2024

Best Specialty Construction: Minnesota Zoo Treetop Trail

yodersj@enr.com (Jeff Yoders) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

The Minnesota Zoo’s overhead monorail was decommissioned in 2013, but the rails installed in 1979 remained as a relic of a bygone era of overhead transportation—until BARR Engineering and Snow Kreilich Architects reimagined the route as the Treetop Trail.

Best Water/Environment: Denver Water Northwater Treatment Plant

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

A mix of creative problem solving, careful planning and lean management were key in delivering Denver’s newest drinking water treatment plant on time, under budget and without lost time safety incidents, said its project team.

Best Renovation/Restoration: Victory Lofts

jriceenr@gmail.com (Justin Rice) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Sitting vacant for decades, the Endicott Johnson Victory Shoe Factory had deteriorated into an eyesore before the team returned it to a symbol of local pride and prosperity.

Best Manufacturing: United Therapeutics cGMP Warehouse

rubenstonej@enr.com (Jeff Rubenstone) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Building a climate-controlled warehouse and logistics facility for United Therapeutics in North Carolina’s Research Triangle was a matter of power management and careful planning.

Best Small Project: Spellacy Bridge Reconstruction Project

rubind@enr.com (Debra K. Rubin) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Reconstruction of the 1940s-era Spellacy covered bridge—one of America’s largest at 300 ft long and 24 ft wide—had a small price tag of $9.5 million but delivered a big impact.

Project of the Year Finalist, Airport/Transit: Northwest Phase II Extension Light Rail Transit

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

At the outset of a 1.6-mile, multimillion-dollar Phase II light rail extension project in Phoenix, representatives from project owner Valley Metro Rail, Kiewit-McCarthy, Jacobs and other consultants convened to brainstorm value engineering ideas.

Best Higher Education/Research: Advanced Engineering Building at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

rubind@enr.com (Debra K. Rubin) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Engineering is already the fastest-growing field of study at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, but its $73-million Advanced Engineering Building, which opened for classes last fall, could make more students change majors.

Best Cultural/Worship: Missouri Botanical Garden Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center

manniona@enr.com (Annemarie Mannion) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Protecting delicate and rare plants and trees from around the world was one of the challenges of building the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

Excellence in Safety: Midtown Union

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Brasfield & Gorrie was able to safely execute simultaneous construction of a 26-story office tower, 26-story residential tower and 14-story hotel on a tight site in urban Atlanta.

Best Health Care: Mayo Clinic AZ Bold Forward West Expansion

mcfarlandp@enr.com (Pam McFarland) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

The team working on the project to expand a top-rated Mayo Clinic facility in Phoenix performed extensive prefabrication work that allowed the hospital not only to avoid disruptions to patient care by remaining open during construction but also shaved months off the schedule.

Excellence in Sustainability: County of San Mateo, County Office Building 3 (COB3)

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Sustainability was top of mind for county officials and their project team working on this $195-million mass timber office building.

Best Landscape/Urban Development: East Midtown Greenway

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Managing construction of new pedestrian and cycling pathways at the water’s edge in Manhattan brought no shortage of challenges, said the project team.

Best Interior/Tenant Improvement: Google St. John's Terminal

jriceenr@gmail.com (Justin Rice) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Early coordination helped the Structure Tone-Turner Construction joint-venture partnership tackle challenges such as installing professionally engineered supported scaffolding in the theater’s acoustic ceiling and crane picks from the street that involved placing mechanical units on the roof and three terraces.

Project of the Year Finalist, Highway/Bridge: Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge

choa@enr.com (Aileen Cho) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

High winds and a tight schedule made replacement of two tower elevator systems and upgrades to locks, gates, counterweights and mechanical components on the nearly 90-year-old Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge no easy feat.

Best Residential/Hospitality: The Fifth Avenue Hotel

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Working on any historic building requires time and patience, says Shawn Basler, co-CEO and executive director of Perkins Eastman. Case in point: It took 11 years to turn a 120-year-old McKim, Mead & White-designed former bank into the Fifth Avenue Hotel.

