A Drexel University’s senior design team won second place for their mock engineering firm, Vector Collaborative, at the 2012 Chicago Mock Firm Competition on May 4 in Chicago, I.L. This year’s competition challenged students to organize a “mock” design firm for the purpose of conceiving, coordinating, constructing and commercializing a 100-story multi-use high-rise building for a project site in Beijing, China. The team competed against national college teams and presented their design to a panel of nine expert judges from architecture firms around the country over the course of three hours on a semi-formal basis.
The team consisted of students Monika Mickute, Thomas McGrew, Scott Macphearson, Jennifer Shin and Peter Matthews.
The students blueprinted the Life Tower, a structure meant to be utilized for retail, residential, commercial and hospitality purposes. In order to simulate a real world building design process, International Building Code 2009 was used to design all aspects of the project, including the building envelope, structural, HVAC, electrical, fire protection and plumbing systems. Both the building and site design incorporate sustainability, innovation and the traditional Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui. The design project has the potential to reach a LEED Platinum Certification rating if built, demonstrating the team’s commitment to sustainability. The Life Tower won first place in the Engineering and Marketing category and second place in the overall competition.
