Three Cosumnes River College students, mentored by personnel from local firm HMC Architects, have won the first round of the US Green Building Council's 2008 Natural Design Competition.
For several weeks last spring, Alex Villalobos, Ming Yee Hsu, and Michael Lee came to HMC Architects' Sacramento office every Friday to discuss their ideas for a smart growth community in Sacramento's historic railyard depot district.
Their designs ultimately won the first round of the US Green Building Council's Natural Design Competition, which challenged students to develop innovative smart growth designs for a proposed high-density, mixed-use section of Sacramento's historic railyard depot district, the largest urban infill site in the nation.
They each earned a spot in the national US Green Building Council competition in November, held in Boston.
The US Green Building Council's Sacramento chapter selected the railyard for the local competition because it provides the opportunity for smart growth on a scale never seen before in Sacramento. The council also felt that a successful plan for the district could serve as a template for the redevelopment of other industrial cities across the country.
"We are very proud of them," said John Ellis, an architecture professor at Cosumnes River College where Villalobos, Hsu, and Lee attend. He added that their success in the US Green Building Council competition helps raise the profile of Cosumnes River College, whose architecture program is in high demand and in great need of expansion.
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