ENR's "2020 Year in Construction" Slideshow
The 2020 ENR Photo Contest Winners Gallery showcases a collection of the world’s greatest construction photography taken in the past year. The annual contest honors the photographers, without whose efforts this gallery wouldn’t exist and take its place in ENR’s online archive of contest winner galleries that stretches back to 2003. Each photo tells a visual story, and each caption, crafted by our editors after interviewing the photographers to get the back stories, will help readers appreciate the quality of this extraordinary work even more. Please enjoy the 2020 winners gallery of the greatest construction photography in the world!
6th of October Monorail, Cairo
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Photographer: Ayman Nazir
6th of October Monorail, Cairo
Submitted by Ahmed El-Adalany, The Arab Contractors Company
Crews with Arab Contractors Co. were working on a hot day during a national holiday to complete foundation work for the $4.5-billion 6th of October City monorail project. Submitter El-Adalany was impressed by the diligence of the workers. “From an aesthetic point of view, I liked the scene because I found it had perfect symmetry with two laborers in the middle, two on the left, and two to the right of the steel cage. It looks like a piece of art.”
Lower Bois D’Arc Reservoir Project, Honey Grove, Texas
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Photographer: Andrew Sweeney
Lower Bois D’Arc Reservoir Project, Honey Grove, Texas
Submitted by Kayley McCreary
Inspired by the John Wick movie series’ “cinematic” use of overhead drone shots to convey transitions between scenes, photographer Sweeney used the approach for this bird’s-eye view of dirt moving on contractor Phillips & Jordan’s excavation work constructing an earthen embankment dam in Texas. Using a fixed 24-mm lens—the “same lens used in Hollywood films,” he attests—Sweeney piloted his DJI Matrice drone to a height of about 60 ft over a crew taking a momentary break from their work disking the embankment. Noticing the curving lines left behind by the back-andforth of the equipment beneath the nearly perfectly horizontally aligned excavator and truck, Sweeney thought, “This is cool,” and lined up the shot “as straight as I possibly could ” to accentuate the difference.
Sydney Metro City & Southwest Project, Sydney
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Photographer: Justin Sanson
Sydney Metro City & Southwest Project, Sydney
Submitted by Mathilde Desprez, Laing O’Rourke Australia
A shotcrete crew works inside the station box during redevelopment of Central Station in Sydney. The New South Wales government awarded a $955-million contract to Laing O’Rourke to deliver the new platforms under the station and to build the landmark Central Walk. The underground concourse will help the 270,000 people a day who use Central Station to navigate Australia’s busiest railway station. That number is expected to rise to 450,000 over the next two decades. Completion of the station upgrade is expected in 2022. This photo was taken on Dec. 13, 2019, when “the space was quite busy, people were moving back and forth, so timing the frame was important,” says photographer Sanson. “I also had to pick the right moment to make the most of the shadows on the wall.”
(W)rapper Tower, Los Angeles
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Photographer and Submitter: Tara Garner
(W)rapper Tower, Los Angeles
“I always hope to catch up with the people I photograph to introduce myself and share the pictures,” Garner says. She was on site to document progress at the office building project in September when she captured this shot of John Omole. She was unable to catch him resting since he was so busy that day, “working hard welding the iron, standing on the decking above me. The colors and the welding in progress caught my eye, but at one point he looked my way and I got this shot.” Garner likes “the look of fortitude and determination in his eyes. He shows the tough exterior of the worker doing his job.”
Block 162 Building, Denver
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Photographer and Submitter: Ely Hemnes
Block 162 Building, Denver
On the way up in an office project elevator, pressed in by virus-related protective tarp, photographer and agency owner Ely Hemnes caught a Swinerton project manager, Adelicia Colmenero, as she cast a wistful gaze outward. For Hemnes, it seemed to capture all that was hopeful about the future of women in construction and a day when COVID -19-related constraints would no longer crimp the space needed by the industry’s up-and-coming women managers.
