Louisiana Tech and Woodbury among top winners of the 2024 AISC/ACSA Steel Design Student Competition

The selection of eleven winners for this year’s AISC/ACSA Steel Design Student Competition has just been announced by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. 

For the contest's 2024 edition, students were given the choice between two sites and project types. Category I called for the design of a new Steel Innovation Center in St. Louis, Missouri, while the open-ended Category II allowed for the selection of a site and building program to be selected at their discretion. 

Each winner was chosen for their demonstrated creativity in employing structural steel as a design solution, along with their proposals' response to site conditions and the surrounding architectural context. 

First, Second, and Third-place winners were given in either category, along with multiple Honorable Mention proposals. Compliments should be given to student designers and their faculty sponsors from Woodbury University and Louisiana Tech, who were particularly well-represented after placing first in each respective category for the second year in a row.

Category I: Steel Innovation Center

1st Place 

The Exploration of Expression

Students: Russell Tong & Porter Watson
Faculty Sponsor: Carlo Sturken
Institution: Woodbury University

Juror Comments:  "The Exploration of Expression provides a clear and concise program with great detailing in the sophisticated graphics. A playful design using the structure as part of the architecture in a poetic way. The extension of the existing Mural Mile wall is inventive and playful."

2nd Place

Infinite Innovation

Student: Eric Duenser
Faculty Sponsor: Randall Deutsch
Institution: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Juror Comments: "Infinite innovation designs a creative round-space steel frame that provides efficiency in the structure. The building appears to levitate over the river wall is a novel way to engage the site."

3rd Place

Gateway South Innovation Center

Student: Sulaima Salim
Faculty Sponsor: Osman Attmann
Institution: University of Colorado Denver

Juror Comments: "Gateway South Innovation Center is a design with a focus on adaptability (expansion and contraction based on innovation center needs), which is the key to this beautifully detailed building. The building has an industrial elegance with excellently rendered drawings, creative use of daylight, and clear steel structure."

Honorable Mention

Skyforge/Steel Horizon

Students: Kevin Bui & Garrett Gudmundson
Faculty Sponsor: Gerard Smulevich
Institution: Woodbury University

Juror Comments: "Skyforge/Steel Horizon grounded in the St. Louis location connecting the site to the sky. The simple steel design used in the cantilever harkens back to the industrial surroundings."

Overlapping Illumination

Students: Cristian Gomez & Mo Zaina
Faculty Sponsor: Osman Attmann
Institution: University of Colorado Denver

Juror Comments: "Overlapping Illumination is a playful project with a strong well-developed building section. The round-diagrid steel design creates a beautiful building that appears as an object."

Category II: Open

1st Place

O.P.C.S. T-157 [Garbage Monster]

Students: Logan Jacobs, Jude Bell & Christian Salazar
Faculty Sponsors: Pasquale De Paola & Kevin Singh
Institution: Louisiana Tech University

Juror Comments: "O.P.C.S. T-157 [Garbage Monster] is a provocative well-executed design of infrastructure as architecture. The students created ocean architecture that appears as a vessel for recycling plastics."

2nd Place

Liminal Library 

Student: Collin Rohr
Faculty Sponsors: Lee Su Huang & Sarah Gamble
Institution: University of Florida

Juror Comments: "Liminal Library uses a variety of structural systems that feels innovative and beautifully detailed. There is a marriage between the building and the steel forms that addresses sustainability in an effective way."

3rd Place

Almaraz Cross-Creation Hub

Student: Benjamin Shapiro
Faculty Sponsor: Inés Martín-Robles
Institution: University of Virginia

Juror Comments: "Almaraz Cross-Creation Hub is a provocative design with convincing diagrams and a thorough steel plan. The porous diagrid structure works within the neighborhood allowing for art creation and gathering spaces at many scales."

Honorable Mention

Spires Mendenhall Research Center

Students: Noah Berryhill & Alex Klocek
Faculty Sponsors: Pasquale De Paola & Kevin Singh
Institution: Louisiana Tech University

Juror Comments:  "Spires Mendenhall Research Center has captivating images and renderings that provoke the mind. The natural surroundings of the Alaskan frontier is an unexpected location for such a large steel structure."

Performing On The Cliff

Students: Lucas Peiyu Luo & Adrian Suciu
Faculty Sponsor: Fei Wang
Institution: Syracuse University

Juror Comments: "Performing On The Cliff is an incredibly thorough project with a complex program that celebrates steel. The project is a catalyst for cultural preservation and community revitalization."

P.R.S.M

Students: Nathan Bucy & Alfredo Avendano Salcedo
Faculty Sponsors: Pasquale De Paola & Kevin Singh
Institution: Louisiana Tech University

Juror Comments: "P.R.S.M is an exuberance of the steel structure that is both innovative and impactful.  The building appears to have a light tough on the site as seen in the beautiful renderings and drawings."