University of New Mexico Wins DBIA’s 2015 National Design-Build Student Competition
University of Washington took second place, and University of Colorado – Boulder came in third.
November 12, 2015
Washington, D.C. – The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), the only organization that defines, teaches and promotes best practices in design-build, announced the winner of the 2015 National Design-Build Student Competition at the Design-Build Conference & Expo in Denver, Colorado on November 4. Competing in front of a live jury and audience, the shortlisted teams from University of Colorado – Boulder, University of New Mexico and University of Washington defended their design and construction plans for a science building on a college campus. The overall winner was the University of New Mexico (UNM), a first time entry into the competition.
The competition began at the regional level with 31 teams of students from 26 universities from across the country competing. Student teams from leading design, construction and engineering universities across the country entered the competition to demonstrate design-build best practices by proposing a delivery solution to design and construct a more than 46,000-square-foot science building on the liberal arts campus of Pomona College in California. Nine regional winners were selected to compete in the second phase of the competition by responding to an RFP and the top three finalists were selected to present in Denver.
John Clark, the student who served as team captain, said, “With team integration at the heart of design-build, the DBIA student competition offered the opportunity to step out of our respective programs and buildings and collaborate with equally talented and motivated architecture, landscape architecture, construction management and civil engineering students. Each team member contributed extensively to address the problem given. As with a truly collaborative environment, each member of the team became well-versed in each other’s language and the entire RFP by the final presentation. It is exciting to know that collaboration across disciplines at UNM can produce such national success. I am grateful for the opportunity to have contributed to this successful interdisciplinary team as a student.”
Professor Kristina Yu, a Faculty Advisor to the team, said, “Here at the University of New Mexico, we have a wealth of student talent and knowledge in the area of design-build process through the School of Architecture and Planning and the School of Engineering. “We are excited to be awarded this national honor. We can look forward to the impact these students will have in architecture, design and construction, as they advance into the professions. Expect great things! We are thankful to DBIA for hosting what is truly a collaborative and integrative design-build process lesson through the student competition!”
Competition Chair, Dennis R. Ashley, AIA, LEED AP, DBIA, said, “This year, the competition was interesting in that the teams were varied in their solutions, yet close in the overall scores. From the written proposals through the presentations, the finalists were extremely passionate, thoughtful and knowledgeable on their solution and presenting their design-build team as the best fit for Pomona College.”
The University of New Mexico team included students and faculty from both the School of Architecture & Planning (SA+P) and the School of Engineering (SOE) including:
John Clark (architecture, SA+P), team captain
Alex Hamada (architecture, SA+P)
Mike Pace (architecture and landscape architecture, SA+P)
Sam Rael (civil engineering and construction management, SOE)
Michael Roseborough (civil engineering and construction management, SOE)
Annica Mosow (construction management, SOE) student coach and alternate
Faculty Collaborator: Mark Russell (professor, civil engineering and construction management, SOE)
Faculty Advisor: Kristina Yu (professor of architecture, SA+P)
Under the direction of:
Director John Quale (professor of architecture, SA+P)
Chair Mahmoud Reda Taha (professor of civil engineering, SOE)
To learn more about the 2015 National Design-Build Student Competition, please visit the Student and Faculty section of the DBIA website.
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