Two Ball State graduate students received national recognition for winning an architectural design competition for students and professionals.
Michela Cupello and Wesley Stabs travelled to Toronto last week to be announced as winners of the 2011 U.S. Green Building Council Multifamily Midrise Design Competition.
"It took a little bit to soak in, but it's actually, in my mind, pretty amazing that we were able to achieve this, so I'm thrilled," Stabs said.
Bob Koester, professor of architecture, said Cupello and Stabs were up against professionals.
"These two students were up against full-scale architecture firms, full-scale practitioners who have been in the business a while, and for them to win the competition is really significant," Koester said.
Cupello said she was told there were 45 total entries in the competition.
The graduate students worked together for five weeks during the summer to complete their design for the competition. Stabs said he worked on the project about 12 hours a day during those weeks, including weekends.
"Michela and Wes took this on outside of any courses they were taking," Koester said. "This was just a sidebar activity for them."
Koester met with Cupello and Stabs routinely to give them feedback and help them with the design process.
Cupello and Stabs submitted their entry as MCWS Design.
The competition asked entrants to design a new multi-story residential building on an actual building site in New Orleans. The competition was sponsored by the USGBC, a national non-profit organization which focuses on promoting cost-efficient and energy-saving buildings, according to the council's website.
Cupello said she was told their design stood out from the other entries because it was well-presented and blended the new and existing buildings well.
Stabs had some previous experience with this competition but had never achieved this level of success. He and another friend had won the competition at the regional level in Minnesota in 2009 and 2010.
"It's amazing, and right away it didn't hit me, but after thinking about it, this is the national level," Stabs said. "Winning the regional level before was great, but you always wanted to get that national recognition and it didn't happen in the past."
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