There’s no way to know. Is being photographed just one more headache and irritant in a year of headaches and irritants? Then there is the next photo of a woman looking out from a project elevator, and once again you can only guess if that is worry, wonderment or boredom behind her gaze.
There is little direct evidence of the pandemic in the rest of the winning images on the pages that follow, but there is a collective beauty that the images all contribute to. It’s in the splendid earth-toned soil clouds created by an explosive blast. It’s in the sunless orange sky of a California wildfire: Even destruction can be beautiful. There’s beauty in the subterranean sculpted walls of a rail tunnel. And in the light bursting through the top of a concrete box as another bucket of concrete is lowered on the crane line. In these shots, the crews are comparatively tiny daubs of yellow or orange; their safety vests are about all you can see. Yet flip ahead to the other photos, and you’ll find an audaciously unshy worker pulling aside his shirt to show you how close to his heart his union membership is, in a beautiful inked tattoo.
Every photo snatches and saves an evanescent moment. Will the two ironworkers, threading connections on the rust-powdered skyscraper steel, ever strike those poses in just the same way, in a muscular tableau, when bolting up connections on the other side of the structure? Maybe. Will the sun find them as easily? Will the worker hosing down the jobsite in another shot ever spray from exactly that strategic spot where the jobsite light and city skyscrapers array themselves behind him? Will the laborers, in still another photo, form another samba line on the concrete hose the next day? More importantly, will someone be there with a camera if they do?
In a year full of loss and emptiness, these bustling and poignant construction and engineering-related photos document the resounding victory of the human spirit, the willingness to press on with the work before us during the most troubled and heartbreaking year in memory.
By Richard Korman
The Orchard Private Residences, Chicago
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Photographer: Kari Moffett
The Orchard Private Residences, Chicago
Submitted by Jenna Teitenberg, Gilbane Building Co.
When Moffett, a 33-year operating engineer from Local 150 in Chicago, climbed 200-plus steps up a ladder to the cab of her Potain tower crane at 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2019, she realized she was above the clouds and snapped this shot with her iPhone 7. “Here comes the sun,” she says. “I just love the skyline of Chicago in the morning.” Moffett was working for specialty contractor Adjustable Forms, installing precast components as heavy as 38,000 lb and doing other concrete work at The Orchard in the city’s Lincoln Park area. The firm was a sub to Gilbane Building Co., which provided CM-at-risk services on the luxury condo. Moffett, whose father was also a crane operator, says she gets “the best real estate in the city, and I get paid to be here. I’ve got the best job in the world.”
John R. Green Lofts Project, Covington, KY.
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Photographer: Tony Bailey
John R. Green Lofts Project, Covington, KY.
Submitted by Dawn Dunne, Turnbull-Wahlert Construction
While shooting a concrete-pour progress photo for design-builder Turnbull-Wahlert Construction Inc., Bailey was struck by site workers “demonstrating an excellent display of teamwork,” he says. “With the concrete flowing, it was obvious this was not a one-person job.” The photo was taken in May, two months before Kentucky mandated masks on construction sites, among other COVID-19 safety measures, says Bailey. Since then, “there are not as many workers on the job to allow for social distancing, and projects are taking longer to complete,” he adds. This 197,000-sq-ft project to create residential-retail space in a former historic school building while preserving its character is set to finish in late spring. Bailey, a 15-year construction photography veteran, is drawn to industry work “because it constantly changes, and it’s rewarding to see the project from start to finish. I enjoy trying to get unique shots.”
Kansas City Airport New Terminal, Mo.
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Photographer: Cheryl Schoenberg
Kansas City Airport New Terminal, Mo.
