UWM wins design competition

A team of architectural students from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM) won the top prize in the design competition at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), held last weekend in Chicago. The team's "ExoSkeleton" structures, to be placed throughout Millennium Park and the Daley Bicentennial Plaza, are made of steel Hollow Structural Sections (HSS). They were designed to connect and unify the park and plaza and to encourage tourist and visitor traffic, while responding to the Frank Gehry-designed Music Pavilion and bridge.

Judging the competition were Guy Nordenson, a structural engineer and designer, whose firm designed the 2,000-ft.-tall World Trade Center Tower One, which will become the Freedom Tower in New York City, and Reed A. Kroloff, Dean of Tulane University's School of Architecture and former Editor-in-Chief of Architecture Magazine. At an awards luncheon, the judges praised the winning design as being so "thorough and sophisticated it appeared to have been done by professional architects."

The winning design provides a pedestrian connection between the park and plaza using permanent lantern-like HSS structures to host a series of different and ever-changing functions. The judges complimented the team on its exceptional and sophisticated drawings and on the elegance and simplicity of its design. Nordenson said the group's use of square and rectangular HSS tubing took advantage of the "crispness of the tubes" to create the unique ExoSkeletons. Kroloff praised the students for taking advantage of the design flexibility and light weight of HSS tubing in their concepts and of the inventive ways in which they had bolted and welded the tubes together.

The competition was limited to 12 teams and drew schools from as far away as Virginia, Kansas, Alabama, Minnesota, and Montreal. Members of the winning team were: Brian Domini, Thomas Schmitt and Christophe Ludwig.

In addition to the winning team, which received a $2,000 first place prize, three other teams were recognized for outstanding designs. They include: a team from the University of Montreal, which won second place and a $500 award for its "Structural Crystallization." The design featured fluid combinations of round, square and rectangular HSS that appear to replicate and transform into an indoor/outdoor cafe and chess pavilion. The team members were Darrel Renold and Maxine Moreau. Teams from the University of Minnesota and Virginia Tech received honorable mention awards.