Design-build team finishes third in construction competition

Competing against seven other schools, Alfred State placed third in the design-build division in this year’s Associated Schools of Construction Region 1 Student Competition held last month in Albany.

College teams worked on plans for various projects in four divisions in this year’s event: pre-construction, commercial, heavy-civil, and design-build. Alfred State had strong showings in both pre-construction and commercial, and came in third in the design-build category – the only public school to place in that division, according to Erin Vitale, associate professor in the Civil Engineering Technology Department.

On the first day, teams received project documents at 8 a.m. and had 16 hours to complete their submission to project sponsors, who had devised each problem. The next day, teams made an oral presentation to the project sponsors, who then judged the written submissions and the oral presentations and ranked the top three teams.

The pre-construction category focused on construction of a state-of-the-art, central dining hall on a college campus. In the commercial building division, teams were tasked with creating a plan for an upscale senior living facility. The design/build competition centered on a four-story, 83,500-square-foot multi-disciplined medical office building in Syracuse. Vitale advised the pre-construction and commercial teams, and William Dean, professor in the Architecture and Design Department, advised the design-build team.

Mitchell Design Build in Rochester was a major competition sponsor for the Alfred State team.

“I am always pleased and excited to help my alma mater, especially with an event like this,” said Spencer Read (architectural technology, ’05), vice president and senior project manager with the firm. “As a company that almost exclusively does design-build projects, we think it is great to see students learning and experiencing this project delivery method in a real-world setting.”

In addition, alumni who are now employed at Balfour Beatty and Manning Squires Hennig, Co. mentored the pre-construction and commercial teams, respectively. Overall, 16 schools, 35 teams, and 210 students participated in the competition.