MBMA Awards Winners of Student Design Competition

The Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA) is pleased to announce the winners of its second annual Student Design Competition. On Feb. 28, 2023, the association granted $28,500 in awards to six winners and to their faculty sponsors in an online ceremony.
 
Bobby Buttrick, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, took home the top prize of $5,000. He was advised by Professor Stephen Schreiber, Chair of the Department of Architecture in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.
 
In the Graduate Division, Pranav Amin, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, earned first place and $4,000. He was advised by Professor Schreiber. Second place and $2,500 went to Samantha Spitzer, a student at the University of New Mexico. She was advised by Professor Kristina Yu of the School of Architecture and Planning.
 
For the Undergraduate Division, first place and $4,000 was awarded to the Tree City Team from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. The team consists of Harris Cheifetz, Sarah Joseph, Jaret Lesure, Aaron Muth and Gunnar Norberg, and was advised by Robert Kobet of the College of Architecture & Environmental Design. Brianna Westbrook and Elias Vasquez of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, earned second place along with $2,500. They were advised by Marcel Erminy, Associate Professor of Practice in the School of Architecture. Miguel Alecio, a student at the Universidad del Istmo in Frajinas, Guatemala, was awarded third place and $1,500. He was advised by Hans Schwarz Bassila of the Faculty of Architecture and Design.
 
“We congratulate Bobby Buttrick and his advisor Stephen Schreiber on earning the top prize in the 2022 MBMA Student Design Competition,” says MBMA General Manager Tony Bouquot. “We had 48 entries from eight schools, including one from Guatemala. It’s exciting to see a variety of schools and students submitting such impressive entries, and we thank all of the faculty sponsors for their work as well.”
 
“In its second year, the design competition continues to introduce metal building systems to students across the country and beyond,” says MBMA Director of Research and Engineering Lee Shoemaker, PhD, P.E. “It’s exciting to see the creativity and enthusiasm of these students from schools large and small.”
 
The competition took place during the 2022 fall semester, with entries due Jan. 6, 2023. The contest for undergraduate and graduate architecture students challenged each participant to create an innovative metal building design for a fire station and department headquarters.
 
The five-member panel of judges included: Eric Pros, AIA, director of design for DS Architecture in Cleveland; Terri Meyer Boake, LEED AP, professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture, Cambridge, Ontario; Lauren Gwaltney, AIA, senior associate with Williams Blackstock Architects in Birmingham, Ala.; John Underwood, consultant to Behlen Mfg. Co., Columbus, Neb.; and Robert Tiffin, national accounts manager with Silvercote in Greenville, S.C., and chair of the MBMA Architecture Committee.