{"id":2232,"date":"2026-05-11T08:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T12:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/cap\/?p=2232"},"modified":"2026-05-12T22:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T02:01:18","slug":"2026-mkm-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/cap\/2026\/05\/11\/2026-mkm-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"MKM Competition Awards Outstanding Student Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

MKM architecture + design <\/a>continues to support third-year students in the Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning<\/a> through the annual MKM Steel Competition. Inspired by the ACSA Steel Design Student Competition, the competition gives students the opportunity to create innovative designs using steel in a unique way and have their work reviewed by architecture professionals.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s competition offered students two project options: designing a Community Dance Center or pursuing an Open Category project developed through faculty-led prompts and guidelines. Seven studios participated, with four selecting the Community Dance Center challenge and three entering the Open Category.<\/p>\n

Each studio held its own professional jury review, selecting three finalists and resulting in 21 student projects advancing in the final competition. Funds were distributed through student bursar accounts, ensuring every finalist received recognition and support.<\/p>\n

From the 21 finalists, a final jury selected three overall winners. The top honor, the Menze Prize, is named after MKM founding partner Ron Menze, who attended the final judging and awards ceremony and spoke with students about the value of creativity, exploration, and professional growth in architecture.<\/p>\n

The competition has continued to celebrate design excellence while providing students with valuable opportunities to present their work, receive professional feedback, and prepare for future practice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Aiden
\n1st PLACE – MENZE PRIZE – Aiden Henning
\n“Balancing Act”<\/strong> (Community Dance Center design)
\nFaculty Advisor – Tim Gray<\/p>\n

BALANCING ACT celebrates dance, performance and the Arts by lifting the main dance studios dramatically in the air presenting them as jewels and exquisite curiosities, to the surrounding community. The public is invited, almost tempted, to participate and explore, a series of stairwells and terraces connecting the highest levels of the studios and museum to the river bank below.<\/p>\n

The dramatic expression of steel in the Dance Center enters into a dialogue with the existing Railroad Trestle, a primary point of access to the center, and both draws inspiration from and reinterprets the steel conventions of the existing Trestle. A new series of viewing decks are inserted into the site looking toward existing bridge, inviting visitors to explore while offering the bridge itself as an object of value and beauty. The existing Trestle itself offers stunning views of the dance center.<\/p>\n\n\t\t