ENR New York’s Best Projects competition honored a wide range of work across the New York and New Jersey region. Some projects were focused on the natural environment, like the Irish Hunger Memorial renovation and the Hackley School’s Walter C. Johnson Center for Health & Wellness. Others, such as the Portageville Bridge replacement and the Niagara Falls State Park rehabilitation, brought history into the present. And as always, the active health care and higher education  sectors were well represented.

Judges selected 27 projects for awards, with 15 named  Best Projects and 12 selected for awards of merit. Among the entries, one—the Goethals Bridge Replacement—stood out above the rest, with judges selecting it as a Best Projects winner in the highways/bridges category, as the winner of  the Excellence in Safety award and as Project of the Year, the region’s top honor.

A few categories had so many impressive entries that judges awarded multiple honors. Two tied as Best Projects in the residential/hospitality sector: Davis Barracks at the U.S. Military Academy and the 520 W. 28 St. building in Manhattan. And in the higher education/research category, awards of merit went to The Bloomberg Center; Rutgers University-Camden Nursing and Science Building; and the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The panel of industry jurists considered safety, innovation, quality of design and construction challenges in making their decisions. The judges, in alphabetical order, were:

  • Stuart Binstock, president and CEO of CFMA (Construction Financial Management Association)
  • Judy Cooper, founder of Judy D. Cooper Communications
  • Fletcher Griffis, New York University professor of construction engineering and management and director of NYS Resiliency Institute for Storms and Emergencies
  • John Kolaya, president of Kolaya Associates LLC and executive adviser to Yonkers Contracting Co.
  • Ibrahim Odeh, director of research at Columbia University and founding director of Global Leaders in Construction Management
  • Howard Sackel, senior vice president and regional manager of PACO Technologies

Jurists for the Excellence in Safety category were:

  • T.J. Lyons, eastern region EHS director for Total Facility Solutions
  • Rebecca Severson, vice president and corporate director of safety at Gilbane

ENR New York’s Best Projects: