Each year, through ENR’s Regional Best Projects competition, the magazine highlights some of the area’s most innovative projects. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Northwest region, which includes Alaska, Oregon and Washington, continued to produce outstanding work, and a panel of judges selected 25 winners from the pool of projects that entered the competition. 

Judges scored entries on pre-specified criteria and convened with fellow judges to vote for Best Projects and award of merit winners. 

This year’s panel of judges, listed below, were particularly interested in projects that contributed to the community in which they were built, either by the incorporation of local cultural elements or through the services and benefits the projects offer. 

ENR Northwest’s Project of the Year, Washington’s Mukilteo Ferry Terminal, reflected judges’ increasing attention to community involvement, sustainability and locally sourced materials. 

This year’s Northwest Best Projects judges were: 

• Bryan Cook, JE Dunn Construction
• Feng Li, Golder Associates
• Sam Holden, Skanska USA Building
• Taylor Johnson, Clark Construction Group
• Brandon Maurisak, AECOM
• John Schaufelberger, University of Washington

Separate panels of judges chose winners for Excellence in Safety and Excellence in Sustainability awards. Safety experts considered the projects’ overall safety program, OSHA recordable incident rates, lost-time accident rates and total worker hours on the job. 

This year’s independent panel of safety experts were:

• Craig Decesare, WSP
• John McKenzie, JE Dunn Construction
• Jeff Smith, Turner Construction Co.

This is the first year that ENR honored project teams with a special award for sustainability. An additional panel of judges considered projects based on best practices and innovation on reducing the industry’s impact on the environment. 

This year’s independent panel of safety experts were:

• Joe Burg, Brown and Caldwell
• Courtney O’Neill, AECOM

Read on for more details on the Project of the Year, the Excellence in Safety and Sustainability honorees and the rest of this year’s winners.