Mar 15 2005
A team of architectural students from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee won the top prize in the design competition at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) held last weekend in Chicago.
The team's "ExoSkeleton" structures, to be placed throughout Millennium Park and the Daley Bicentennial Plaza, are made of steel Hollow Structural Sections (HSS). They were designed to connect and unify the park and plaza and to encourage tourist and visitor traffic, while responding to the Frank Gehry designed Music Pavilion and bridge.
Judging the competition were Guy Nordenson, a noted structural engineer and designer, whose firm designed the 2,000-foot tall World Trade Center Tower One which will become the Freedom Tower in New York City, and Reed A. Kroloff, Dean of Tulane University's School of Architecture, and former Editor-in-Chief of Architecture Magazine.
At an awards luncheon, the judges praised the winner's design as being so "thorough and sophisticated it appeared to have been done by professional architects." The competition was sponsored by the ACSA and the Steel Tube Institute of North America (STI), whose members produce the majority of HSS manufactured in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The winning design provides a pedestrian connection between the park and plaza using permanent lantern-like HSS structures to host a series of different and ever-changing functions.
The judges complimented the team on its exceptional and sophisticated drawings and on the elegance and simplicity of their design. Mr. Nordenson said the group's use of square and rectangular HSS tubing took advantage of the "crispness of the tubes" to create the unique ExoSkeletons. Dean Kroloff praised the students for taking advantage of the design flexibility and light weight of HSS tubing in their concepts and of the inventive ways in which they had bolted and welded the tubes together.
Members of the winning team were: Brian Domini, Thomas Schmitt and Christophe Ludwig. The competition was limited to 12 teams and drew schools from as far away as Virginia, Kansas, Alabama, Minnesota and Montreal.
After a tour of the HSS manufacturing facility at Copperweld Corporation, the students visited the Millennium Park Music Pavilion, known for its expansive canopy of HSS steel tubing, which covers a 625 x 325-foot area over the park's great lawn, and Daley Bicentennial Park. The teams began to design Friday afternoon, working through the night to meet a 9 a.m. Saturday morning deadline.
Judging was conducted later that morning and teams were recognized for their designs at the awards luncheon. In addition to the winning team, which received a $2,000 first place prize, three other teams were recognized for their outstanding designs. They included: a team from the University of Montreal which won second place and a $500 award for their "Structural Crystallization." Their design featured fluid combinations of round, square and rectangular HSS that appear to replicate and transform into an indoor/outdoor cafe and chess pavilion.
The team members were Darrel Renold and Maxine Moreau. Teams from the University of Minnesota and Virginia Tech received honorable mention awards. HSS (steel Hollow Structural Sections) is welded steel tubing used as structural elements in buildings and other structures and in a wide variety of manufactured products. It is produced in square, rectangular and round shapes in a broad range of sizes. Its benefits include aesthetic appeal, high strength-to-weight ratios, a large selection of readily available shapes, cost effectiveness and recyclability.
The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture is a nonprofit, membership association founded in 1912 to advance the quality of architectural education. The school membership in ACSA is over 2,500 schools in several membership categories. Through these schools, over 4,000 architecture faculty are represented. In addition, over 500 supporting members composed of architecture firms, product associations and individuals add to the breadth of interest and support of ACSA goals. The Steel Tube Institute was founded in 1930 and sponsors cooperative member efforts to improve manufacturing techniques in the welded steel tubing industry and informs customers and fabricators about the product's utility and versatility.
It is headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida.