Frank Maier High School Design Competition
61st Anniversary – 2026 Design Challenge
“Housing that Addresses Alaska’s Homeless”
Introduction: Both our observations when traveling and national resources tell us that homelessness is rising in the United States, and Alaska is no exception. In 2023, the Alaska Department of Health indicated that 1,764 individuals utilized Emergency Shelter, 382 individuals utilized Transitional Housing, and 468 were unsheltered. There is a current urgent need, and it is growing.
This year, students are being challenged to creatively design temporary housing for the homeless, either in their respective Alaskan community or in another Alaskan community meaningful to them.
The initial goal is to help transition people from being homeless to temporarily housed, which is the scope of this project.
INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY
Frank Maier, a Juneau Architect, started this program in 1965 and managed it personally for the first twenty years. Following his death in 1991, AIA Alaska elected to name the competition in his honor. Now, in its sixth decade of success, the competition continues to expose Alaskan high school students to architecture and the profession.
Throughout the years the competition has challenged hundreds of high school students with a variety of building types and sites of Alaskan relevance. Past programs have included both rural and urban sites for a wide range of facilities such as last year’s Palmer Flats Visitor Center, along with Rural Air Taxi Facility, Talkeetna Ski Chalet, Urban Coffee House, Youth Hostel, Wellness and Wilderness Retreats, Whale Watching Census Station, Visitor Centers, Seismic Science Center, and Equality Resource Center to name a few. The program has evolved to encourage student’s development of computer aided design (CAD) and building information modeling (BIM) software skills. Energy efficient and sustainable design solutions are now being emphasized in the design programs. All entrants will be provided with a certificate of participation. Four place winners will be awarded a cash prize and their design submissions posted on the AIA Alaska website.
2025 AWARD RECIPIENTS
Contest: Design a Medical Office and Physical Therapy Facility
The Challenge: An outside medical organization has begun working with a local developer to provide a new, two-story medical office and physical therapy facility, totaling 10,000 square feet, or 5,000 square feet per floor of leasable space. The medical organization will be providing the medical staff, therapists and local administrative support. The developer “selected the student” as the architect to lead the design team to develop preliminary floor-plans, sections, elevations, and renderings to help gain support from financial institutions.
The winners really showed a great deal of problem-solving skills and sense of design. The project narratives were wonderful to read and understand their aspirational goals for their designs.
In first place, winner of the $300 prize, is Ryan Wood, at Mat-Su Career and Technical High School.
In Second place and winner of the $250 prize, is the team of Ronin Van Gorder, Nathan Bultman, Dane Dekruif, Analiseah Jirik, and Kenneth Motton, also of the Mat-Su Career and Technical High School.
Tied for third is the entry by Westin Keeton and Elias Johnson, both of Houston High School. Both third-place winners received a $200 check for their excellent talent shown.
Click here to learn more
2024 AWARD RECIPIENTS
Four students of Chris Taylor, Drafting Instructor at Mat-Su Career and Technical High School, are being recognized for their designs of the “Palmer Flats Visitor Center”
Please click on their names to view their projects, as follows:
1st Place: Remy Fagerstrom ($300)
2nd Place: Kellen Wolfer ($250)
3rd Place: Jacob Wood ($200)
4th Place: Elsye Radavich-Holle ($100)
