KU News Release

Oct. 20, 2006
Contact: Stephen Grabow, School of Architecture and Urban Design, (785) 864-3186 .

Three KU students win awards in Kansas City young architects competition

LAWRENCE — Three University of Kansas students in architecture and urban design won the Best Unbuilt Project award in the annual Monsters of Design Competition in Kansas City, Mo., for emerging architects, industrial designers and environmental graphic designers.

The competition is sponsored by the Young Architects Forum of the American Institute of Architects in Kansas City and Kansas City-area chapters of the Industrial Society of America and the Society for Environmental Graphic Design. Results were announced this month in Kansas City, Mo.

KU students Megan Hunziker, Mike O’Donnell and Matthew R. Pauly won for their design for an Opera House in St. Louis prepared for a studio design project. The students entered as MMM Architecture — a name adopted from a common project folder labeled MMM.

“By the end of the project, (MMM) had grown on us so much we decided to make T-shirts with a logo,” Pauly said, noting that the trio wore the T-shirts during their presentation boards at KU. They also presented their design to the St. Louis Opera Theatre before entering the Monster Design contest last spring.

“The other winners in this competition were all professional architects,” said Stephen Grabow, KU professor of architecture. Grabow; Wojciech Lesnikowski, Don Hatch Distinguished Professor of Architecture; and Bob Coffeen, adjunct associate professor in architecture, team-teach the studio that focuses on design development and the integration of environmental systems.

Grabow said the semester-long project was to design a contemporary opera house for a real client. The Opera Theatre of St. Louis directors hope to use the designs to raise money for a new building that might actually be based on the students' ideas.

“The students analyzed many of the the latest opera houses in Europe that emphasize lightness, transparency and high visibility as a cultural symbol. The project by the three M's — Matt, Meghan and Mike — captured all of those qualities in a solution that combined a highly technical building envelope with a dynamically sculptural auditorium. The contrast was dazzling and the execution was very highly refined,” Grabow said.

The Monsters of Design Competition serves to showcase design talent in the Kansas City area and provide a forum for collaboration among architects, industrial designers and environmental graphic designers.

Jurors for the Monsters of Design Competition included Sam Grawe of Dwell Magazine, Peter Stathis of Virtual Studio and Craig Steely of Steely Architecture, all of San Francisco.

The award winning KU students are listed below by their hometowns.

DONIPHAN COUNTY
From Denton
Matthew R. Pauly, graduate student in the professional master of architecture program, son of William and Elizabeth Pauly.

IOWA
From Ames
Megan Payer Hunziker, graduate student in the professional master of architecture program, daughter of Gary and Christine Hunziker and a graduate of Ames High School.

MISSOURI
From Florissant (ZIP 63033)
Michael Patrick O’Donnell, senior in bachelor of architecture program, son of Tom and Patty O’Donnell and a graduate of Desmet Jesuit High School, St. Louis.

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