Submitted by Kate Sweeten, Clark-Weitz-Clarkson JV
Schoenberg, owner of From the Ground Up Photography, took this photo on a breezy September afternoon, documenting the largest single public infrastructure project ever undertaken in Kansas City, Mo., for developer Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate and Clark-Weitz-Clarkson JV. The contractor says it used a multiple lift rigging assembly to hoist bundles of reinforcing steel in accordance with OSHA safety requirements. The photo depicts “simply what was happening that particular day,” she says. “This particular photo is part of a series I took that showed a steel worker get atop a vertical column, stand there and wait for his partner to go to another column.” Schoenberg says she was amazed at how at ease the steel worker was, standing on “what was basically a pedestal no wider than his boots while he maneuvered his end of the cross-section of steel into place.”
Central Station Upgrade, Sydney Metro, Sydney
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Photographer and Submitter: Cath Bowen
Central Station Upgrade, Sydney Metro, Sydney
A worker stands on the completed canopy of a vaulted roof on July 10 at Alfabs Engineering at Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia. The spectacular 50-m-span roof was manufactured at the Kurri Kurri factory as the centerpiece of a $955-million renewal of Sydney’s iconic Central Station. The roof was then disassembled and transported more than 150 km on the M1 freeway to its final destination at the transit station in Sydney’s Central Business District, where it was reassembled and installed.
Altamont Landfill, Livermore, Calif.
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Photographer and Submitter: Josh Behrens
Altamont Landfill, Livermore, Calif.
In 2019, seeing dirt, rocks and other debris flying in the air during a blast for an earlier phase of the Altamont Landfill expansion project inspired Behrens, a 23-year-old intern at Sukut Construction, to return last August and shoot another blast. He was so enthused that he willingly drove the six hours from Sukut’s office to the site, both for the blast and to take other progress photos and video. “I really like the sheer attention grab” of a blast, says the aspiring professional shutterbug. The image, taken in natural light at about 5 p.m. using a hand-held camera, is the best of about 20 in his blast sequence, says Behrens. This was the only blast of the day, with no test run, so “I had one chance” to get it right, he adds. Though the subject was the same, the 2020 blast photo differed from the one Behrens shot in 2019. The newer photo was taken while California was battling wildfires. Smoke is visible on the horizon.
500 Turk, San Francisco
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Photographer: Jeff Shibata
500 Turk, San Francisco
Submitted by Mackenzie Guthrie, Nibbi Brothers General Contractors
Building out the concrete columns for an affordable housing mid-rise in San Francisco on Sept. 9, Nibbi Concrete senior project manager Shibata was a bit unnerved by the ominous orange cast of the midmorning sky. Smoke from vast forest fires as far north as Oregon had drifted down and settled over the Bay Area, giving the city’s skyline an apocalyptic glow. “That day was the craziest I’ve seen it, it was like Armageddon,” recalls Shibata, who snapped the pic on his iPhone XS Max around 10:30 a.m. “The air quality wasn’t that bad that day, since the smoke was so high up. It was blocking out the sun; it was almost like dusk.” Working through the 2020 fire season required regular air-quality monitoring, but Shibata says that while it got close to the limit a few times, they never had to halt work.
CZU Lightning Complex Fires Santa Cruz Mountains, Calif.
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Photographer and Submitter: Daniel Mekis
CZU Lightning Complex Fires Santa Cruz Mountains, Calif.
A surreal view of burned out trees, lingering smoke and park ranger trucks left behind in Big Basin when park staff fled led Mekis to try to capture “the strangeness of the scene” with his Sony A7III. As Granite Project Manager Eliseo Estrada walked past the trucks, Mekis snapped the shot using a 24-mm lens, taking a 1/30-second exposure at ISO 500 with the lens stopped to f/4.5. By Sept. 16, Mekis says, the 15-person Granite Construction crew had already been there for a month, moving logs, trees and brush to where arborists could chip out the fire’s potential fuel. Mekis, who is a project manager in Granite’s continuous improvement group, says the crews faced danger from falling limbs, debris and the rough terrain. Mekis returned to the site a few weeks later and found fresh saplings sprouting. He says, “Redwoods have very fire-retardant bark. Some will fully recover.”
