PCCA Team Places Second in National Construction Competition

A team of students from Pennsylvania College of Technology's School of Construction and Design Technologies placed second recently in a national construction competition in Las Vegas.

Members of the Penn College Construction Association competed in the National Association of Home Builders' annual residential-construction competition, finishing behind only BYU-Idaho. North Central Technical Institute placed third.

The PCCA team competed against 11 other colleges in the post-secondary division for schools offering two-year degrees in construction and related majors. The contest is open to teams from student chapters of the NAHB and has secondary, post-secondary two-year and post-secondary four-year divisions.

The competitors had to produce a residential-home design, complete with working drawings, estimated costs, construction schedule and final presentation. The students were given the family profile, budget, location, design criteria and relevant construction information and then had to produce a design (in accordance with the International Residential Building Code) that was efficient, cost-effective, used "green" materials and techniques, and showed innovation and value engineering.

The Penn College team members are: Joel T. Harrison, Cogan Station, Carpentry; David G. Mazaika, McAdoo, Building Construction Technology; Timothy Parkinson, Indiana, Building Construction Technology; Christine A. Seward, Pottsville, Architectural Technology; and Adam N. Waigand, Cranberry Township, Building Construction Technology.

The PCCA also placed third in the voting for Student Chapter of the Year, receiving a prize of $750. The award is based on chapter activities and accomplishments from the past year.

The PCCA team received financial support from the Pennsylvania Builders Association, the West Branch Susquehanna Builders Association and Penn College.

Faculty adviser Richard L. Druckenmiller, instructor of building construction technology, traveled with the team and other PCCA members to the NAHB show and competition. Ernie Larson, an adjunct instructor in masonry, assisted Druckenmiller and the Penn College students.

NAHB is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing more than 200,000 members from the residential-home-building and remodeling industry.

To learn more about the construction-related majors at Penn College, call toll-free, (800) 367-9222, or visit on the Web.