Universal Studios’ How to Train Your Dragon attraction was one of this year’s Project of the Year finalists.
Photo by Chad Baumer

Judging panelists collectively reviewed a total of 18 different project categories, ranging from airport/transit to water/environment while evaluating factors such as safety, innovation, design execution, craft quality and community or industry benefit.

As always, we assembled separate sets of judging teams for both the Texas and Louisiana region and for the Southeast, with the numerous panels each reviewing and individually scoring all entries in a variety of categories before meeting with their fellow judges via video conference call to determine the winning projects and their respective award levels. Projects vying for the separate award categories of Excellence in Safety and Excellence in Sustainability were judged separately.

ENR extends a thank you to the industry professionals listed below who assisted with this year’s judging.

• Michelle Alvarez, water/wastewater engineer, Hanson Professional Services
• Scott Bartkowski, president/founder, Living Shoreline Solutions
• Robert Brown, senior director/local business lead, WSP
• Stuart Bruening, senior vice president, JE Dunn Construction
• Keith Douglas, executive vice president, The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.
• Robbie Ferris, president, SfL+A
• Julia Hodgins, architect, RNGD
• Dan Nawrocki, senior vice president, PC Construction
• Ron Osterloh, vice president, Moffatt & Nichol
• Natalie Pagano, director of marketing and communications, Manhattan Construction Group
• Ray Riddle, vice president, Holder Construction Co.
• Shirshant Sharma, senior project manager, AtkinsRéalis
• Grace Sober, technical leader, LAN Inc.
• Susan Stabler, regional vice president/division manager, Brasfield & Gorrie
• Aaron Thomas, president/CEO, Metcon Inc.
• Ron Whalen, vice president, Roger B. Kennedy Construction

The Mickey Leland International Terminal D project was a contender for this year’s Project of the Year.
Photo by Cloyce Wall

ENR will be presenting these Best Projects winners to their respective teams at separate awards events. The Texas & Louisiana projects will be recognized on Oct. 16 in Houston, and the Southeast region projects will be honored Oct. 23 in Orlando.

At each event, ENR will also be recognizing the respective 2025 Firms of the Year, including the Owner of the Year, Design Firm of the Year, Contractor of the Year, Specialty Contractor of the Year and Legacy Award honorees.

We invite you to read on, and judge for yourself the merits of 2025’s ENR Texas & Southeast Best Projects award winners.