Architecture award winner way before his time
Grant Hudson was only 13 when he attended his first meeting of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects five years ago, but he went in fully prepared.
“He comes to the meeting with a portfolio. He has hand sketches and models he’s created with computer programs,” said Grant’s mentor, architect Bryan Hudson (no relation), current chapter president and owner of Soma Design Consultants in Chicago. “Everybody at the meeting is amazed at how skilled he is — and he’s not even in high school yet.”
That was just the beginning for Grant, now 18, who in the last three years has won three consecutive national medals in architecture at the Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO), a nonprofit program under the umbrella of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Grant graduated from Geneva High School and is now a freshman at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss.
He is enrolled in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps — the only freshman so far in its ranger challenge team, he said — and wants to join the U.S. Army as a commissioned officer after college. Once he retires from the Army, probably around age 40, he wants to establish his own construction company, he said.
“I just like the Army, both my parents were in the military. It’s what I have always wanted,” said Grant, who picked Jackson State because it is a historically black college, has a good engineering school and is about two hours from where some of his relatives live.
Grant won his first ACT-SO gold medal at age 15, as a high school sophomore and the youngest winner in that category in the history of the competition. As a junior, he won a silver medal and this past summer he won another gold.
Last year, more than 600 students competed in 26 categories at the national level in Los Angeles after winning in their respective categories at the local level, said Dorletta Payton, chairwoman of DuPage County ACT-SO.
Among the national winners — all motivated, bright students — Grant distinguished himself not just for having won medals three years in a row, but for the sophistication of his work, Payton said.
Several architects were interested in the design that earned Grant his first gold medal in 2009, and one bought the plan with the intention of making it come to life, Payton said. After his second gold medal this summer, representatives of the U.S. Navy offered Grant a scholarship to any college of his choice, she said.
“There are other projects that are very impressive, but Grant stands head and shoulders above the crowd at that level,” Payton said. “For him to be able to come out winning as he has year after year, it’s really quite an accomplishment.”
Grant has always had an eye for what makes a difference in other people’s lives.
His first project was a sustainable two-story house for New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Grant designed the bottom floor as an open space so it could withstand flooding.
His second project was a two-bedroom modular home designed to help the victims of last year’s earthquake in Haiti.
“Container homes are starting to get popular because they are easy to build, they are cheap, weatherproof and fireproof. And stainless steel does not rust,” Grant said. “(In Haiti) they have tent cities, and I wanted to replace them with shipping containers. In America there is an abundance of them.”
His last gold medal was for an education center he designed for the Shawnee National Forest in downstate Illinois. “I visited it when I was a Cub Scout, finding trees, planting stuff, learning about the wild,” he said. “When I created my design, I wanted to do an education center where people could expand their knowledge through environmental awareness and going green (initiatives). Somewhere where they could bring samples into a state-of-the-art building and have a fun learning environment.”
As a Boy Scout, Grant achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, the organization’s highest rank, which is achieved only by about 5 percent of scouts nationally. For his Eagle Scout project, Grant led a team of Boy Scouts who refurbished computers donated by Kane County and gave them away to a shelter in Aurora.
“It was my idea,” he said. “A couple of years ago with my mom, we donated food there and we took a tour. I saw it was kind of outdated. There was a lot of kids there who needed a way to do their homework.”
Architect Bryan Hudson, who has mentored Grant since he began competing in ACT-SO, said Grant’s greatest strength is his drive to achieve his goals.
When discussing projects for ACT-SO, “We would go back and forth for a couple weeks about different ideas and concepts, and once he got it nailed, it was full steam ahead,” Bryan Hudson said. “I think he’s an extremely talented young man, and whatever area he chooses to go in the design field, I think he’ll do well.”
Grant started drawing at a very early age, said his mother, Willetta Hudson, who works as director of human resources for Kaplan Higher Education. Her husband, Alvin, builds machines for Caterpillar Inc.
“At four or five, he drew big things — fighter jets, big machinery — down to the smallest degree (of detail),” she said.
At age 9, Grant used his allowance to buy house design magazines. “They had black-and-white house plans. It was the most boring thing I’ve ever seen,” Willetta Hudson said. “It blew my mind. He’d spend hours and hours looking at them, and he started drawing his own house plans by himself.”
Grant says he got serious about it around age 11, when he started taking computer-aided drawing classes in school and found out about Google SketchUp from his mentor Bryan Hudson.
“I just played around a lot, drew mansions and houses that I wanted for future living. Big, crazy extravagant houses. It was my hobby, it was interesting to me,” he said.
Grant did not distinguish himself academically in high school, earning a GPA in the low 2.0s, although he points out he got a 29 on his ACT. “I didn’t really take high school seriously,” he said. “I wish I had.”
But that has changed now, he said, because he is determined to earn a full ROTC scholarship at Jackson State. “This year I am working hard,” he said.
Grant played varsity football his junior and senior year of high school, but he’s going to wait until next year to walk on the football team, he said. “I want to start off really good.”
Ÿ Elena Ferrarin wrote today’s column. She and Kimberly Pohl are always looking for Suburban Standouts to profile. If you know of someone whose story just wows you, please send a note including name, town, email and phone contacts for you and the nominee to standouts@dailyherald.com.
Grant Hudson
<B>Age:</B> 18
<B>Hometown:</B> Geneva
<B>School:</B> Jackson State University, Jackson, Miss.
<B>Who inspires you?</B> My parents, Willetta and Alvin Hudson.
<B>What book are you reading? </B>I dont read books, I read car and architecture magazines.
<B>Whats on your iPod? </B>Rap and hip-hop.
<B>The three words that best describe you:</B> Creative. Determined. Decisive.