2023

Best Project Success Stories: A Long, Popular ENR Tradition

blairs@enr.com (Scott Blair) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

While ENR typically delves into lessons learned in stories about projects currently under construction, for the past 27 years our Best Projects awards have also highlighted success in your completed projects where there has been exceptional teamwork, outstanding safety and community benefit.

Best Water/Environment - Johnson County Tomahawk Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility Improvements

manniona@enr.com (Annemarie Mannion) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

A growing population, aging infrastructure and more stringent effluent limits spurred the need for a large-scale expansion of the Tomahawk Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility, which first began operations in 1955 in Johnson County, Kan.

Best Sports/Entertainment - Gainbridge Fieldhouse of the Future Modernization

kormanr@enr.com (Richard Korman) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

The NBA All-Stars played their annual exhibition game last month in Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse, whose $360-million, year-and-a-half-old renovation is itself an all-star in the sports and entertainment category.

Best Specialty Construction - Martin Marietta Texas Quarry Highwall Stabilization

jriceenr@gmail.com (Justin Rice) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Stabilizing a quarry where rockfalls threatened to crush critical infrastructure under construction demanded a meticulous approach and required workers to rappel slopes to remove loose material.

Best Small Project - Primary Children's Hospital Hybrid Operating Room

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Situated centrally between 13 active operating rooms, this project’s work site proved to be its most complex challenge, says Sourabh Sinha, project manager at NJRA Architects.

Best Residential/Hospitality - Aston Martin Residences

rubenstonej@enr.com (Jeff Rubenstone) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

The greatest hurdles for the project team on the Aston Martin Residences came from perennial issues faced by all tall buildings in Miami—soft soils and high winds.

Best Manufacturing - Riverbend Meats Processing Plant

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

This ground-up facility will process Angus beef from harvest to finished packaged product.

Best Office/Retail/Mixed-Use - The Spiral

zevina@enr.com (Alisa Zevin) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

The Spiral – 66 Hudson Boulevard, a 67-story office building, was built in the Hudson Yards neighborhood of Manhattan.

Best Landscape/Urban Development - Memorial Park Central Connector

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

This project added a pair of land bridges over a road dividing Houston’s largest park in order to reunite its north and south sides and improve connectivity for both visitors and wildlife.

Best K-12 Education - Against the Current Career Academy

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

The certificate-granting academy’s name references the Omaha Tribe, known as “the ones who go against the current,” many of whose members live on the reservation where the school is located.

Best Interior/Tenant Improvement - Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center Electrophysiology Lab and Surgical Services Expansion

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

This surgical suite renovation and expansion included a 20,000-sq-ft buildout of shell space to accommodate three electrophysiology cardiac catheterization labs, three general operating rooms, a hybrid operating room, a pre-operation/recovery space and eight post-anesthesia care unit bays—plus administrative offices.

Best Highway/Bridge - Sixth Street Viaduct

lewisw@enr.com (Scott Lewis) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

A workhorse with showhorse trappings as well, the $289-million Sixth Street Viaduct in Los Angeles features a series of technical innovations that sets a new threshold for seismic safety.

Best Higher Education/Research - Bowdoin College, the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies and Barry Mills Hall

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Maine's first ever commercial mass timber structure is also the first to use a mass timber lateral system to resist wind and seismic loads, says Matt Tonello, Consigli director of operations and project executive.

Best Health Care - Mayo Clinic East Expansion

judys@enr.com (Scott Judy) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

For Justin Adams, senior project director at McCarthy Building Cos., delivering the 330,000-sq-ft expansion at Mayo Clinic’s North Phoenix campus “was truthfully one of the most amazing projects and experiences that I’ve had in my career. This was different.”

Excellence in Safety - UVA Inn at Darden – The Forum Hotel

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

For the University of Virginia’s Inn at Darden – The Forum Hotel in Charlottesville, Va., “We had to wrestle with a lot of unforeseen conditions” such as rocks, unstable soil and COVID-19, says Patrick Barbier, senior project manager for construction manager at-risk W.M. Jordan Co., of the 200,585-sq-ft, 199-key boutique hotel that includes a conference wing, main house and residence wing.

Excellence in Sustainability - 1021 O Street State Office Building

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Energy conservation is a hallmark of this California State Office Building in Sacramento, one of the state’s first net-zero energy, net-zero carbon, all-electric government office facilities.

Best Cultural/Worship - Orange County Museum of Art

mcfarlandp@enr.com (Pam McFarland) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Although terra cotta tiles have been used in buildings around the world for centuries, the team behind the new Orange County Museum of Art outside of Los Angeles upped the ante of what’s possible.

Best Airport/Transit - Orlando International Airport Terminal C

choa@enr.com (Aileen Cho) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Flyers entering Orlando International Airport’s Terminal C might first notice the iconic prow at the entrance and the vivid experiential media exhibits.

Project of the Year Finalist, Government/Public Building - National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF)

yodersj@enr.com (Jeff Yoders) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

After 17 years of applications, funding debates and design and scope changes, the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas, was delivered by McCarthy/Mortenson.

Project of the Year Finalist, Best Renovation/Restoration - Kings Bay Dry Dock Recapitalization

rubind@enr.com (Debra K. Rubin) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Kings Bay naval base, on the Georgia-Florida border, has been the U.S. Navy hub for nuclear ballistic missile submarines since the 1980s, says the team submission, with operations halted for the first time to enable an estimated $627M upgrade of its unique drydock and other infrastructure that was completed last year.

Project of the Year: Microsoft Thermal Energy Center Showcases Geothermal Heating and Cooling

postn@enr.com (Nadine M. Post) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

The Microsoft Thermal Energy Center, a groundbreaking geothermal heating and cooling system that serves the buildings of the tech giant’s 72-acre East Campus Modernization outside Seattle, was truly two exotic jobs wrapped into one.

Manufacturing Award of Merit - Obregon Brewery Expansion