Southeast Best Project Award Winners Rise Above Challenges

This year’s Best Projects contest covered work completed between May 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021. In other words, the period of time that saw the COVID-19 pandemic at its most virulent and impactful to broad sections of the U.S. economy, including the construction industry.

But in spite of that nerve-racking challenge, plus many others, this year’s Southeast Best Projects honorees demonstrate that the region’s contractors, design firms and project owners nevertheless delivered an impressive array of outstanding construction achievements.

For instance, in Miami, contractors building Norwegian Cruise Line’s stylish new terminal at PortMiami relied strictly on the project’s BIM to quickly procure every piece of material needed so they could meet the owner’s hyper-fast deadline. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, contractors working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scrambled to convert an existing National Guards barracks into a COVID-19 alternate care facility project—in just 22 days.

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Gaining top honors as this year’s Southeast Project of the Year, though, was Atlanta’s $321.3-million Water Supply Program project. The heroic effort to timely secure the city of Atlanta’s drinking-water supply for the foreseeable future earned it recognition above all other entries in the minds of this year’s judges.
In our cover story about the project, ENR Southeast quotes Bob Huie, PC Construction’s project director, commenting on the reasons for the team’s success.

“When we encountered problems, we all got together around the table and analyzed issues,” he says. “Everyone shared the risk, understood the problems and participated in solving them. It goes to show that when people come together with a common goal and work in the best interests of the project, you can get some tremendous results.”

In all, this year’s judges reviewed roughly 95 entries, ultimately choosing 36 for recognition. ENR Southeast’s primary judging panels included: Keith Douglas, The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.; Tahir Edwards, The Weitz Co.; Jennifer Naizer, Pond; Cary Perkins, McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture; Ray Riddle, Holder Construction; Bobby Teachey, Brownstone Construction Group; Leigh Thomas, WGI Inc.; and Ron Whalen, Roger B. Kennedy Construction.

Additionally, Robbie Ferris of Sfl+A Architecture, judged this year’s Excellence in Sustainability entries, while Bill Walker, formerly of SPC Mechanical, assessed the Excellence in Safety nominees.

ENR Southeast invites its readers to review the following pages to review details of this year’s Southeast Best Projects winners.