The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has unveiled the winners of its 2026 Concrete Masonry Student Competition, an annual challenge run with the Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association. This year’s prompt asked students to rethink the future of travel by designing a next-generation welcome center that is universally accessible, resilient in the face of change, and built for what comes next.
Organizers said the winning proposals treat concrete masonry as more than a practical wall material. Across the entries, concrete masonry is positioned as a durable, expressive system that helps turn welcome centers into civic landmarks and multifunctional hubs.
First place went to “Linked Assembly” from the University of Idaho, a design jurors praised for making concrete masonry the primary structural element and using shifted masonry walls and pilasters to break down the building’s scale. Second place, “River Futures Museum” from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was noted for pairing concrete masonry with wood to create a warm material palette, along with a sequence of public spaces tied to a water filtration system. Third place, “Puerta De Pilsen” from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, featured a custom structural block and a distinctive masonry pattern that plays with light and shadow through an open concrete block system.
Honorable mentions included “The Orbit Center” (University of Massachusetts Amherst), “Barcelona Welcome Center” (Kansas State University), “Marfa Welcome Center: Gateway to the Desert and the Night Sky” (University of Texas at Austin), and “Bumble Blocks” (University of Massachusetts Amherst), which proposed hexagonal CMU blocks inspired by beehive geometry.
For mason contractors, the takeaway is straightforward. Concrete masonry units (CMU) are showing up in concept work as structure, screen, and architectural identity. Designs that depend on custom units, patterned block, pilasters, and open screens raise the bar on layout, alignment, and finish quality, because the masonry itself becomes the experience visitors remember.
Read the full, original article from Archinect here.