Nine student design projects have been recognized as winners in the 17th annual Steel Design Student Competition for the 2016-2017 academic year. Administered by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), the competition encourages architecture students from across North America to explore the many functional and aesthetic uses for steel in design and construction. A total of $14,000 in cash prizes was awarded to the winning students and their faculty sponsors.

The competition offered students the opportunity to compete in two separate categories. The museum category challenged students to design a museum and explore ways in which design and imagination could create a popular visitor destination and a city focal point. In the open category, students were given the flexibility to select a site and building program.

The winners in each category are:

Category I – Museum

First Place: Museum of the 20th Century
Student: Justin Foo
Faculty Sponsor: Andrea Simitch
School: Cornell University
Jury comments: “This top winning project is intellectually clever with well-developed section drawings full of life and complexity. The building is designed and articulated in a wonderful way showing a clear connection to the existing surroundings.”

Second Place: Museum of Architecture: Over and Under
Student: Nahid Akram
Faculty Sponsor: Kevin Hinders
School: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Third Place: Loop, Sculpture Museum in Indianapolis
Students: Wei Lin and Meghna Majethiya 
Faculty Sponsors: Scott Murray and Marci S. Uihlein
School: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Honorable Mention: Corrosion of Time
Student: Juncheng Shen
Faculty Sponsor: Clark E. Llewellyn
School: University of Hawaii at Manoa

Honorable Mention: Rhizome Terminal
Students: John Sayegh and Samantha Sowell
Faculty Sponsor: Kevin Stevens
School: University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Category II – Open

First Place: The Public Factory
Student: Kevin Herhusky
Faculty Sponsor: Margarida Yin
School: California Polytechnic State University
Jury comments: “This top winning project explores the use of manufacturing to produce the building. Its integration of public transportation, variety of structures, cantilevers, light weight simple spans and volumetric spaces are all thoroughly designed and well presented.”

Third Place: Summit Climbing Retreat
Students: Daniel Wayne Campbell and Chase Emery Johnson
Faculty Sponsors: Kevin J. Singh and Pasquale De Paola
School: Louisiana Tech University

Honorable Mention: Suspending within Interaction
Student: Kong Ye
Faculty Sponsor: Heinrich Schnoedt
School: Virginia Tech

Honorable Mention: Temporary Fields
Student: Alexis Luna
Faculty Sponsor: Michael Stephen Zdepski
School: New Jersey Institute of Technology

The jurors for the museum category were: Julian Bonder, Wodiczko + Bonder, and Roger Williams University, Bristol, R.I.; Hazel Ruth Edwards, Howard University, Washington D.C.; and Steven Tipping, Tipping Structural Engineers, Berkeley, Calif. The jurors for the open category were: Jeffrey L. Day, MinDay Architects, San Francisco, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha, Neb.; Elizabeth Golden, United 4 Design and University of Washington, Seattle.; and Elizabeth Martin-Malikian, Kennesaw State University, Atlanta.

More than 1,200 students and faculty participated in this year’s competition, and more than 400 entries were submitted. The winning projects will be on display at the 106th ACSA Annual Meeting, March 15-17 in Denver, and the 2018 NASCC: The Steel Conference, April 11-13 in Baltimore.