Interior Design students are competing to create environmentally responsible design for Highwoods Properties, Inc.

Meredith College interior design students are participating in a green interior design competition, sponsored by Highwoods Properties, Inc., the largest owner and operator of suburban office properties in the Southeast.

Eleven students will be competing to create an environmentally responsible design for a 5,200-square-foot office space at Highwoods’ ENERGY STAR and Green Globes certified 3600 Glenwood building.

“We are pleased to be working with Meredith’s renowned interior design program,” said Thomas “Skip” Hill, Highwoods’ Raleigh Division vice president. “This is a great opportunity for students to apply their design skills to a real-life situation where they can demonstrate their talent and creativity. We’re very excited to see their ideas.”

Jane Crowley, associate professor of human environmental sciences in the interior design program at Meredith College said, “This competition will give our students valuable experience that they can take with them when they graduate. The students are very excited about the project and appreciate that they will be receiving constructive feedback about their designs from such a well-respected real estate firm.”

The students started the project on October 13, 2010, and they are slated to present their designs to the judging panel, which consists of Skip Hill and several Highwoods team members, Ellen Goode, Meredith College professor of human environmental sciences in the interior design program, and Sarah Johnson Troutman with HagerSmith, on Wednesday, December 1, 2010. The winner of the competition will be presented with a $500 check during a special event at 3600 Glenwood on December 2, 2010.

Highwoods Properties, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a publicly traded real estate investment trust and a member of the S&P MidCap 400 Index. The company is the largest owner and operator of suburban office properties in the Southeast and provides leasing, management, development, construction and other customer-related services for its properties and for third parties. At September 30, 2010, Highwoods owned or had an interest in 329 in-service office, industrial and retail properties encompassing approximately 32.3 million square feet and owned 581 acres of development land. The Company’s properties and development land are located in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. For more information about Highwoods Properties, visit www.highwoods.com.

Meredith College has the only Council for Interior Design Accreditation accredited interior design program in the Triangle area. For more information on interior design at Meredith, visit www.meredith.edu/hes/interior-design.

Date Submitted: 2010-10-15