MCA Announces 2025 Design Awards Winners: 5 Standout Projects
From cloud-like museums to sculptural theaters, the MCA’s 2025 Design Awards spotlight the teams using metal to redefine what’s possible in sheet metal construction
INVENTIVE: Highlights from the MCA’s 2025 Design Award-winning projects, featuring the year’s most inventive uses of metal in architecture and construction.
Each year, the Metal Construction Association (MCA) recognizes exceptional achievements in the use of metal in architecture through its annual Design Awards. The 2025 winners showcase how collaboration between leading architects, MCA member companies, and expert installers results in projects that push the limits of design, engineering, and fabrication. These awards highlight buildings where technical complexity, creative problem-solving, and innovative applications of metal truly stand out.
Below are five of this year’s top projects – each one illustrating what’s possible when expertise, vision, and metal come together.
1. La Nube STEAM Discovery Center
CLOUD INNOVATION:A floating, cloud-like form realized with expert metalwork and modern design. (Courtesy of Brian Wancho Photography)
- Location: El Paso, Texas
- MCA Member Company: ATAS International, Inc.
- Architect: Snohetta Architects
- Metal Installer: Commercial Roofing Systems
Judges praised the center’s sculptural, cloud-inspired form and the technical skill required to create the seamless, elevated exterior. Every panel was custom-fabricated to turn Snohetta’s ambitious vision into a remarkable public destination.
2. Mirror Ceiling at Workplace Resource
REFLECTIVE IMPACT: Precision metalwork creates a ceiling that transforms both space and experience. (Courtesy of Jason-ORear)
- Location: Denver, Colorado
- MCA Member Company: Sheet Metal Supply LTD
- Architect: Gensler Architecture, Denver
- Metal Installer: SRB Acoustics, Centennial, Colorado
Gensler’s design leveraged highly reflective metal, installed with extreme accuracy by SRB Acoustics, to create a ceiling that lowers the visual height yet amplifies the room’s energy and light. Every sheet demanded careful installation to deliver the intended mirrored effect.
3. Woodbine Theater at Great Canadian Casino Resort
CURVED EXPRESSION: Macro-scale bends and folds show metal’s true sculptural potential. (Courtesy of James Morley)
- Location: Etobicoke, Toronto
- MCA Member Company: Norbec Architectural Inc.
- Architect: CGL Architects
- Metal Installer: Bothwell Accurate
The theater’s envelope uses insulated metal panels shaped in dramatic curves and folds. Judges noted how the metal was used “the way it wants to be used” – as an expressive, large-scale building material.
4. PGA Tour Digital Studios
DETAILED: Impeccable custom fabrication delivers technology-inspired elegance. (Courtesy of Chad Martin and Chris Condon)
- Location: Fulton, Mississippi
- MCA Member Companies: MillerClapperton and FL Crane & Sons
- Architect: HLW, Foster + Partners
- Metal Installer: FL Crane & Sons
This studio’s standout feature is its custom bullnose, fabricated and installed with the precision of a high-end device. The result, as one judge put it, is “like an iPhone in a building.”
5. Beth El Synagogue
CUSTOM CRAFT: Unique standing seam roof panels engineered for a complex, sloped design. (Courtesy of Division V Sheet Metal, Inc.)
- Location: St. Louis Park, Minnesota
- MCA Member Company: East Coast Metal Systems
- Metal Installer: Division V Sheet Metal, Inc.
The synagogue’s retrofit project required every panel to be custom-fit to an inverse curve, showcasing the close coordination between designer and installer. The slope and transitions were executed to a high degree of difficulty, earning praise for craftsmanship.
These projects, recognized by the MCA’s panel of industry experts, underscore the crucial role of collaboration between architects, MCA member companies, and skilled installers. Together, they continue to elevate the standards for metal in modern construction.
See the full list of 2025 MCA Design Award winners at the MCA website.
Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!
