Design Teams Win Sustainable Technology Welcome Center Competition

Two teams that included Mechanical Engineering graduate students and faculty 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 seeks 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 winners of the competition may be asked to become party to the final design for the project. The team included ME graduate research assistants Ji Bian and Jonathan Winkler. Professor Reinhard Radermacher served as a faculty advisor for the competition, and the students worked in cooperation with Ziger/Snead Architects, Henry Adams Consulting Engineers, Catholic University and Michael Furbish.

Second place winners included graduate research 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 is 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.

Published June 15, 2004