April 4, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHICAGO - Today’s architecture students are community-minded and forward-thinking--and their work deserves to come to life.

The American Institute of Steel Construction’s Education Foundation has awarded three grants from its inaugural Design-Build Grant Program, which promotes the use of structural steel in student-designed projects that will benefit the local community--followed by the construction of those designs by the students in hands-on activities or in partnership with a fabricator.

The grants support projects across the country. In Columbus, Ind., a city that has celebrated architectural design for decades, a project led by Lucas Brown and Daniel Luis Martinez of Indiana University was awarded a 2024 grant of $15,000 for a creative bus stop. An outdoor classroom in Houston led by Patrick Peters of the University of Houston’s designLAB also earned a $15,000 grant for 2024. University of Texas at Arlington’s Julia Lindgren will receive $30,000 in 2025 for a project for a rest stop for cyclists and pedestrians in Dallas.

Peters spoke about architecture design-build at 2024 NASCC: The Steel Conference in a session titled "Rooted Ligaments: 35 Years of the University of Houston Graduate Design/Build Studio." His presentation, as well as all other sessions from the conference, will be available online in the coming weeks. One of Peters’s previous University of Houston classes designed and helped build the outdoor classroom below, photographed after Hurricane Rita.

AISC would like to thank proposal reviewers Casey Brown of Zimkor, Wade Lewis of Puma Steel, Hans Herrmann of Mississippi State University, and Emily Baker of the University of Arkansas.

The Design-Build Grant Program is sponsored by the AISC Education Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) dedicated to supporting students, educators, and educational programming that builds a better future with steel. Learn more about what the AISC Education Foundation does at aisc.org/giving.