Inside the MKM Steel Competition where Ball State architecture students compete for scholarship funding. Stories from the judges, winners, and the tradition's founder Ron Menze.
This is part of our coverage of the 2026 MKM Steel Competition at Ball State. Read the full story about the competition’s 33-year history and this year’s judging process:
For 33 years, MKM has sponsored the MKM Steel Competition at Ball State’s College of Architecture and Planning. Third-year architecture students compete for scholarship funding in front of a jury of industry professionals. Each studio faculty member shapes the challenge, either using the ACSA Steel Competition brief directly or creating their own prompt within the ACSA open category. The goal is the same: explore steel’s structural and expressive potential while solving real architectural and community problems. Four judges reviewed 21 projects. Three stood out.
First Place / Menze Prize: Aiden Henning
“Balancing Act”
The judges used two words: complete and convincing.
Aiden started with what was already there: a railway trestle bridge on site. Its simple steel geometry became the formal language for the entire project. A double-layer facade lets passersby observe dancers from the street. Community members walking behind the screen become part of the performance, ghosted and then revealed in steel frames.
Bold moves. No wasted gestures. Every detail reinforced the concept.
Judge Sam Vonderau noted that the project stood out immediately:
“Aiden did a great job from top to bottom on the presentation, really clearly walking us through the context, the problems he was trying to solve, and creating a thorough storyline that just convinced us that this is the right way to solve this project.”
Judge Elise DeChard praised the restraint behind the ambition:
“This project has a couple of bold formal moves… it also doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard. Every detail seems considered and seems like it is reinforcing the concept.”
“Balancing Act” by Aiden Henning — First Place/Menze Prize, 2026 MKM Steel Competition
Second Place: Gabe Barton
“Reclaimed” — Fisher Body Plant 21 Rehabilitation, Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is demolishing buildings and generating massive waste. Gabe asked what a circular economy of building materials could look like inside an abandoned factory.
His project reimagines Fisher Body Plant 21 as a deconstruction center: industry on the lower levels, moving vertically into public space, an auditorium and marketplace where refurbished materials can be sold or shipped elsewhere. New steel structure anchored into existing concrete. Old and new in conversation, not competition.
The judges responded to how thoroughly the concept held together at every scale. One noted:
“You could tell that you’re tackling some big issues… but then you’re zooming all the way in multiple times and showing us through your graphics that you’ve got it all resolved. It’s a great balance of high level thinking and solving multiple issues in a creative way.”
The steel-to-concrete connection detail earned particular attention:
“The way you dealt with that threshold between old and new was very successful. Instead of just smacking it onto there, you were curating the way that these were attaching to each other.”
“Reclaimed” by Gabe Barton — Second Place, 2026 MKM Steel Competition
Third Place: Claire Replogle
“Public Parking” — Parking Garage Transformation, Columbus, Indiana
Claire visited her site and noticed something most designers overlook: parking lots in small towns become community space. Trunk-or-treats. Gatherings. What happens to those concrete structures when personal vehicles become obsolete?
Her answer: transform them into adaptable community space, using steel to hold existing slabs in new configurations. No grand gesture. Program defined by the people using it, not predetermined by the designer.
Judges praised both the concept and the craft of how it was presented:
“Transforming a typically dark building typology and interpreting it in a light, fun, open manner.”
They also noted that her model and graphics worked together in an uncommon way, with her presentation style letting the personality of the designer come through.
Here’s Claire’s gallery code:
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“Public Parking” by Claire Replogle — Third Place, 2026 MKM Steel Competition
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These three projects represent the best of what the MKM Steel Competition asks students to explore: steel as both structure and language, real problems solved with thoughtful design, and ideas that hold up under scrutiny from industry professionals.
The MKM architecture + design has supported student work at Ball State’s College of Architecture and Planning for 33 years and has an endowment through the Ball State Foundation to keep this competition going for generations to come.
← Read the full story: Ideas over AI: Inside the MKM Steel Competition
Story and photos by Ryan Sparrow | MKM Design