A supertall building on a super-narrow foundation wins project of the year
ENR Midwest’s annual Best Projects competition once again showcases the region’s construction and design innovation. There were more than 100 entries, so it was no small task to whittle that list down to 35 award winners that included construction hurdles of every sort, from weather-impacted schedules to extremely challenging site conditions, and even one community that took rebuilding into its own hands.
The lineup of winning projects is an impressive one. A high-rise office tower with a 47-ft-wide foundation built near five active rail lines on one side and the Chicago River on the other took home this year’s Project of the Year honors. But many others impressed this year’s judges. The meticulous restoration of a state capitol building on the National Register of Historic Places, for instance, along with multiple rail projects that brought service to underserved downtowns in large cities, a manufacturing facility that’s bringing jobs to the Rust Belt, one of the largest LEED Platinum corporate offices in the U.S., a stunning university art building that seamlessly blends classic and modern art, a lakefront community that stepped up to fund repairs to an overtopped dam as well as retrofits to aging coal-fired plants that brought them into environmental compliance.