ENR California’s Best Projects competition received entries spanning the region. And with projects ranging from a wildfire cleanup effort and an iconic landmark restoration to a museum and performing arts plaza, the 53 award-winning projects are as varied as they are exceptional.

More than 100 entries were received for this year’s competition. A group of judges representing various specialties were assembled to review, score and determine the winners. Judges independently reviewed entries and convened with their peers to compare impressions and scores.

The judging panels selected Best Project winners in a range of categories as well as award of merit honorees. Judges were asked to recuse themselves in cases of conflict of interest.

In a separate panel, ENR California’s safety judges considered a project’s overall safety program, OSHA recordable incident rate, lost-time accident rate and total work hours.

The judges also selected Projects of the Year for Northern California and Southern California. The winners exemplify the breadth of skills, creativity and expertise required to produce structures that stretch design and construction skills and outperform existing norms.

In Northern California, ENR judges named the Chase Center Development not only as the Project of the Year but also the Excellence in Safety winner, lauding the team’s safety record and site-specific plan.

In Southern California, the Long Beach Civic Center impressed judges with the complex logistics of building a city hall, library, port headquarters and more.

ENR’s Best Projects program could not run without the expertise and consideration of our volunteer judges, who spend countless hours reviewing entries and debating their merits with their peers. ENR California thanks our 2020 regional judges, listed below in alphabetical order by first name:

  • Aaron Yohnke, vice president and district manager – Los Angeles, PCL Construction Services Inc.
  • Alan Hayes, safety director for California, JTM Construction Group Inc.
  • Brian Ross, owner, InfraShares Inc.
  • Caleigh Raymer, vice president, director of operations, Lendlease
  • David Mori, engineering manager, Public Works Dept., City of Anaheim
  • Donald Kahn, project executive, Largo Concrete Inc.
  • Doug Conrath, principal, CRB
  • Greg Nelson, principal, Altitude Design Office
  • Ingrid Chaires, senior building physics engineer, Arup
  • Kim Scott, vice president, business development and marketing, Blach Construction
  • Pat Callahan, senior vice president of operations, Hathaway Dinwiddie
  • Red Gayita, preconstruction and estimating manager, Swinerton