Emerging Green Builders Announce Design Competition Winners

The Emerging Green Builders (EGB) chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council announced during Greenbuild the winners of the third annual USGBC Design Competition, intended to recognize students and young professionals in the building industry. More than 130 teams, including more than 270 individuals from 16 countries, competed to design a building and site according to LEED^® parameters.

Twelve finalists, including one Mexican and two Canadian teams, were invited to display their work during the conference and received a year-long subscription to the BuildingGreen Suite of online resources. Winners were announced during the plenary session on November 11.

First place went to

Gregory D. Thomson, Amit Price Patel, and

Christine Scott from Goody Clancy in Boston.

Second place went to

Michael Kloihofer and

Anca Matyiku of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

Third place went to

Greg Simon and

Brian Turner of the MMM Design Group in Norfolk, Virginia.

EGB also officially launched the 2005 design competition during Greenbuild. The organization opened the competition earlier than it has in the past with the hopes of fitting into the schedules of university green design studios, according to John Mlade, chair of the national EGB committee. Called the USGBC Natural Talent 2005 Design Competition, the upcoming contest includes two categories—one for new construction and a second for existing buildings. Both categories will focus on projects being planned by the nonprofit Boys and Girls Clubs of America. All submitted designs will be provided to the organization for possible use.

EGB is working to broaden its organization by encouraging the formation of EGB committees within existing USGBC chapters; about 15 local committees are already organizing, Mlade told

EBN. The organization is also seeking nominations for five new national committee members, as half of the existing committee prepares to rotate out of their two-year terms. Nominations are due December 15, 2004. More information about EGB is online at www.usgbc.org/Chapters/Emerging_Green/.