Best Sports/Entertainment: Colorado Convention Center

zevina@enr.com (Alisa Zevin) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

The vertical expansion to the Colorado Convention Center added 200,000 sq ft to the 2.2 million sq-ft center built in the early 1990s.

Best Energy/Industrial: Baytown Supermodule Furnace Project

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Planning and constructing a 128-ft-tall, 139-ft-long, 62-ft-wide, 2,800-ton cracking furnace, then transporting it a mile before carefully connecting it was a puzzle that took some out-of-the-box thinking and next-level coordination.

Best K-12 Education: Bard High School Early College

jriceenr@gmail.com (Justin Rice) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Building over a D.C. Metro tunnel challenged the Bard High School Early College project team, who transformed a former elementary school into an institution dedicated to increasing higher education access for low-income and underrepresented communities by providing a free college program.

Best Office/Retail/Mixed-Use: The Aerie On-Mountain Restaurant

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

Construction of the 25,000-sq-ft Aerie restaurant at the top of Colorado’s Copper Mountain required an unconventional approach to building at 11,207 ft.

Project of the Year: Design-Builders Over-Deliver for Underserved Community

judys@enr.com (Scott Judy) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

To successfully deliver the Southeast Live Well Center in San Diego, the design-build team deeply involved community members on every detail.

ENR Best of the Best 2024

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0400

The 20 projects recognized here are the result of a nearly yearlong effort by ENR editors and roughly 100 construction industry members who judged contest entries at various stages.

Best Project, Specialty Construction: Wenchi – Dendi Ecotourism Road Network Lot-1

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Given that the aim of this ecotourism project connecting two lakes was to create a network of roads, 31.4 km in total, to allow visitors access to a remote, mountainous area, accessibility was a challenge.

Award of Merit, Sports/Entertainment: Seaworld Abu Dhabi

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Located on Yas Island, the five-floor marine theme park is dedicated to environmental preservation. It features a One Ocean realm, with six distinct but interconnected areas showcasing different ecosystems, as well as the world’s largest multispecies marine life aquarium, which holds 68,000 animals from 1,800 different species.

Award of Merit, Sports/Entertainment: Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad Sports and Culture Complex

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

This Indian project’s conceptual design was provided by designers from the University of Tokyo, continuing a history of collaboration between the institute and Japanese universities, says the project submission.

Best Project, Sports/Entertainment: Rogers Centre Renovation Phase 2

rubenstonej@enr.com (Jeff Rubenstone) — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

The renovation of the home of Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays had a firm six months to finish, with no extra innings.

Award of Merit, Water/Wastewater: Musaimeer Pump Station and Outfall

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

The Musaimeer pump station and outfall is a vital infrastructure addition in Qatar to meet demands of its increasing population and to deal with growing problems of rising brackish groundwater as well as flash flooding.

Award of Merit, Road/Highway: The Philip S.W. Goldson Highway and Remate Bypass Upgrading Project

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

This project transformed a 125-kilometer road in the Central American nation of Belize, between the country’s international airport and the Mexican border, from a frequently flooded and unsafe passage into a vastly more sustainable artery.

Best Project, Road/Highway: Kicking Horse Canyon Phase 4

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

A beautiful but treacherous stretch of two-lane highway in the eastern forests of British Columbia has been smoothed out thanks to innovative solutions for building four bridges, nine viaducts and seven earthwalls on steep slopes.

Best Project, Residential/Hospitality: Bulgari Ocean Mansions

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

These villas on the northern shore of the United Arab Emirates’ Jumeirah Bay island were designed to incorporate green spaces, sustainable landscaping and eco-friendly materials—setting a new standard for how future developments can reduce impact on the island’s ecological health, according to the project team.

Award of Merit, Residential/Hospitality: Secon Nile Towers

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

The mixed-use development along the Nile River features two connected towers, each standing 23 stories tall, with additional below-ground-level stories housing a parking garage and shared mechanical and electrical rooms.