Related Link:
See the Projects

If 2020 weren’t challenging enough for the construction industry, the last two years have continued to present a gauntlet of higher material costs, other inflation pressures and labor shortages. Despite these challenges, this year’s ENR MidAtlantic’s Best Projects contest is full of project teams that were able to rise above it all.

Judges selected 29 projects from across the region—which includes Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia—for Best Project-level honors and awards of merit. Two separate panels of industry judges reviewed more than 60 projects.

This year’s judges for the main categories were Street Lee, president and chief executive of McKim & Creed Inc.; Stuart Meurer, president and chief executive of Windover Construction; Brian Neckermann, senior project manager at the Walsh Group; Robert Penny, national director of continuous improvement at Skanska; and Irena Savakova, vice president and global design principal at Leo A Daly.

The criteria used to evaluate projects and their teams included overcoming challenges, contribution to the industry and community, safety and construction and design quality. Judges selected any number of Best Project category winners and award of merit honorees. Projects had to have been completed between May 1, 2021, and May 31, 2022. Judges could not vote in categories that included projects in which they or their firms were involved.

For the second year, one project was honored with the Excellence in Sustainability award. This year’s sustainability judge—Nathan Turner, associate principal and partner at Margulies Perruzzi—scored projects based on overall sustainability strategy, choice of materials and energy savings. Major green designations such as LEED and WELL are preferable but not critical to win in the sustainability category. Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan is this year’s sustainability winner. This year’s safety judge—Abby Ferri, chief risk officer at Insurate—selected the Port Authority of Allegheny County–Rail Maintenance Center Restoration as the Excellence in Safety winner.

The winner of the MidAtlantic region’s overall Project of the Year is the Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, D.C. Keep reading to learn about all of this year’s winning projects.

The Projects