Award of Merit Renovation/Restoration Photo courtesy of W.E. O'Neil Construction The project earned LEED silver certification. This $19-million project was a complete renovation of an existing six-story, 67,000-sq-ft structure. The project team transformed a landmark building, constructed in 1927 for light manufacturing, into a self-contained community that provides housing, meals and support services to more than 2,000 homeless and low-income women each year.Upgrades to the existing concrete structure included extensive seismic improvements to meet current building codes, but the historic and aesthetic appeal of the original facade and exterior was preserved.A new reflective PVC roofing system helped the project earn

Award of Merit Landscape/Hardscape/Urban Development Photo courtesy of the city of Los Angeles The project site covers more than six acres. The Elephants of Asia project site covers 6.1 acres and consists of a new 16,600-sq-ft, state-of-the-art elephant barn, six visitor viewing areas and three water features.According to the city of Los Angeles' Bureau of Engineering, which managed the design and construction of the $42-million project, the exhibit comprises four elephant yards, each with its own distinct character and story. The landscaping is reflective of the areas in Asia where elephants are native. The design goal was to create a

Best Green Building Project Photo courtesy of Facebook The Prineville complex focuses on energy efficiency. Facebook spent two years designing and constructing its first custom-built data center from the ground up—building servers, power supplies, server chassis and electrical systems.The Facebook Prineville Data Center, located in the open high desert of central Oregon, is a large, prominent building. In concept it is a nearly featureless, warm-colored concrete wall that matches colors and tones of the surrounding rocky landscape.One of the goals for the project team was to build the most energy-efficient data center in the world. To reach that end, it

Best Office Project Photo couresty of Clark Construction Clark Construction served as general contractor on the project. Photo courtesy of Clark Construction The project earned LEED platinum certification. California Independent System Operator's new $113-million, 278,000-sq-ft Iron Point headquarters in Folsom has three wings, each serving a distinct function and each created with a different structural system.The building's two-story public wing houses a main lobby and reception area as well as training rooms, a board room, a cafeteria and support facilities.The mission-critical wing supports essential services, including a transmission grid operations center and 40,000-sq-ft data center. The three-story office wing accommodates

Award of Merit Health Care Photo courtesy of Clark Construction Entry to the tower is via a three-story atrium. The $315-million, 400,000-sq-ft Tom and Billie Long Patient Care Tower has six stories and an underground loading dock and central utility plant. The tower adds 242 patient beds, 230 of them private, to the existing medical center.The building is a steel-braced frame with concrete slab over metal deck with exterior finishes that include curtain wall; storefront and punched windows; and precast, stone, metal and plaster systems. The entry sequence opens into a two-story lobby featuring a three-story, central circular rotunda filled

Best Health Care Project Photo courtesy of HMH Builders Kaiser Permanente's modernized Santa Rosa Medical Center. This $150-million phased hospital campus expansion, renovation and upgrade program in Sonoma County for Kaiser Permanente consisted of a new 148,400-sq-ft, six-story hospital tower and expanded emergency, radiology, intensive-care unit obstetrics and medical/surgical departments. It also included adding 58 beds and 17 emergency-department treatment bays and constructing two support buildings, totaling 17,000 sq ft.Renovation of the existing hospital included changes to information technology departments, a new nurse call system, replacement of fire alarms and building control systems.Among the technological innovations was the use of

Meeting the challenge of transforming a striking design by a high-profile architect into a workable, sustainable reality—and completing the job on budget—is what separates ENR California's 2011 Region's Best Project, the Kravis Center at Claremont McKenna College, from other contenders this year.

Award of Merit Civil Works/Infrastructure Photo courtesy of Brown + Caldwell Brown + Caldwell was the engineer on the project. Build a sewer in a lake? Make it buoyant? Will it work? Officials of the City of Lake Oswego, Ore., and their consultant asked and answered these and many other questions while designing and constructing what project officials say is the world's first-known buoyant gravity sewer. The $95-million project was completed ahead of schedule after a 10-year planning, design and construction process. Its centerpiece is a buoyant gravity high-density polyethylene sewer, held to proper grade beneath the lake surface by

Award of Merit Transportation Photo courtesy of MIG The project featured a streetscape renovation. Long Beach Transit initiated a Transit Mall Streetscape Renovation project that included redesigning and reconstructing its three-block downtown transit mall. The design reflects a shoreline theme with eight wave-inspired, suspended tensile fabric canopies sheltering contemporary seating on a sand-textured concrete sidewalk. Illuminated canopies also offer shelter for real-time digital information screens. New pedestrian lighting between the shelters provides a pleasing nighttime experience for transit patrons, says landscape architect MIG.Key PlayersOwner: Long Beach Public Transportation Co.General Contractor: Fast Track Construction, Culver CityConstruction Management: Psomas, Culver CityLandscape Architect:

Best Multi-Family Residential/Hospitality Project Photo courtesy of KTGY Group The community consists of 52 luxury condominiums. Photo courtesy of KTGY Group The homes are LEED-platinum certified. Primera Terra is a LEED-Platinum certified residential community located at the easternmost portion of Playa Vista in West Los Angeles. The 52 luxury condominiums are built atop an existing subterranean garage.Because of the challenging economic environment, the project was redesigned down to three stories from four and five stories without losing units or the number of bedrooms and minimizing new slab penetrations.The neighborhood design organizes homes around a central courtyard that features a linear