TWG Wind Farm, Martinsburg, N.Y.
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Photographer and Submitter: Dennis Lee
TWG Wind Farm, Martinsburg, N.Y.
This moment in time, caught by photographer Lee in October, wasn’t a random snapshot. Lee and the Wesson Group EPC team had to wait four hours for a storm to pass before a crane could lift the top section of the 352-ft-tall turbine tower in Martinsburg, N.Y., to waiting ironworkers ready to bolt it in place. The lifts are always tricky because of the wind in the region and the height of the towers, Lee says. The ironworkers, who reach the top of the tower via ladders inside the tower, talk to the crane operator to help place the section. The tower is one of 15 that is being installed at the site. “The turbine assembly is fascinating, but it’s one of the most frustrating things I’ve ever photographed,” because conditions have to be just perfect before certain elements can be installed, he says.
Penn Station Expansion/Moynihan Train Hall, New York City
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Photographer and Submitter: Lilian Marlen
Penn Station Expansion/Moynihan Train Hall, New York City
Snapping from the streets of Manhattan, Marlen patiently waited 2½ hours for just the right shot to juxtapose the connection between new construction and the Empire State Building. Two workers, Hogan Kanerahtke:ron Gilbert (left) and Nick DeCrenza, dismantle a crane boom at the Penn Station expansion project. “Hogan is Kanien’kehá:ka,” Marlen says, referring to the tribe colloquially known as Mohawk. “The Empire State Building was built with a large contingent” from the tribe in the 1930s—along with many other landmark skyscrapers. Marlen’s work often balances human effort with the built environment. “It’s easy to forget that the skyscrapers we admire so much—and that tourists travel to New York City for—were built by people.”
SK Innovation Battery Plant, Commerce, GA.
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Photographer: Matthew McFarland
SK Innovation Battery Plant, Commerce, GA.
Submitted by Allison Vollmar, Clayco
In this first phase of a $1.67-billion electric-vehicle battery manufacturing plant, Matthew McFarland snapped a shot of workers tilting up a concrete panel. “In early morning, when work started, I was excited to get as much imagery in a short period of time because the lighting was so good,” he says. “The mass of this particular wall was pretty unique.” The 2.4 million-sq-ft facility is SK Innovation’s first EV battery factory in the U.S.
Fractionator Unit Haul, Brazoria County, Texas
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Photographer and Submitter: J.C. Lake
Fractionator Unit Haul, Brazoria County, Texas
Barnhart Crane & Rigging was hired to transport this 404-ton, 182-ft-long de-ethanizer column from Houston, where it was fabricated, to a Sweeny, Texas, oil refinery. After being barged from Houston to Freeport, Texas, it was hauled the final 50 miles by road, a 12-hour journey. The total weight of the column and transfer equipment was 609 tons. The most challenging aspect of the haul was this double bridge crossing, says Lake, Barnhart’s operations manager. Due to the gross weight, Texas Dept. of Transportation bridge engineers let the hauling crew use both bridges for the crossing, he notes. Lake used a DJI Phantom 4 drone to capture this image.
2 Manhattan West, New York City
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Photographer and Submitter: Lilian Marlen
2 Manhattan West, New York City
Marlen, who jokingly says she became a photographer “because I’m a lousy painter,” nevertheless evokes the drama and lighting of Renaissance paintings in many of her shots. “You take a shot of steel, and it’s beautiful,” she says. But in also depicting the extraordinary action of workers, “you get an idea about dimensions, efforts, challenges, time and teamwork.” Here, best-friend ironworkers from Local 40, Jon Gaffney (left) and Matt Weberz, bolt iron much as their fathers did, who also were best friends, Marlen says. With COVID-19 preventing access to vantage points in nearby buildings, Marlen shoots the 2 Manhattan West office tower project from street level and often sees others watching and taking photos. She hopes her work changes “the perception of construction jobs a little bit, picture by picture.”
