It is not uncommon for Matthew Hintze and Michael Dolan to spend 12 to 18 hours a day in a design studio, but all their hard work has finally paid off.
Hintze and Dolan, both second-year graduate students in the architecture program, recently placed first and second, respectively, at the Metal Construction Association’s ninth annual student competition.
Hintze will receive $2,500 for first place, and Dolan will receive $1,500 for second place. The U will receive $2,250 in combined winnings, and the students’ sponsor, architecture Associate Professor Patrick Tripeny, will receive $750.
The students’ objective was to design a beach house and amphitheatre to sit on Monroe Harbor just north of Chicago. The building design requirements included using mostly metal and “green building” concepts.
Both Hintze and Dolan used nature as inspiration for their designs.
“It was the forces of nature and the specific places on the peninsula,” Hintze said. “I wanted to separate the unique functions by spreading the structures out along the peninsula. By doing this, I was trying to focus on the experience of the visitor in each specific moment.”
Dolan used the image of a stream for the inspiration of his design.
“The final design really came from abstracting this idea and the image of the stream of water. I referred to this in the title of the project of ‘Converging Forces,'” he said.
This was the first year the College of Architecture and Planning entered in the Metal Construction Association’s competition. Tripeny sponsored 12 students, all of which worked in the same studio. Each of the students submitted a design for the competition.
“Although many of the applicants may have entered the competition individually, I feel that our projects were especially strong because we worked collaboratively with our peers and instructor in reviewing, discussing and critiquing our work,” Hintze said. “It’s great to have that kind of support on a project.”
Tripeny said, “Both Matthew and Micheal are very talented students?placing in a national competition is a very difficult thing to do. Their designs were very good.”
Hintze and Dolan will be graduating in the spring. Both plan to work in architecture in Salt Lake City and eventually become licensed architects.
“It really is an honor to have placed second in this competition,” Dolan said. “I think that it is great that I was selected, but I really think that it is even greater that there were two winners from the U.”
Tripeny said, “There were other designs in the class that were also good, and it would have been nice if more could have been recognized for their efforts. I am very proud of all the students who worked on this project.”