2021 Regional Best Projects Competition Was Brisk During a Pandemic Year

New award added to emphasize sustainable projects

The 10-story 11th & Idaho tower in Boise, built by ESI, and the winner of the Intermountain Excellence in Sustainability award, has neolith stone cladding made of 100% natural materials that offers superior resistance to UV rays, heat and cold.
Photo courtesy of ESI

The 2021 Best Projects awards in the Mountain States featured more than 100 entries, down slightly from the previous year, but still among the highest totals in the competition’s history. Projects were judged on design and construction quality, contribution to the community and the industry and how they overcame unusual challenges through teamwork and innovation.

To be eligible, projects had to be located in any of the seven states comprising the Mountain States region: Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota and South Dakota. Projects with a construction-related fatality on the jobsite were not allowed to enter.

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This year’s Best Projects judges were: Tara Bettale, HDR; Matt Cecere, 4240 Architecture Inc.; Jenn Celestino, Method Studio; Jon Ferguson, Layton Construction; Janson Ferrera, transmission and distribution group, Burns & McDonnell; Hailey Guglielmo, city of Aspen; Vanessa Lucido, ROC Equipment LLC; Adam Mercer, RS&H; Laura Smith, CRSA; and Alex Worden, StudioTJOA.

To evaluate the more than 60 safety award entries, the 2021 safety judges, all veterans from previous years’ panels, were: Tim Batz, IMA Inc.; Rick Zellen, Zurich North America; and Matt Ogle, JE Dunn Construction.

Judging our new special award, Excellence in Sustainability, were: Stella Hodgkins, GE Johnson Construction; Adam Lulay, Swinerton; and Patti Mason, Switch Automation.

In addition to the category winners, judges chose by consensus one project from the Colorado, Wyoming and Dakotas side and one from the Intermountain area (Utah, Idaho and Montana) to stand as Projects of the Year—entries that clearly outdistanced the other winners. This year, those honors went to the CSU Moby GEO Exchange in Fort Collins and the Salt Lake City International Airport Terminal Redevelopment.

Project of the Year finalists were also honored. For the Colorado, Wyoming and the Dakotas region, finalists were the University of Denver Community Commons and Dimond Family Residential Village and the 39th Avenue Greenway and Open Channel Design-Build Project.

Finalists for the Intermountain area were MidValley Performing Arts Center, the UVU Pedestrian Bridge and the North Fork Siphon Replacement.
Congratulations to this year’s winners!

Mark Shaw is the former editor-in-chief of ENR Mountain States, co-editor of ENR Southwest, and the senior editor in charge of ENR's Contractor Business Strategy. He serves as ENR's Rocky Mountain bureau chief in Denver.