California State University, Los Angeles
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Photographer and Submitter: Tara Garner
California State University, Los Angeles
Garner was documenting the topping out of a new pedestrian bridge at the campus when she met Eddie Pena, a veteran welder in ironworkers’ union Local 433. “Eddie knew my late father, who had been an active member in Local 433 throughout his career,” says Garner, whose family includes five generations of ironworkers. “I attempted to show the dedication, pride and grit” of workers photographed, she says. “With Eddie, his pride was written all over his face even before he showed me his tattoo,” Garner says. “His hard work and dedication was so evident in our banter, I just had to try to get a shot that showed his spirit.”
Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement, Los Angeles
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Photographer and Submitter: Trevor Clancy
Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement, Los Angeles
Clancy created this striking image as a craftworker finished the day’s concrete pour on the replacement of an 88-year-old span over the Los Angeles River, the city’s largest-ever bridge project. The shot reflects the “sweet spot” of exposure length “where the most possible detail is retained in the deepest shadows without overexposing the highlights,” he says. “The hardest thing was eliminating shake while hand-holding the camera at one-25th of a second exposure.” Co-owner of Core-Visual, an Albuquerque, N.M., photography-videography firm, Clancy was hired to shoot progress photos for site engineer HNTB.
San Diego International Airport (SDIA) Airport Support Facilities (ASF) project
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Photographer and Submitter: Robby Brown, Sundt Construction
San Diego International Airport (SDIA) Airport Support Facilities (ASF) project
The 3.2-million-gallon underground stormwater “cistern” tank is the longest and most critical-path element of San Diego International Airport’s stormwater master plan, which will enable the airport to meet new government requirements to contain, treat and ultimately reuse stormwater runoff. Its volume is the equivalent of five Olympic-sized swimming pools, and it required 27,000 cu ft of soil to be excavated before concrete work could begin. The photo wasn’t planned. “I knew I had to quickly capture it because it felt impactful,” says Brown. “I felt moved by what I saw. In that moment it was quiet, which is unusual for a jobsite.” He was struck by “the symmetry of the pillars and the people, combined with the almost heroic pose of the craftworker reaching up into the light to grasp the rope.”
Block H1 at Water Street District, Tampa, Fla.
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Photographer: Benjamin Fritzsche
Block H1 at Water Street District, Tampa, Fla.
Submitted by Isaac Baird, Moss & Associates
Aided by his recent discovery of a switch on his DJI Mavic Pro 2 that pointed the drone straight downward, Moss & Associates project manager Benjamin Fritzsche steadily snapped images of the Block H1 project while paying most of his attention to piloting the unit through its hour-plus-long, FAA-approved flight. Back in the trailer, he was struck by the “juxtaposition of scale” caught during this particular aerial shot of the construction site. Fritzsche, who leads the firm’s drone program, says the view from roughly 200 ft above the site—with its drilled shafts measuring “several feet in diameter”—“almost looks like a LEGO block from a child’s playset.”
Morumbi Train Station Expansion, São Paulo
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Photographer and Submitter: Robert Umenhofer
Morumbi Train Station Expansion, São Paulo
While rain soaked the project site for most of the only day Umenhofer had to shoot it for Autodesk, he counted himself fortunate to catch this worker pulling a cart through the mud in stride. Perched on scaffolding stairs, he shot “straight down” just in time to catch the worker “straining a bit to pull that weight through sloppy conditions.” Umenhofer adds, “I loved the contrast of the dark mud with his bright rain gear.”
East Link Extension, Bellevue, Wash.
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Photographer: David Murphy
East Link Extension, Bellevue, Wash.
Submitted by Dan Ferguson, HNTB Corp.
Hired by HNTB to document the 7.2-mile, eight-station extension of Seattle’s Link light-rail system into Bellevue, Murphy was thrilled. “Tunnels, bridges, trenches and light-rail stations, this project has it all,” the photographer says. As he rounded the bend of one particular tunnel between the Bellevue and East Main stations, Murphy noticed “how the lines of rail and conduit and shadow and light all converged on the crew up ahead.” He quickly set his Sony A7s4 Camera on a tripod and grabbed the shot just moments before the crew moved on. The extension is expected to be completed in 2023.
