Study Architecture 
ProPEL Winners Announced for 2024 TIMBER IN THE CITY 5: Urban Habitats Competition
Students and Faculty Recognized for Innovative Designs Using Lumber
For Immediate Release:
Washington, D.C., September 20, 2024 – The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) are pleased to announce the winners of the Timber in the City 5: Urban Habitats Competition.
The fifth installment of the Timber in the City series, this year’s competition challenged students to devise ways of meeting urban housing needs through the addition of an overbuild, or vertical extension, made of wood to an existing building or structure. Students reimagined our existing cities by using wood systems to design additions that provide more desirable, sustainable, and valuable living and working environments. The seven winning projects demonstrate creative and clear approaches to designing a healthy built environment with timber as a central material, emphasizing the importance of addressing both sustainability and affordability in urban development.
Since 2019, the SLB has funded this competition with the goal of nurturing innate enthusiasm among students for renewable materials and of advancing deeper investigations into wood design at all schools of architecture.
The jurors chose First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth-place winners, along with additional Honorable Mentions. The award recipients of the 2024 Timber in the City 5: Urban Habitats Competition are:
First Place: MAXX TIMBER: Between Forest and Home
Student: Thomas Gomez Ospina
Faculty: Thomas Schaperkotter
Columbia University
Research Contributor: Peter Osborne, McGill University
Project Overview: MAXX Timber proposes a speculative housing scheme consisting of several wood-based building extensions stretching vertically above an existing NYCHA Housing campus in downtown Brooklyn, New York.
Second Place: Local Timber
Student: Jarren Amaro
Faculty: Peter Raab
Texas Tech University
Project Overview: This innovative housing development isn’t just a collection of apartment units; it’s a visionary approach to urban architecture, weaving together mass timber construction with a commitment to carbon efficiency.
Third Place: Knox Yards
Students: Anna Grace Calhoon & Rupan
Faculty: Tricia Stuth & Jeremy Magner
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Project Overview: The Regas Building today (originally Harris Building) has held a strong presence for over a century in the downtown area of Knoxville, Tennessee. This project focuses on the liminal space formed between the past and the present, an attempt to choreograph the lost language of the history of the Regas Building with the prospect of fabricating the past, the present, and the future.
Fourth Place: Saw Solace at Bond Bread
Students: Sarah Jane Graven & Megan Bugbee
Faculty: Peter Noonan
University of Maryland
Project Overview: The Saw Solace and the existing Bond Bread Factory will turn into a hub of sustenance and community. Envisioned within its walls are a grocery store, two restaurants, a cafe, a greenhouse, and a community garden, all aimed at alleviating the food scarcity.
Fifth Place: Resurgence
Student: Allie Wickman
Faculty: Uthman Olowa & Ellen Grimes
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Project Overview: Resurgence intends to celebrate the rich musical history of West Woodlawn present during the Jazz Age years while provoking a reemergence of the cultural hub that once existed by introducing affordable living units for artists and a public library dedicated to making West Woodlawn’s history accessible to everyone.
Honorable Mention: bq.we
Students: Ana Bulacovschi, Ellis Donahue, Viktor Nakev & Martin Parra
Faculty: Philippe Baumann
Pratt Institute
Project Overview: Like medieval city walls, which functioned both as protective city enclosure and as foundations against which wood frame residential buildings were built, bq.we proposes to repurpose the existing foundation and retaining walls of the BOE to serve as foundation for a new lattice structure.
Honorable Mention: Home Run
Students: Andy Vo, Eli Melendez & Sara Lee
Faculty: Michael Hamilton
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Project Overview: The project questions how we might re-purpose the existing Oakland Coliseum to promote community interaction through porosity and density.
See renderings of the projects and get more information HERE.
The competition jury included:
Omar Al-Hassawi, Washington State University
Erik Barth, Wentworth Institute of Technology/Gensler
Veronica Madonna, Athabasca University
About the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB)
The Softwood Lumber Board is an industry-funded initiative established to promote the benefits and uses of softwood lumber products in outdoor, residential, and non-residential construction and to increase demand for softwood lumber and appearance products. Through strategic investments in pro-wood communications, standards development, design and engineering assistance, research, demonstrations, and partnerships, the organization seeks to make softwood lumber the preferred material choice from both an economic and an environmental standpoint. For more information, visit www.softwoodlumberboard.org/
About the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA)
The mission of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture is to lead architectural education and research. Founded in 1912 by 10 charter members, ACSA is an international association of architecture schools preparing future architects, designers, and change agents. ACSA’s full members include all of the accredited professional degree programs in the United States and Canada, as well as international schools and 2- and 4-year programs. Together, ACSA schools represent 7,000 faculty educating more than 40,000 students.
ACSA seeks to empower faculty and schools to educate increasingly diverse students, expand disciplinary impacts, and create knowledge for the advancement of architecture. For more information, visit www.acsa-arch.org.
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