NEF Design Drafting Competition

On April 14th, 2025, the NAWIC Salt Lake City Chapter held their annual NEF Design Drafting Competition Showcase and Banquet. Our chapter has been sponsoring this competition for 50 years. This year it was held at the Training Center of the AGC of Utah. The night was filled with excitement and anticipation! The instructors were able to see their students’ projects for the first time. While the students awaited the announcement of the winners for the contest.

This year we had the wonderful opportunity to hear from Tonya Timothy, current President for the NAWIC Salt Lake City Chapter. She spoke about NAWIC as an association, the theme and goals for her tenure as president. Tonya is full of great words of wisdom and believes that no matter gender, race or background we need to support and empower everyone.

Those in attendance were lucky enough to hear from Joey Gilbert, current CEO/President of the AGC of Utah. He talked about how he advocates for the construction industry on capitol hill. Joey spoke about the AGC as a whole and what they are about. He touched on their business development for contractors along with education that the ACG offers to those looking to get certifications and involved in apprenticeships.

Our keynote speaker from FFKR architects, Steven Goodwin, did an amazing job. He is currently a principal architect leading their Religious Studio. He spoke about searching for beauty and meaning in all architecture. Steve spoke about geometry that is found in sacred architecture with Geometry of the Human Body. He also gave great information about The Golden Spiral creating a perfect ratio that is attractive to humans. This spiral is found in architecture all over the world, from The Sistine Chapel ceiling painting by Leonardo Da Vinci to The Parthenon. This spiral has been used to create the world that surrounds us, as well as The Flower of Life pattern. If you were able to attend, you know that Steve talked about something he is passionate about and gave great insight into his beautiful projects.

This year as a committee we successfully had 3 school districts participate in the program: Granite, Jordan and Provo. Thank you to those instructors involved in the success of this of the contest. We had 10 students apply to participate in the NEF Design Drafting Competition, with 5 projects submitted for judging. With a larger number of students projects came more judges from Big-D Construction, Design West Architects & NWL Architects.

We are so grateful to the 5 Students who participated this year and want to congratulate our winners!

• 1st Place: Parker Sabin (Jordan SD)

• 2nd Place: Finnegan Vorwaller (Granite SD)

• 3rd Place: Dayanna Meza Leon (Provo SD)

These students worked hard on their projects, and we hope they take with them the knowledge of design drawings and more information about the construction industry. May they feel a sense of accomplishment for what they have done and look forward to the bright future ahead of them. Their designs are all original to the students, which shows their creativity and ability to resolve problems. It’s always been a pleasure to see the students work and how talented they are. This year was such a success, and we can’t wait to see what next years competition brings!

Tiffany Dazley

Salt Lake Chapter #90 Director

Co-Chair for this year's NEF Design Drafting Competition

Sr. VDC Coordinator at Big-D Construction (by day)