Tribune Tower Addition, Chicago
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Photographer and Submitter: Joe Szurszewski
Tribune Tower Addition, Chicago
One late night back in high school, Szurszewski talked his way into the building where opposing sides were negotiating to avert a teachers’ strike. When an agreement was reached, he snapped a photo of the handshake across the table, with a clock in the background that read 2 a.m. He took the shot to the local newspaper, which sent it out on the Associated Press wire. “I was hooked,” says Szurszewski. An 18-year veteran of professional photography, he is still showing initiative to get the shot—even when not on assignment. Walking one Saturday in Chicago, Minneapolis-based Szurszewski noticed ironworkers on a beam. A shot from the sidewalk would not do. He wanted the towers nearby as a backdrop. That meant getting to a certain floor of a building facing the site. Once again, he talked his way inside and got the shot.
Rocky Reach Dam, Wenatchee, Wash.
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Photographer: Will Austin
Rocky Reach Dam, Wenatchee, Wash.
Submitted by Mallory Annear, IMCO General Construction
Austin spent more than an hour perched over the edge of a dock to get this shot of saturation diver Cory Finkle, submerged in the cold October waters of the Columbia River to attach cable and hardware to Rocky Reach Dam. Finkle would surface just a few times in that span. “I just had to wait like a hunter,” says Austin. He caught one of those moments here, as Finkle initiated hand signals to the crane operator holding the line that the diver was attaching. The endeavor was part of a trash-boom float installation to replace cable that forms part of a system collecting debris and large objects flowing in the river before they reach the dam. It was all in a day’s work for contractor IMCO, a firm that is “very good at pulling off difficult things quickly and safely,” says the photographer. When the diver got out of the water, Austin made a surprising observation: “I thought he had a dry suit on because it was so cold, but it was a wet suit.”
Removal of Boston Harbor Submarine Cable, Boston
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Photographer and Submitter: Robert Umenhofer
Removal of Boston Harbor Submarine Cable, Boston
After installing a 115-kV submarine cable to power the Deer Island wastewater treatment plant, crews working in mid-December pulled the existing fluid-filled cable from the seabed and cut and sealed 15-ft sections with large rubber caps fused by a propane torch. Umenhofer says, “The other guys in the back watching him are assisting, but I really think they just wanted to be near the only heat source on a really frigid day in Boston Harbor.”
Fullerton College Instructional Building, Fullerton, Calif.
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Photographer and Submitter: Danny Sandler
Fullerton College Instructional Building, Fullerton, Calif.
Sandler, who has been writing proposals and shooting stills and video for BNBuilders since graduating from college last spring, “fell in love with AEC marketing” because “the industry builds the spaces that define our lives and transform our future.” For people, “I do my best work when it’s more candid,” says Sandler, who has been shooting for six years. He also loves landscape photography because he can capture the essence of a city, vista or subject and give it his own perspective. The upshot is that Sandler’s candid portrait uses metal deck to frame both photo types—a worker and a boom against a “skyscape” backdrop.
New Bridge, New York State Thruway, Old Chatham, N.Y.
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Photographer and Submitter: Dennis Lee
New Bridge, New York State Thruway, Old Chatham, N.Y.
Illuminated by night lighting, the efforts of Lynn “Byrd” Gifford, Eric Lovegrove and Mike Cruz (top to bottom) to complete a girder splice became a dramatic piece of theater. The I-splice occurred on a new bridge being built at exit B2 of the New York State Thruway (I-90) by Harrison and Burrowes Bridge Constructors. The new bridge is being built on a new alignment, while traffic continues on the old structure beside it. Night shots can be technically challenging, Lee says, as the color of light is often mixed. But in this instance, the light was perfect, illuminating the workers’ faces and creating interesting shadow details.
