CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Four University of Illinois students have been recognized for their outstanding architectural design work by the Copper Development Association (CDA), a national marketing group for copper producers.
As part of their architectural design class, students spent half of the fall semester designing a hypothetical CDA office headquarters to be located in the Champaign-Urbana area. The four best designs from the 17-student class were sent to New York City for display at CDA's national convention.
The students - all seniors in architecture in the College of Fine and Applied Arts - whose projects were chosen for the convention are Andrea Briggs, Naperville; Michael Dolter, Naperville; Peter Icenogle, Albuquerque, N.M.; and Eric Moburg, Moline.
Originally, CDA intended to choose a single winner among the entries in this first-of-its-kind competition, but the association eventually decided that all four projects were worthy of recognition. Each will receive a memento from CDA in recognition of the work.
To meet the class and competition requirements, the students were asked to conduct experiments on the strengths and weaknesses of copper, design the building using copper as part of the construction materials, choose a site for their construction, and present the final drawing in a board layout. CDA then sent a representative who, along with several U. of I. faculty members, chose the four projects to be sent to the national convention.
Kevin Hinders, a U. of I. professor of architecture who worked with the students, believes that the project had benefits for both students and the CDA.
"This project exposed students to copper as a building material," Hinders said. "It's really a wonderful material and CDA showed them that so they will continue to use copper in the designs."
Working with CDA on the project was such a good experience for the students and the company that plans are being made to do it again in the future.