Awards & Honors

B Arch students Danny Medina, Cesar Soto, and Daniel Olayiwola Akinsulire won second place in the ACSA Timber in the City Competition. Their project, Re-Gen Growth, was undertaken in Prof. Suzan Wines’s spring 2019 advanced studio, Timber in the City: Urban Habitat.

Re-Gen Growth proposes a mixed-used development with residential apartments, an early childhood education center, and a community wellness center. Re-Gen Growth employs modular mass timber construction to create an inhabitable, elevated urban forest that provides natural light, clean air, and skyline views for residents while restoring habitats for animals that once thrived on the site. The goal is to revitalize life by integrating vegetation and social spaces. Vegetation reduces particulate matter, sequesters carbon dioxide and mitigates noise pollution from vehicular traffic. Social spaces promote interaction between residents on the ground floor and in the air.

The jury noted that the project “shows an innovative use of wood, which connects spaces, structure and the user experience all together. The density of the project represents a three-dimensional occupiable city. The project renderings are expressive showing a very elegant porous project with vertical spaces that reconnect the inhabitants to nature and the city.”

The competition, which had nearly 900 participants, is intended to engage students, working individually or in teams, to imagine the transformation of our existing cities through sustainable buildings from renewable resources, offering expedient affordable construction, innovating with new and traditional wooden materials, and designing healthy living and working environments. Re-Gen Growth is among three prize-winning teams receiving cash prizes totaling $40,000. The 2020 ACSA Annual Meeting in San Diego and the American Institute of Architects 2020 Convention in Los Angeles will showcase these winning projects.