One James River Plaza Implosion, Richmond, VA.
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Photographer: Caleb Goins
One James River Plaza Implosion, Richmond, VA.
Submitted by Grace Porter, Hourigan
Documenting the demolition of Dominion Energy’s former headquarters took planning that STRUCTR Advisors virtual construction manager Goins found exhilarating. Getting a fleet of drones in the air to record the implosion required weeks of preparation and careful coordination with general contractor Hourigan|Clayco, demolition firm CDI, Richmond police and the Federal Aviation Administration. “We had our company flying drones, another one flying drones cinematically, and the police department had some in the air as well,” he says. And it all came down to that final moment. “You would think an implosion would affect drones in the air, but it really doesn’t,” says Goins, who takes pride in the many dramatic photos and videos that his drones captured of the moment the old building came down. “Standing there on the ground and feeling the blast as you’re flying a drone—there’s nothing quite like it in construction.”
Simi Valley, Calif.
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Photographer and Submitter: Tara Garner
Simi Valley, Calif.
During a shoot for American Wrecking Inc. in April to document the progress of a building under demolition in her hometown, Garner says, “I was already working with reflections while shooting the heavy machinery, and I wanted to get a shot of the whole demolished building with the reflection below.” She took the shot using her newly purchased Sony a-7 III. “As I crouched to capture the reflection of the demolished building, I felt inspired to set up the timer, balance my new camera on a trailer to keep the angle I needed, and get in the picture myself. The resulting photos looked almost quiet or calm, but they were taken on an active work site.” Garner chose to submit this photo because “it is a self-portrait representing strength and growth, building up from the old rubble and creating new possibilities.”
Ore Pass, Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, S.D.
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Photographer and Submitter: Matthew Kapust
Ore Pass, Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, S.D.
“You’re studying the stars, [but from] underground,” says Matthew Kapust on shooting a facility that will play a major role in a large-scale experiment that could “answer some of the most fundamental questions in the universe,” including its very origin. A particle accelerator at Fermilab in Illinois will direct a beam of neutrinos across 800 miles to subterranean chambers carved out of a former gold mine. This ore pass, which he photographed looking up while nearly 5,000 ft underground, was refitted to function as a collection and removal site for excavated waste rock. “It was a pretty cool experience being able to see it put back into use,” he says. The track on the left was engineered to allow two workers to descend and remove existing material first, a few yards at a time.
TWG Wind Farm, South Salem, N.Y.
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Photographer and Submitter: Dennis Lee
TWG Wind Farm, South Salem, N.Y.
An aerial shot of this 750-cu-yd concrete foundation for one of 15 new 107.5-m-tall Siemens Gamesa SG 4.5-145 wind turbines was just one way photographer Lee has been able to document the scale of the massive turbines, the largest onshore in the Western Hemisphere. Documenting the work for the Wesson Group as EPC on the project, he had a 10-minute cloudless window to launch his drone and get this shot. “I really love the visual aspect of this project,” Lee says. “It’s a visually fascinating subject matter.” Lee has spent more than 60 hours over the course of a year documenting the project’s process and the landscape.
UnitedHealth Group, De Pere, Wis.
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Photographer and Submitter: Craig Bieri
UnitedHealth Group, De Pere, Wis.
Crews with general contractor Miron Construction were in the process of erecting a central elevator shaft at a UnitedHealth Group facility in De Pere, Wis., when Bieri caught this delicate dance between cranes and lifts, frozen in time as the whole site went on a break, leaving their equipment right where it was. “It’s as if every piece of equipment and hardware was placed there to frame the centerpiece,” says Bieri, a creative specialist at Miron’s Neenah, Wis., office.
