DDC/SCA ACE Mentor Team’s Design Proposal for New Olympic Stadium in Paris, France Named National Finalist in CIRT Competition

DDC/SCA ACE Mentor Team's Design Proposal for New Olympic Stadium in Paris, France Named National Finalist in CIRT Competition

Team's 16 NYC high school students will present their proposal on April 29 in Washington, D.C.

SCA: Kevin Ortiz, [email protected]
DDC: Denisse Moreno, [email protected], 718-391-1854

(Long Island City, NY - April 19, 2024) The NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) and NYC School Construction Authority (SCA) announced today that their joint DDC/SCA ACE Mentor Program of Greater NY's Team 8's proposal for a new Olympic Stadium in Paris, France category has won first place in the prestigious CIRT national design and construction competition in the category of "Olympic Stadium/Iconic Structure."

For the 2024 Construction Industry Roundtable (CIRT) National Design and Construction Competition, teams were required to apply design and construction techniques to create an iconic structure for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris. The students had to create a "memorable stadium, hall, housing complex, or structure that will have a lasting impact, purpose, function, and/or footprint, while capturing the history, culture, and architectural tradition in Paris." The teams had to consider how the structure can be reconfigured to maintain lasting value and use after the games, while focusing on sustainability, energy efficiency, the use of recyclable ecofriendly products and smart building communication and security technologies.

The joint DDC/SCA team submitted a design proposal entitled "Le Estade Eiffel - The Eiffel Stadium," an Eiffel Tower-inspired and sustainable design. The 16 students from NYC public and private schools, grades 9-12, will compete with two other teams for the national title. The presentation for the final will be on April 29, 2024 in Washington, D.C. in an event that will be streamed live on Vimeo.

"The talented students and their DDC/SCA mentors who designed this stunning, sustainable Olympic stadium are already at the forefront of sustainable and resilient design," said NYC Department of Design and Construction Commissioner Thomas Foley. "It's encouraging to see younger generations excited about engineering and design the same way I was and many of their mentors were at that age. We are very proud of the team and their success and wish them luck on their final presentation and in their future careers."

"This wonderful, joint collaboration between the SCA and DDC supporting our ACE Mentor Team 8 equips participants with the expertise and resources needed to cultivate tomorrow's leaders in design, architecture, and construction, and I applaud our team's impressive performance in this year's contest," said SCA President and CEO Nina Kubota. "The ACE Mentor Program seamlessly integrates with several SCA initiatives, such as our High School and College Internship programs, workforce development program, and Opportunity Academy, all aimed at preparing students for success in the construction industry."

"I am looking forward to Team 8's presentation at 2024 Construction Industry Roundtable (CIRT) National Design and Construction Competition in Washington, D.C.," said Sue Veres Royal, Executive Director of the ACE Mentor Program of Greater NY. "It's an incredible opportunity for our students to present in our Nation's capital on their ideas for an arena for an international event that brings the world together, while underscoring the importance of sustainability. We are incredibly proud of Team 8!"

The team reinvented the famous geometric shape of the Eiffel Tower by placing the structure on its side andusing the large archway as the stadium. The middle and upper part of the tower includes a market hall for retail shops, food and beverage businesses, a rooftop restaurant with outdoor seating and an atrium multipurpose space featuring a mass timber ceiling. The design includes an athlete village that could be used as an apartment complex after the games, underground parking, a six-story hotel, pool, offices for media as well as a secure main entrance. The teams implemented sustainable concepts and technologies to the design, including mass timber, stone, geothermal energy, and renewable energy such as solar panels and wind turbines. Smart metering and real-time monitoringtechnology was also added to collect data on electricity, water, and other resources to optimize energy usage.

The ACE Mentor Program is a free after-school program that connects high school students with experts from the design and construction industry. Its mission is to "engage, excite and enlighten high school students to pursue careers in architecture, engineering and construction through mentoring and to support their continued advancement in the industry."

The team included 13 mentors from DDC and one from SCA, and included students from Queens Technical High School, St. Francis Prep High School, Bard High School Early College Queens, Pan American High School, Brooklyn Technical High School and other City schools. Students in previous DDC/SCA ACE teams have moved on to college to study STEM careers and have received scholarships for their education. City students can apply for next year's program in the fall at the ACE Mentor Program of Greater NY's website.

About the NYC Department of Design and Construction
The Department of Design and Construction is the City's primary capital construction project manager. In supporting Mayor Adams' long-term vision of growth, sustainability, resiliency, equity and healthy living, DDC provides communities with new or renovated public buildings such as firehouses, libraries, police precincts, and new or upgraded roads, sewers and water mains in all five boroughs. To manage this $33 billion portfolio, DDC partners with other City agencies, architects and consultants, whose experience bring efficient, innovative and environmentally-conscious design and construction strategies to City projects. For more information, please visit nyc.gov/ddc.

About the NYC School Construction Authority
The School Construction Authority's (SCA) mission is to design and construct safe, attractive and environmentally sound public schools for children throughout the many communities of New York City. We are dedicated to building and modernizing schools in a responsible, cost-effective manner while achieving the highest standards of excellence in safety, quality and integrity. Established by the New York State Legislature in December 1988, the SCA has provided over 265,000 new school seats, not including Temporary Classroom Units (TCUs), to New York City students, opened the nation's largest free Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) network providing almost 8,800 seats under the Mayor's UPK initiative and protected, repaired and upgraded over 1,800 schools in over 1,400 school buildings with over 12,500 capital improvement projects.

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