Students win honorable mention in the ACSA/Steel Tube Institute Charrette

Three students in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech received an honorable mention award in the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA)/Steel Tube Institute Charrette at the ACSA 2005 Annual Meeting in Chicago, Ill.

Held on March 4 and 5, the 24-hour charrette was a competition to design a restaurant in Chicago's Millennium Park that featured innovative and attractive use of steel hollow structural sections as a major building material.

The following students, all fifth year seniors majoring in architecture in the college's School of Architecture + Design, received the honorable mention award:

==> Zachary Downey, of Selma, Va.;

==> Jennifer Nicholson, of Covington, Va.; and

==> Amrit Singh, of Chantilly, Va.

The ACSA is a nonprofit, membership association founded in 1912 to advance the quality of architectural education. The ACSA, unique in its representative role for schools of architecture, provides a forum for ideas on the leading edge of architectural thought. The association maintains a variety of activities that influence, communicate, and record important issues. Such endeavors include scholarly meetings, workshops, publications, awards and competition programs, support for architectural research, policy development, and liaison with allied organizations.

The ACSA/Steel Tube Charrette was sponsored by the Steel Tube Institute of North America. Twelve registered teams of up to three students received resource material on designing with steel hollow structural sections in mid-February. The teams actually worked on their designs in the exhibit hall at the 2005 Annual Meeting, during exhibit hours.

Virginia Tech was one of three honorable mentions. First place was awarded to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and second place went to the Universitè de Montrèal. Other schools with teams of up to three students that participated were Cranbrook Academy of Art, Illinois Institute of Technology, Kansas State University, Tuskegee University, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of DuPage, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Minnesota, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Virginia Tech's Architecture Program in the School of Architecture + Design is one of the 113 NAAB-accredited programs in the United States. With more than 750 students, the Architecture Program is the largest of three programs offered in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The School of Architecture + Design, part of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, offers a Bachelor of Architecture (NAAB-accredited), a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design (NASAD-accredited), and a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design (FIDER-accredited), as well as a Master of Architecture, a Master of Science in Architecture, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning.

The College of Architecture and Urban Studies is one of the largest of its type in the nation. CAUS is composed of two schools and the departments of landscape architecture, building construction, and art and art history. The School of Architecture + Design includes programs in architecture, industrial design and interior design. The School of Public and International Affairs includes programs in urban affairs and planning, public administration and policy, and government and international affairs. The college enrolls more than 2,200 students offering 22 degrees programs taught by 130 faculty members.