Sydney Metro City & Southwest Project, Sydney
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Photographer and Submitter: Cath Bowen
Sydney Metro City & Southwest Project, Sydney
A worker on an elevated work platform inspects one of the mammoth caverns being built under Sydney’s central business district to house the city’s six new metro railway stations. Construction of the Martin Place station is part of the multibillion-dollar Sydney Metro City & Southwest project, Australia’s largest public transportation effort. It extends the Metro network from the end of Sydney Metro Northwest at Chatswood, under Sydney Harbour, through new downtown railway stations and west to Bankstown, totaling 66 km of new rail. “The challenge was to capture an interesting picture when the vast majority of the action had been completed and the workers and equipment had already been removed,” says Bowen, who took this shot on Oct. 20.
Pier 55/Little Island, New York City
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Photographer and Submitter: Timothy Schenck
Pier 55/Little Island, New York City
“I was drawn to this angle because it shows the project against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline,” Schenck says about his photo of the reimagined pier that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy. “Also, there are a lot of layers happening.” Barry Diller and the Hudson River Park Trust conceived of turning the spot into “an urban oasis where New Yorkers can play,” the photographer says. Schenck explains that in the shot, “the last of the precast pots to be placed on top of their respective piles” was “a sort of topping out moment” that he captured with a Nikon D750 on Nov. 22, 2019. The project is scheduled to be completed in the spring.
Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project, Long Beach, Calif.
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Photographer and Submitter: Marie Tagudena
Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project, Long Beach, Calif.
Tagudena documented the construction of California’s first vehicular cable-stayed bridge for the joint venture of Shimmick Construction, Spain’s FCC Construction and Italy’s Webuild (formerly Salini Impregilo) that opened in October. “This photo is showing the steering and maneuvering of making sure the bridge meets up evenly between the two sections,” Tagudena says. “I love this photo because it captures how there is nothing in the middle and some of the men feel suspended in air, which they technically are … safely, of course. Still, it was a sight to see and capture. They all look like pirates who have taken over a ship!”
2 Manhattan West, New York City
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Photographer and Submitter: Lilian Marlen
2 Manhattan West, New York City
Snapped on a hot summer day in New York City, Marlen contrasts the massive steel elements with a lone ironworker—Matt Weberz, who is also depicted in the photo on p. 49—on the Brookfield Properties-developed 58-story tower near Hudson Yards. Weberz, a member of Ironworkers Local 40, is working for steel contractor Walters Group Inc. on the project. Marlen, who never leaves the house without her camera, says she usually expects the unexpected and approaches photography with an open mind. But for this photo, “there was just the idea that this is the shot I would like to take,” Marlen says, so she waited for it. “Some shots require a lot of patience,” she adds. Photo contest judges were particularly enamored with the distorted reflections of the steel work in the curtain wall.
Amli Fountain Place, Dallas
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Photographer: Jack Lamantia
Amli Fountain Place, Dallas
Submitted by Kim Meyer, The Walsh Group
The 562-ft-high Fountain Place tower peeks through the clouds during its construction in early 2020 by multifamily residential developer AMLI and contractor The Walsh Group. It is one of the tallest buildings built in Dallas since the 1980s. Jack LaMantia, a Walsh Group employee, took this photograph Jan. 31 from the 49th floor of the previously built 720-ft-high Fountain Place office building as its sibling took shape in the clouds below.
Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Providence, R.I.
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Photographer: Ben Morse
Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Providence, R.I.
Submitted by Marta Versprille, Consigli Construction Co.
“I wanted to capture the work happening on the roof, along with the scale of the cathedral’s historic towers and the backdrop of the city,” says photographer Morse, a VDC engineer for Consigli, when the fog surreptitiously rolled in. “It was clear skies for most of the day, but that small cloud of fog passed by on that side of Providence only. It showed up and was gone within 30 minutes,” Morse adds. The shot, taken by drone (Morse can be seen operating it in a red hardhat in the lower left), captures the Providence landmark’s full slate roof replacement taking shape. The cathedral’s facade is also receiving extensive repair, including in-kind replacement of Portland Brownstone and stone Dutchman repairs.