CHICAGO - Fourteen student projects have won the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Steel Design Student Competition.

This year’s competition offered an open category as well as a prompt that asked students to consider novel approaches to monuments and democratic public space in the 21st century.

“The future of our built environment is in good hands,” said AISC Senior Director of Education Christina Harber, SE, PE. “The concepts dreamed up by this year's entrants are very exciting--and they remind us all that dialogue and inspiration draw their energy from their real-world surroundings. It's thrilling to think about what could happen when communities come together in innovative structural steel buildings like these.”

The projects range from a vision to transform a decommissioned oil rig into a cultural center celebrating local indigenous culture to a meeting space for families divided by the U.S./Mexico border wall to a public discourse space that allows communities to bring social media interactions into the real world.

AISC and ACSA are very grateful to the distinguished judges for their generosity and dedication. These jurors include:

Category I: Towards a New Monumentality

• Julian Bonder, Roger Williams University


• Amanda Dean, Walter P Moore


• Mark Gardner, Parsons School of Design

Category II: Open

• Mohamed Ismail, Massachusetts Institute of Technology


• Soo Jeong Jo, Louisiana State University


• Eric Lumpkin, Thornton Tomasetti

More than 900 students submitted concepts for this year’s competition. Students and faculty sponsors who worked on the following projects have won cash prizes that range between $2,000 and $500. For more information about the competition, please visit acsa-arch.org/competitions/2022-steel-competition.

Category I: Towards a New Monumentality

First Place: Forest of Conscience: A Civic Device for Hyper-Social Media

• Students: Isis Orduno and Conny Salazar


• Faculty: Gerard Smulevich


• Institution: Woodbury University

First Place: Indigenous Lives Memorial

• Students: Kristyan Calletor and Mathieu Howard


• Faculty Sponsor: Vincent Hui


• Institution: Ryerson University

Honorable Mention: Chamizal Union

• Students: Sam Ruan and Noel Parra


• Faculty Sponsor: Candid Rogers


• Institution: The University of Texas at San Antonio

Honorable Mention: Strange Fruit: Peace and Justice Center for Dialogue

• Students: Nastassia Chua, Rebekah Mireles, and Sharon Lott


• Faculty Sponsor: Sheryl Tucker Vazquez


• Institution: University of Houston

Honorable Mention: Alt. City Hall

• Students: Vanessa Romo and Dario Salgado


• Faculty Sponsor: Gerard Smulevich


• Institution: Woodbury University

Honorable Mention: A Democratic Forum Between the Walls

• Students: Kaicheng Zhuang and Tianhui Li


• Faculty Sponsor: Richard Rosa


• Institution: Syracuse University

Category II: Open

First Place: Tomols

• Student: Ron Patanavin


• Faculty Sponsor: Thomas Fowler


• Institution: California Polytechnic State University

Second Place: Furniture Museum, Creation + Display

• Student: Randolph Allison


• Faculty Sponsor: Daniel Brown


• Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design

Third Place: The California Shotgun House

• Student: Bryce Humbrecht


• Faculty Sponsors: Gary Gilbert, Tara Street, and Kristopher Palagi


• Institution: Louisiana State University

Honorable Mention: GrabHub

• Students: Nicholas Chung and Chenhao Luo


• Faculty Sponsor: Daekwon Park


• Institution: Syracuse University

Honorable Mention: Arrival

• Student: Matt Yearout


• Faculty Sponsor: Awilda Rodriguez Carrion


• Institution: Oklahoma State University

Honorable Mention: Water Museum - W/M

• Student: Karalina Shastavets


• Faculty Sponsor: Daniel Brown


• Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design

Honorable Mention: Aspire

• Students: Madison Waldron and Jacob Forst


• Faculty Sponsors: Pasquale De Paola, Kevin Singh, and Wei Zhao


• Institution: Louisiana Tech University

Honorable Mention: The Metaphysical Museum of Reality

• Student: Daniel Jaraba


• Faculty Sponsor: Daniel Brown


• Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design

 

About the American Institute of Steel Construction
The American Institute of Steel Construction, headquartered in Chicago, is a non-partisan, not-for-profit technical institute and trade association established in 1921 to serve the structural steel design community and construction industry. AISC's mission is to make structural steel the material of choice by being the leader in structural steel-related technical and market-building activities, including specification and code development, research, education, technical assistance, quality certification, standardization, market development, and advocacy. AISC has a long tradition of service to the steel construction industry of providing timely and reliable information.