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K-State Today

January 10, 2017

Manko awards $5,000 scholarship to APDesign student

Submitted by Thom Jackson

Christian Berger, Wichita, a fourth-year architecture student at Kansas State University, is receiving a $5,000 scholarship as the winner of a College of Architecture, Planning & Design, or APDesign, competition sponsored by MANKO Window Systems in Manhattan.

Berger's project was the West Bottoms Workshop | BNIM Studio. The West Bottom Workshop is a community motorcycle garage and fabrication workshop seeking to claim new ground for adventurers, artists, gear heads and craftspeople to explore, dream and make their own community. Located in the West Bottoms district of Kansas City, Missouri, the workshop will provide a home base for a crew of motorcycle enthusiasts and provide tools and facilities desired, but not easily accessed by aspiring artists and craftspeople enabling them to work on projects in a space geared to their changing need.

The design was an assignment in his forth-year comprehensive studio class, requiring students to integrate conceptual and technical knowledge into one complete project for a presentation with drawings, renderings and models. Following a review, one student from each studio was selected to compete for the MANKO award, with each developing a narrative slide presentation to present to judges, who were all established practitioners in the field.

Berger is a graduate student in the BNIM Studio taught by four rotating BNIM professionals during the fall semester: Greg Sheldon associate principal; James Pfeiffer, associate principal; and Elvis Achelpohl, an APDesign alumnus. BNIM has been in partnership with the College of Architecture, Planning & Design since 2011 to offer fourth-year architectural design studios to students in the architecture department in the fall and summer semesters. The university's BNIM team varies from year to year, but Sheldon and Pfeiffer have led the studio since its inception. Each of the team members commutes to campus from their Kansas City base office on a different studio day to teach their fourth-year studio.

As part of his graduation requirements, Berger will study abroad for the spring 2017 semester at Czech Technical University, Prague and will graduate in May 2018.

The competition jury included Michael Hacker, associate architect at Bray Architects, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Stacey Keller, senior project architect at Mead & Hunt, Madison, Wisconsin; and Ben Stindt, senior architect/principal at Populous, Kansas City, Missouri.

The following fourth-year architecture students also were selected for the MANKO competition:

Bradley Gollwitzer, Shawnee, representing the studio of Genevieve Baudoin, assistant professor of architecture; and Zane Parks, Wichita, representing the studio of Torgeir Norheim, associate professor of architecture.

From out of state:

Harison Pitchford, KCDC studio, Columbia, Missouri; and Drew Lindsey, Springfield, Missouri, representing the studio of Todd Gabbard, associate professor of architecture.