Dara Huang, BDes 2004, and Carlos Perez, BLA 2004, are recipients of University of Florida’s Outstanding Young Alumni Awards.
The Outstanding Young Alumni Award, established by UF’s Alumni Association, recognizes alumni ages 35 or younger who have distinguished themselves in their profession and community.
Dara Huang is an architect and the creative director at Design Haus Liberty in London, which Huang opened in November 2012.
Huang grew up in multi-cultural surroundings influenced by living in places like Tokyo, Basel and New York City. With an artistic background in mixed media and sculpting, Dara graduated with her BA in Architecture, Summa Cum Laude from UF and received her Masters Degree in Architecture at Harvard University, where she subsequently taught studio that summer.
Previous to setting up her own practice, Dara contributed to the new Tribeca skyscraper, 56 Leonard Street in New York City; The New Tate Modern Museum in London; Manolo Blahnik stores worldwide; and was personally invited to compete for the design of the Samsung Pavilion for the London Olympics 2012.
An admitted life-long student across disciplines, today Huang’s designs reflect a cross between contemporary art, fashion, and industrial and modern architecture. In November 2012, she created DH Liberty Ltd. to fulfill her lifelong dream of running a design firm which combines art, materiality and space. Today, Design Haus Liberty is run as a studio-environment, always seeking new talent and open to creative design ideas.
Carlos Perez is a landscape architect, planner, urban designer/associate at AECOM in Atlanta. He co-leads AECOM’s Parks + Open Space System Planning and Design Practice.
In addition to leading and assisting with business development for local, regional and strategic national pursuits, he serves as the Project Manager, Planner, Landscape Architect and Urban Designer for a variety of projects totaling over $1.2M in planning and design fees. He has focused his professional career in creating livable and sustainable communities through the strategic planning and design of the parks and open spaces.
Perez has worked with over thirty-public agencies nationwide developing city and county-wide visions focused on implementation. Significant projects include Washington D.C. Parks and Recreation Master Plan; City of Raleigh Parks and Recreation System Plan; City of Norfolk Parks and Recreation Master Plan; Downtown San Diego Open Space, Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment, the Re-Visioning of Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta; the Buckhead Greenspace Action Plan in Atlanta.
Additionally, Perez is very involved in professional organizations. He is a Board Member of the Atlanta parks advocacy non-profit organization Park Pride, a founding Board Member of the Atlanta Chapter of Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT), and a founding member of the Gateway Partnership, a non-profit organization in Atlanta looking to revitalize the Martin Luther King Corridor in Atlanta. In addition to receiving a Bachelor’s in Landscape Architecture from UF, Carlos is finalizing a Master in City and Regional Planning and a Master in Urban Design from the Georgia Institute of Technology.