38 students, faculty and staff members associated with the Myers-Lawson School of Construction traveled to Peachtree, Georgia to compete at the Fall 2018 Associated Schools of Construction Student Competition. Virginia Tech competition teams included a Heavy Team, Commercial Team, Concrete Team, Design Build Team, Shadow Team and Graduate Team. All teams are stationed in “war rooms” for 12 straight hours and are equipped with all supplies necessary to carry out a specified project within their scope of focus.
The Concrete Team finished third out of eight teams within their category. Their project was sponsored by Baker Concrete Construction. They were given plans and specifications to use for their prompts from Baker. The Concrete Team was tasked with a two story Proton Therapy Clinic located in South Florida. Their plan needed to include three rooms specifically designed for radiation shielding, which automatically requires ceilings and walls anywhere from eight to fifteen feet thick. “It was a very complex structural design and our duty was to provide a ‘bid’ for the project that incorporated our entire Quantity Takeoff for the Structural Concrete and Formwork,” Tim Reynolds said.
The Commercial Building Team finished second out of six teams. They were sponsored by Holder Construction, who acted as the clients, and required the team to create a fictitious company and submit a bid. Their specific project was a three-story, 26,000 square feet mixed use facility with rentable retail and office spaces. This project was located in an underserved, urban area in Southwest Atlanta. The purpose of this project was to serve and improve the low income community, therefore the challenge of this project was it needed to be delivered without a fee and services needed to be free of charge. “We were able to get exposure to certain aspects of construction that may not be as tangible during a lecture or internship. This exposure will be invaluable to your career,” Bryan Billings said.
The Heavy Civil Team finished first in their category. They were sponsored by Kiewit. They came in expecting to be presented with a project focusing on a bridge but were surprised with their project focusing on a dam. “We quickly had to readjust our focus and quickly got to work understanding a project we had never looked at before. We worked extremely hard for all 12 hours until we had to turn in our work. Once we finished the main project we took creating the best PowerPoint possible in hopes to wow the judges the next morning. We worked well into the night perfecting our slides and speaking points,” Donald Riblet said.
The Myers-Lawson School of Construction also sent six students to be a part of their Shadow Team. The Shadow Team is composed of individuals all new to the Associated Schools of Construction Student Competition. This opportunity allows them to become acclimated to the competition. Their project was also sponsored by Kiewit and had a similar focus to the Heavy Civil Team but was on a condensed scale. They are mixed in with other universities to complete the project. Building Construction student, Ricabelle Pagara, was a part of the first place Shadow Team.
The Graduate Team scope of focus consisted of construction finance and risk. They were sponsored by Brasfield & Gorrie and were tasked with pitching to executives from Brasfield & Gorrie. The team’s goal was to persuade the executive leaders that their specific job was worthy of the time, effort and cost of a pursuit. Their specific job was a 2000,000 square foot, seven- story office building with a three-story parking deck located in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Associated Schools of Construction Student Competition allows students to apply what they learn in the classroom to real life scenarios. The Myers-Lawson School of Construction consistently places high at these competitions. “I see this competition growing bigger within the school with greater rates of participation and support by our MLSoC Alumni. Dr. Muir's efforts, however, are by far the most critical because he knows what level this school can be at and he pushes his teams every year to be the best they can be to best represent our program and to learn as much as they can from this experience,” Reynolds said.
Participating Students:
Commercial Building Team: Bryan Billings (Captain), Justin Gravatt, Chad Walmer, Johnny Micka, John Weiss and Matt Garrison
Heavy Civil Team: Donald Riblet (Captain), Matt O’Neill, Kurtis Meyer, Young Kwang Ju, Andrew Bowers and Eli Leach
Concrete Team: Tim Reynolds (Captain), Daniel Whitley, Nate Fender, Dave Harrington, Daniel Cruz and Matt Greene
Design Build Team: Connor Rogers (Captain), Joe O’Neal, Avest Bavari, Phil Kistler, Alyssa Davis and Brian Maloney
Shadow Team: Amber Kraak, Chris Mitchell, Ann Marie Paul, Nefe Heath, Ricabelle Pagara and Alley La Bossiere
Graduate Team: Diana Franco-Duran (Captain), Alberto Duran, Daniel Linares and Sethu Madhavan
