Design-Build student competition finalists announced

Washington, D.C. — The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) announced the three finalists in its 2015 National Design-Build Student Competition. Student teams from the University of New Mexico, University of Washington and University of Colorado – Boulder will advance to the final round of the competition.

The three student finalist teams will compete in front of a live jury and audience at DBIA’s upcoming Design-Build Conference & Expo on November 3 in Denver. The teams will present before a panel of interviewers — mirroring the second phase of a true design-build competition — to answer questions and defend their design and construction plans for a science building on a college campus. The final winner will be selected and announced by the national jury during the morning general session on November 4.

“Educating the next generation in Design-Build Done Right is essential to preserving the momentum behind design-build’s growing use,” says Lisa Washington, Executive Director/CEO of DBIA. “This is the fourth year we’ve held this competition, and I’m thrilled our finalists always include at least one new school, which demonstrates how quickly design-build curriculum is spreading. Yet while students may learn the essential curriculum in school, the DBIA Student Competition serves to promote the principles of team integration and familiarize students with the rigors of a design-build selection process.”

The competition began at the regional level with 31 teams of students from 26 universities from across the country competing.  Student teams from leading design, construction and engineering universities across the country entered the competition to demonstrate design-build best practices by proposing a delivery solution to design and construct a more than 46,000-square-foot science building on the liberal arts campus of Pomona College in California. Nine regional winners were selected to compete in the second phase of the competition based on their response to the initial RFQ. An RFP was then issued to those nine and the top three finalists were selected based on their responses.

DBIA’s 2015 National Design-Build Student Competition regional winning teams included:

• California State University, Fresno: Western Pacific
• Iowa State University: Midwest
• NewSchool of Architecture & Design: Western Pacific
• Roger Williams University: Northeast
• Seminole State College of Florida: Southeast
• University of Cincinnati: Central Northeast
• University of Colorado Boulder: Rocky Mountain
• University of New Mexico: Southwest
• University of Washington: Northwest