecture students draw top honors
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/architecture-students-draw-top-honors/
- Published: 2005-04-30T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:51:38.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Promenade, #archive-import

*By Daily Press staff*

Two Santa Monica College students competed against more than 30 students from a wide variety of universities — including top architecture and design schools — to capture the first-place award in a prestigious Southern California design competition.

The SMC team of James Butterly and Carlos Munoz won the American Institute of Architects/Los Angeles Interior Architecture 2005 Annual Design Competition for four-year universities and two-year colleges in Southern California. The top honors came with a $10,000 prize.

Butterly and Munoz were among 36 students competing from 18 schools, including the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Otis School of Art & Design, USC, Art Center College of Design and San Diego State University.

Students were given six hours to design an unusual project — an entertainment venue that would attract young people in their 20s but would also secretly be used by the American intelligence community to recruit the nation’s “best and brightest young talent.” The 6,000-square-foot venue was to be located on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

Butterly and Munoz designed a hip cyber restaurant/bar/café that included computer stations for Internet access and sophisticated video games. They created an elaborate scenario in which the computer game players were monitored by members of the CIA and other intelligence agencies to find potential recruits. Those who displayed special decoding abilities would be given access to a VIP mezzanine area to meet with recruiting agents.

Butterly lives in Los Angeles and Munoz lives in Santa Monica.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 30, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/043005.pdf?ref=smdp.com)