MBMA Announces 2021 Student Design Competition Award Winners

Cleveland, OH - The Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA) announces the winners of its inaugural Student Design Competition. On February 15, 2022, the association acknowledged five students and their faculty sponsors in an online ceremony and awarded a total of $16,000 in awards.

Brittney Sawyer, a student at the University of New Mexico (UNM), earned the first-place prize of $5,000. She was advised by Professor Kristina Yu of the School of Architecture and Planning. Second place, with a prize of $3,000, was awarded to Jade Altheide, also a student at UNM and advised by Professor Yu. The third-place honor and $1,500 prize went to Quinton Frederick, a student at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. His faculty advisor was Josie Holden-Bulla of the College of Arts and Architecture.

MBMA also presented two awards of merit, each with $500 in student prizes. UNM’s Devon Adams, advised by Professor Yu, and UNC Charlotte’s Eliza Marie Cassar, whose advisor was Peter Wong, earned these distinctions. In addition to the students’ achievements, the faculty sponsors received monetary awards.

“I am pleased to congratulate Brittney Sawyer and her advisor Kristina Yu on winning first place in the 2021 MBMA Student Design Competition,” said Tony Bouquot, MBMA’s general manager. “With a total of 64 entries, the contest was a great success. All nine finalists presented impressive designs, leading us to add two awards of merit to our program to recognize these stand-out scholars and their faculty advisors.”

The competition took place during the 2021 fall semester, with entries due December 15. The contest for undergraduate and graduate architecture students challenged each participant to create an innovative metal building design for a one- or two-story elementary school housing approximately 200 students.

The five-member panel of judges included: Eric F. Pros, AIA, director of design for DS Architecture in Cleveland, Ohio; 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, Alabama; John Underwood of Behlen Manufacturing Company, Columbus, Nebraska; and Robert Tiffin with Silvercote in Greenville, South Carolina.

“Our goal with this competition was to introduce architecture students to metal building systems,” said MBMA Director of Research and Engineering Lee Shoemaker. “But we at MBMA were introduced to how creative, knowledgeable and enthusiastic all of the students were with their designs.”

A video with all of the entries is available at MBMA’s YouTube channel, MBMAMedia, at www.youtube.com/mbmamedia.

About The Metal Building Manufacturers Association

Founded in 1956, MBMA serves manufacturers and suppliers as it works to promote the metal building systems industry. Its membership supplies high-quality buildings for use in commercial, retail, office, industrial, institutional and other end-uses. The association provides a wealth of information on its website for anyone who works with or is interested in metal building systems. It includes technical materials and design guides. For more information, visit www.mbma.com.