Chicago’s lakefront can be blustery at this time of year, but recently judges at the Metal Construction Association’s (MCA’s) ninth annual Student Competition were treated to visions of what could occur in the summer months on Lake Michigan’s shores.

On November 15 the panel of seven judges reviewed 123 designs submitted by students from 20 universities across North America for a new beach house, waterfront amphitheatre, observation tower, and a restaurant to be located at Montrose Harbor, about six miles north of downtown Chicago.

The judges awarded first and second place in the 2006 MCA Student Design Competition to designs by students from the University of Utah School of Architecture and Planning in Salt Lake City. Matthew T. Hintze won first place and Michael Dolan won second. Both students were sponsored by Associate Professor Patrick Tripeny.

Third place went to Sung Park, a student in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois – Chicago sponsored by Adjunct Assistant Professor Karla Sierralta.

Honorable mentions went to: Thomas Michael of the University of Illinois – Chicago, sponsored by Karla Sierralta; Jaren Peterson and Alex Chou of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, sponsored by Matt Jarosz; Jacob Simanowitz of the University of Kansas, sponsored by Murali Ramaswami; and Xavier Cantu of the University of Texas at Austin, sponsored by Richard P. Swallow.

For the first place entry, Matthew Hintze will receive $2,500, his school $1,500 and his faculty sponsor $500. Michael Dolan will be awarded $1,500 for his second place entry, $750 will go to the school, and $250 to the faculty sponsor. The $500 third prize goes to Sung Park. His school will receive $250 and his faculty sponsor will receive $50.

Individuals or groups of students can submit designs, but each entry must have a faculty sponsor. Awards are funded by MCA, which has awarded $5,750 each year for the past eight years to students, faculty sponsors and schools of the winning entries. Starting with this 2006 competition, MCA increased the total prize money to $7,800.

This year’s judges, all from Chicago except as shown, were: Dirk Danker AIA, principal of Nagle Hartray Danker Kagan McKay Penney Architects Ltd; Mark Dewalt AIA, principal at Valerio Dewalt Train Associates; Eric Ellis, project manager for the American Collegiate Schools of Architecture (Washington, D.C.); Khatija Hashmy AIA, chief architect for planning and development of the Chicago Park District; Andy Koglin AIA, vice president of OKW Architects; and Rob Rejman, director of lakefront construction for the Chicago Park District.

The judges noted that the work of Frank Gehry that shows the strength and fluidity of metal was an inspiration for many of this year’s entries. “Metal is strong but can be lightweight enough to allow you to express many different things. That showed consistently in these designs that had a lot of free, uninterrupted use of metal,” Koglin said.

Spitzer added: “A lot of the submissions showed how metal can express a textural quality on a building. Metal is malleable but some of the designs needed a sense of refinement with its use while others were more able to control it.”

Hashmy, who has been a judge in the competition for 5 years, commented that the design submissions get more complex each year, but students can sometimes miss fulfilling some key points in the program criteria, particularly about the environment and the site.

Tripeny also noted that evaluating the site was difficult. His students spent six weeks on their designs, working about two weeks as groups of two or three and then for four weeks as individuals. “Their biggest challenge was definitely the site—understanding the harbor and where the views were, how people move across it, and the role of the park in the larger context of the lakefront, the area around it, and its relationship to the rest of Chicago. They pulled up everything they could find from the library and books on Chicago parks and did a number of Internet searches that included viewing online aerial maps.”

Third-place winner Sung Park had the advantage of being located in Chicago and personally visiting the site. “We visited the site as a class, but the students also had the opportunity to visit the site multiple times at different hours and days individually. All 18 of the students in my class submitted entries and started working on them on August 28, but their biggest challenge was time,” said Park’s sponsor Karla Sierralta. This was the first time she sponsored students in a competition of this type.

Now in its ninth year, this annual MCA competition offers a chance for students in schools of architecture to learn about designing and building with metal. Entrants must address architectural, structural, functional, cultural, and environmental issues in the design of a project that uses metal in sheets or other forms as well as metal structural members.

Each year a new project theme is developed by a team of architects and Chicago Park District planners headed by Andy Koglin, who also drafts the conceptual project specifications. Typically, the project is related to recreation and based on an actual Chicago Park District site. In addition to designing the structures this year, entrants were required to consider location, climate, the local community and history of the area, as well as environmental restoration of the area.

Plans also had to utilize “green building” concepts as defined by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED building standards. Metal, a completely recyclable material with high recycled content, was required as the primary structural material and for architectural applications but other materials could also be specified in the design.

This year MCA also worked with the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, which publicized the 2006 competition in its ACSA News, on its Web site and through electronic and postal mail to its 2,500 U.S. and Canadian members. This promotion and the growing use of metal were factors in the record number of entries.

Submissions for 2006 were received from: Alfred State College (Alfred, N.Y.); Univ. of Arizona (Tucson, Ariz.); Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes (Mexico); Univ. of California (Berkley, Calif.); Florida A & M (Tallahassee, Fla.); Florida Atlantic (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.); Univ. of Illinois (Chicago); Univ. of Illinois (Champaign, Ill.); Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago); Univ. of Idaho (Moscow, Idaho); Univ. of Kansas (Lawrence, Kan.); Miami Univ. (Oxford, Ohio); North Dakota State Univ. (Fargo, N.D.); Univ. of Oklahoma (Norman, Okla.); Penn State Univ. (University Park, Pa.); Univ. of Southern California (Los Angeles); Univ. of Texas (Arlington, Texas); Univ. of Texas (Austin, Texas); Univ. of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah); and Univ. of Wisconsin (Milwaukee).

MCA is an organization of manufacturers and suppliers whose metal products are used in structures throughout the world. The association promotes the use of metal in construction through education, marketing support, technical programs, monitoring of industry issues and achievement awards. The Student Design Competition is just one of MCA’s design award programs.

To learn more about the MCA visit www.metalconstruction.org. To view specifics of the Student Design Program and the 2006 winning entries, visit www.metalconstruction.org/about_mca/index.cfm?pg=06studentawards.htm.