The judges for ENR Southeast's annual "Best Projects" competition have named the massive, $1.6-billion renovation of the Pentagon as the recipient of the contest's top award, "Region's Best Project." 

As we noted in a Sept. 9 blog post announcing the winners of ENR Southeast's annual "Best Projects" competition, there were four project entries vying for the title of top honor. The other three entries nominated for the top award included the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla.; the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Campus East at Fort Belvoir, Va.; and Merck & Co.’s Vaccine Bulk Manufacturing Facility in Durham, N.C.

After much deliberation, though, the panel of eight judges chose the Pentagon Renovation Wedges 2-5 project, submitted by Hensel Phelps Construction of Chantilly, Va., as the region's best. (It should be noted that the geographic coverage area for ENR Southeast's competition was expanded this year to include Virginia, among other states.) Among the projects vying for the top honors, the Pentagon project garnered the largest number of first-place votes, five. The remaining three first-place votes were split by two other entries. The honor is well-earned.

Photo courtesy Hensel Phelps Construction

Three days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Hensel Phelps Construction was awarded a design-build contract to restore and rebuild the Pentagon’s damaged Wedge 2. Shortly after the contract was awarded, the scope of work was revised and expanded to 4.5 million sq ft for the renovation of wedges two through five. Facing a schedule that was accelerated by Congress by four years, the design-build team faced the daunting challenge of designing, abating, demolishing, rebuilding and turning over the building at the pace of one square foot per minute, per day, for the duration of the project.

ENR Southeast will provide much more information about this project, and all of the other winners, in our upcoming November issue.

Of course, we'll also be presenting these projects with their due recognition at our annual awards luncheon, scheduled for Nov. 10 in Orlando. For more information about attending the event, please check here.