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| 23 Sep 2025 | |
| Awards |
| AIA Milwaukee Emerging Professionals |
Hosted by the AIA Milwaukee Emerging Professionals, the annual Emerging Professionals Design Competition encourages AIA Wisconsin Students, Emerging Professionals, and Architects licensed up to 10 years to take on a real-world urban design challenge in the City of Milwaukee. This single-stage ideas competition showcases our younger members' bold, creative thinking skills while working with a real client’s program and constraints.
This year’s competition focused on Single-Family Residential design, where the competitors had the option to choose 1 of 3 sites listed below, each with their own unique program elements to set them apart. Competitors were instructed to follow the program list from their ‘future client’ as closely as possible, while following the set guidelines of the competition.
SITE 01
A pond-side property prioritizing ecological sensitivity, stormwater management, and Passive House principles. The client seeks an energy-efficient home with a green roof, PV integration, walk-out basement, and indoor-outdoor flow from the kitchen/living area. 2-4 Bedrooms, 2-3 Baths
SITE 02
A home centered around seamless indoor-outdoor living, with courtyards, verandas, and generous outdoor amenities including a pool, sauna, and outdoor kitchen. Flexible space planning and strong visual connections to nature are key. 2-3 Bedrooms, 2 Baths
SITE 03
A forever home for a retired couple who would prefer a ranch or split-level home. The design should focus on aging in place, open layouts, and thoughtful kitchen and bathroom design, with adaptability and comfort top of mind. 2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths
To encourage individual and original development ideas for the site, teams were provided with limited criteria and objectives regarding garage space, accessory buildings, basements, square footage, levels, and core spaces.
Submissions featured a variety of creative and innovative approaches. Five Milwaukee-local jurors blind judged the submissions from AIA Wisconsin members across the state, and three projects were named 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners with a cash prize awarded, courtesy of the competition sponsor, Wangard Partners. New this year, one project received the 'People's Choice Award', determined by a public vote during the Metro Builders Association's Parade of Homes.
This year’s judges represent a wide range of constituencies, including AIA Wisconsin and community representatives. We are deeply grateful for their time and support of this competition and our emerging professional participants.
John Van Rooy, AIA – AIA WI CRAN, John Van Rooy Architecture
Nick Blavat, AIA – AIA WI CRAN, Deep River Partners
Andrew Rexrode, AIA – AIA Milwaukee 2025 Vice President, Workshop Architects
Eva Fryar – Metro Builders Association (MBA) Parade of Homes Builder, Division President of Stepping Stone Homes
Dean Frederick – MBA Past President & Developer, Owner of Technical Engineering Consultants LLC
And thank you to the AIA Milwaukee Emerging Professionals Design Competition Committee Members responsible for organizing the competition:
Emily Neal, Assoc. AIA – AIA Milwaukee 2025 President, Quorum Architects, Inc.
Miranda Lutzke, Assoc. AIA – GROTH Design Group
Pankti Pasad, Assoc. AIA – American Design, Inc.
Special thanks to Toby Van Sistine (Metro Builders Association) for their help in coordinating the People's Choice Award.
THE 2025 WINNERS
FIRST PLACE
Steppe
Cody Chelminiak, Assoc. AIA
(SITE 03)
Steppe reimagines the corner lot not as a showcase for wrapping facades, but as an opportunity to restore one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems—Wisconsin’s native tallgrass prairie, of which only 0.1% remains. Rather than a conventional lawn, the design proposes a pocket prairie, contributing to a broader cultural shift toward ecological resilience and creating an interconnected network of native landscapes across neighborhoods.
The home itself balances client desires with long-term accessibility. Though conceived as a split-level ranch, essential amenities are consolidated on the main level, with the living space depressed and a loft added to create segmentation and verticality. Accessibility is built in from the start, with a ramped connection to the living area, a vertical platform lift, and mindful kitchen and bathroom details to support aging in place. A central operable breezeway bisects the plan, extending the theme of “splitting” into both interior circulation and exterior massing.
By weaving together ecological stewardship, thoughtful accessibility, and architectural interpretation, Steppe offers a model for how residential development can both honor client needs and contribute to broader cultural and environmental renewal.
View the Full Project Details: Steppe Submission Packet
SECOND PLACE
Meadow House
Jared Maternoski, AIA
(SITE 01)
Meadow House dissolves the boundary between shelter and landscape, rooting itself in the earth and opening to light, water, and meadow views. Two timber bars emerge from sculpted board-formed concrete walls, embracing a quiet courtyard while anchoring the home into its sloping site. Exposed Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) structure organizes the plan on a 12-foot grid, delivering warmth, efficiency, and adaptability while reinforcing a strong connection to nature.
Sustainability is integral to the design. Prefabricated CLT panels and continuous wood fiber insulation align with Passive House principles, reducing waste and embodied energy while locking away carbon. Green roofs manage stormwater, reduce heat gain, and restore native habitat, visually blending the house into its natural surroundings. A ventilated facade of Northern White Cedar slats weathers to silver over time, offering durability, integrated solar shading, and a dynamic interplay of light and shadow.
Every threshold of Meadow House is designed as a point of connection—between structure and site, material and climate, human and nature—creating a resilient, enduring home that embraces living as part of the land.
View the Full Project Details: Meadow House Submission Packet
THIRD PLACE
Cooking House
Peter Miller, Assoc. AIA
(SITE 02)
Cooking House was designed as a home for the client of Site 2, with a primary focus centering the plan around cooking and sharing of food while providing each space with ample views focused on the gardens and natural features surrounding the home.
By creating a set axes and pushing, pulling, and cutting the geometry to create courtyards and vistas, the home is oriented towards the backyard where the important elements of the outdoor dining space, outdoor kitchen, greenhouse, gardens, pool, and sauna are situated.
The kitchen and flower garden lie on the central axis of the home, and everything else surrounds these two spaces. Elements throughout
the site support the health and wellbeing of the home’s inhabitants by providing space for growing and harvesting their own vegetables and a well-lit kitchen for preparing food along with plenty of storage space. The dining space is separated from the outdoor patio by a large set of sliding glass doors, which allows the space to be expanded when the Milwaukee weather allows. Substantial daylighting and the use of natural materials are two key components of the design focused on healthy living conditions for the home’s inhabitants.
View the Full Project Details: Cooking House Submission Packet
PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD
Dwelling in Rhythm
David Lette, Assoc. AIA and Liz Brage
Dwelling in Rhythm is conceived as a loop of living, a choreography of space that aligns architecture with the rhythm of daily life. Rather than functioning as a collection of separate rooms, the house is arranged as a continuous sequence, moving clockwise through moments of refresh, wellness, gathering, and restoration. Anchored by a central courtyard, the plan draws nature into the heart of the home, ensuring that every step is framed by light, views, and greenery. The loop creates a sense of flow and inevitability, where circulation itself becomes ritual, shaping the perception of time as much as space.
Material choices reinforce this sense of rhythm and continuity. Warm wood ceilings, terrazzo floors, and layered green textures create an atmosphere that feels both timeless and indulgent, while terraces and outdoor platforms extend the sequence into the landscape. Guests experience the same unfolding choreography, moving through spaces that reveal themselves gradually and always in dialogue with nature. The result is not a static residence but a living cycle, a home where daily rituals are choreographed as acts of balance, reflection, and connection with the natural world.
View the Full Project Details: Dwelling in Rhythm Submission Packet
All text & imagery above provided by or summarized from submission materials.
