FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Questions during the competition must be submitted in writing via e-mail to Gus Garcia Design Competition administrators at gusgarciapark@gmail.com.

Competition Deadline

Since April 1 lies on a Sunday, the competition deadline has been revised to Monday April 2, 2007. Please have all materials delivered to the AIA Austin office no later than 5:00 pm. AIA Austin Center For Architecture, 801 W. 12th Street, Austin, TX 78701.

Adding Team Members

Please contact the AIA Austin via e-mail to add members to your team.

Late Registration

Due to the strong interest from sponsors and registrants, the competition organizers have elected to extend the registration period until March 16th.

Will an AutoCAD site plan of the rec center be made available to competition entrants?

We have uploaded a CAD site plan showing the footprint of the rec center located on the site. Under the Downloads section of the competition webpage, you will see a link for "Site Plan CAD". This links to a .zip file which contains both the site plan of the park with the footprint of the rec center, and an extended topographic plan of the site and surrounding areas. Construction is under way on the rec center, so it cannot be relocated on the site.

Is there a way to get an image with better resolution to print out at a better quality, or preferably, an autocad file with the proposed rec center?

A PDF of the floor plan of the rec center has been made available in the downloads portion of the website.

Would there be any way for me to get drawings of the elevations of the proposed Recreation Center to be built on the site?

We are hoping to obtain some elevations and/or renderings from the architect, and we will notify everyone on our e-mail list when we upload any new information. We understand that the more information we can provide to you, the better designs you will be able to create, and the more useful those designs will be for the community.

Are we allowed to change or alter the proposed parking situation for the Rec Center or are we merely allowed to add on to it?

Though possible to do so, due to the cost of this construction, we do not recommend altering the parking as designed. Since the rec center is currently under construction and should be completed by the time this project comes to fruition, this question falls into the "respectful of the existing design" portion of our objective statement.

What is the area south of the Rec Center proposedto be?

The area south of the rec center is designated to be a detention pond for storm water storage during a torrential downpour as to not overload the storm water sewage system. In regards to the previous question, this area is seen as alterable respectful of the existing design.

The time I graduated is way past 10 years, am I eligible for this competition?

Unfortunately, you are not eligible for this competition. Our intent is to encourage young, emerging designers to get more involved in their community. We did not want to exclude any persons based on age, but rather limited the eligibility based on experience, and defined that by the number of years since completion of your last professional degree (which must be less than 10). We hope that limiting the field to persons with less than 10 years of experience will encourage more young designers to enter this competition, and that young, emerging professionals will be able use this competition as a means of gaining design experience to better prepare them for their future careers.

Are employees of Graeber, Simmons & Cowan eligible to enter a design in this competition?

Employees of GS&C are eligible to enter the competition. GS&C, as a sponsor of the competition, has donated money earmarked for the cash prizes of the competition. Several design firms were approached; however, GS&C was the only one to provide monetary support. GS&C has no direct affiliation with any of the Jurors, nor would they profit in any way from one of its employees winning the competition.