UND Memorial Union architects win design award

The University of North Dakota and its student-centered Memorial Union had another moment to shine recently at the annual conference for the Association of College Unions International in Boston.

Memorial Union Director Cheryl Grew-Gillen said UND was part of the organization’s Architecture & Design Showcase featuring student union projects from across the country.

UND Memorial Union architects — WTW Architects of Pittsburgh and JLG Architects of Grand Forks — were recognized with a 2022 ACUI Facility Design Award for projects in the financial tier over $55 million. Just last fall, UND also made the cover of ACUI’s 2022 Special Edition Bulletin for its “Renovation & Construction Showcase,” which also featured the Union.

“I don’t know how many projects were nominated this time, but it’s always very competitive,” Grew-Gillen said. “At first, we didn’t think it was going to happen for us because we were supposed to hear late in the week, and we hadn’t heard anything yet by late Thursday.

“We finally received an email by Friday morning, and there was a lot of joyous yelling as I celebrated by myself in my office. Everyone else already had stepped out to work on other stuff. It was funny because I reached out to the architect, Amy Maceyko, and she couldn’t really shout out to celebrate either because she was in the middle of a car dealership.”

Read the rest of this story at UND Today.