News Story

Design Teams Win Welcome Center Sustainable Technology Showcase Competition

Clark School of Engineering mechanical engineering faculty and graduate students, in cooperation with Ziger/Snead Architects, Henry Adams Consulting Engineers, Catholic University and Michael Furbish, have won a design competition to create an environmentally friendly welcome center at an existing scenic overlook in Frederick County, Maryland.

The Western Maryland Welcome Center Sustainable Technology Showcase competition was a way to stimulate a variety of innovative design concepts for the existing Goodloe Byron Scenic Overlook facility located along northbound I-270. The final design of the welcome center is intended to be independent from the need to rely on traditional energy, water supply and wastewater treatment technologies. It is the intent that the facility, when constructed, will be self-contained and self-sustaining.

The first-place team included mechanical engineering graduate assistants Bian and Jonathan Winkler. Professor Reinhard Radermacher served as a faculty advisor for the competition.

Second place winners included graduate assistant Jason McGill, advised by Associate Professor Greg Jackson in conjunction with students from Catholic University and Cho, Benn and Holbeck Associates. Both the first and second place winners were awarded $25,000 for the effort, and plan on sharing ideas for the final design.

The competition was sponsored by the Office of Congressman Roscoe G. Bartlett and the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration. An awards ceremony for the design winners will be held at 10:30am, Friday, June 25, 2004 at the Goodloe Byron Overlook on I-270.

June 25, 2004