The 2024 Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Association Student Design Competition

The Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Association (IHLA) competition requires all second-year Ball State Architecture students to apply their design skills to a design assignment that considers the innovative use of hardwood and its design potential within the project. The IHLA provides funding for the annual competition in support of site visits and scholarships. This year, Frank Miller Lumber Company in Union City, Indiana, once again hosted a tour of their facilities for our ARCH 202 students and their faculty. Jay Buchan of Buchan Sawmill, Inc. represented the IHLA at this year’s awards celebration at CAP on April 29th. Ball State University’s Department of Architecture is proud and grateful for its continuing partnership with the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Association.

This year’s prompt is to design a Middletown Media Museum located in downtown Muncie, Indiana, at 520 South High Street. In addition to exhibiting the work and history of Garfield, Bob Ross, and David Letterman, each student also included a fourth exhibition space of their choosing for an additional Indiana native. Ninety-eight second year students participated in the competition, displaying their project board and model in the Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning hallways for review by upper-level students and faculty. Twenty-two projects made it to the finalist list for review by an outside jury.

OUTSIDE JURY

Hao Xu, Architectural Designer, Pelli Clarke & Partners
Samantha Stapleton, Designer, Mario Romano Walls
John Stallmeyer, Associate Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Alan Reed, President, GWWO Architects
Ebrahim Poustinchi, Associate Professor, Kent State University
Genevieve Baudoin, Professor + Regnier Distinguished Faculty Chair, Kansas State University
Patrick Danahy, Lecturer + Emerging Scholar in Design, University of Texas at Austin.