Project teams recognized as this year’s ENR New York and New England regional Best Project winners impressed industry judges in their submissions with details of how team members collaborated to overcome key execution challenges and devised solutions that could have broader industry benefit.

After reviewing more than 90 total entries, judges recognized 27 projects in 13 main construction categories in the New York region, which includes New Jersey, and 19 projects in 14 main categories in New England, which includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Projects were evaluated on a team’s ability to overcome challenges, display design and construction quality, execute safely, contribute to construction industry innovation and best practices and benefit the community. All projects had to be completed between May 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023.

Judges did not vote in categories that included projects in which they or their firms were involved. This year’s New York judges in the main categories were Mara Johnston, managing principal at Keystone Global, and Verity Frizzell, principal at Feltz & Frizzell Architects LLC.

New England judges for those categories were Scott Bascom, who is associate architect at Sasaki, a Boston-based design firm, and Aidan Sullivan, who is project engineer at Engelberth Construction, based in Concord, N.H.

The Penn Station Long Island Rail Road Concourse Renovation was an ENR New York Project of the Year Finalist and Best Project award winner in the airport/transit category. It also won the Excellence in Safety Award.
Photo by Trent Reeves, courtesy MTA

Safe and Sustainably Sound

There was separate judging for projects that opted to be considered for their accomplishments in the critical construction areas of safety and sustainability.

This year, Bob McCall, director of safety for Master Builders’ Association of Western Pennsylvania, selected the safety awards for both regions.

For ENR New York, he selected the Penn Station Long Island Rail Road Concourse Renovation in New York City for the Excellence in Safety Award. McCall was impressed that management participated in the project’s daily hazard analysis along with craft foremen. The $412-million project, which was also a Project of the Year Finalist and Best Project winner in the airport/transit category, helps relieve congestion in the Manhattan train station by expanding its public space by more than 15,000 sq ft.

The region’s other Project of the Year Finalist was the Bergen County Rowing Center in Lyndhurst, N.J. The $7.6-million project also won a Best Project award in the sports/entertainment field.

McCall’s selection for the Excellence in Safety Award in New England was the Avalon North Andover apartments project, which also won an award of merit in the residential/hospitality category.

The team safety effort included recognizing how potential stresses that can be attributed to exclusion, unconscious bias and harassment impact workers’ mental health and physical safety. The $55-million project in North Andover, Mass., includes three residential buildings, with a total of 221 units and numerous outdoor amenities.

Each region also had a separate sustainability category for the third straight year. This year’s sustainability judge for both regions was Josh Rollins, a marketing director and sustainability expert at Suffolk Construction.

Rollins scored projects based on overall sustainability strategy, choice of materials and energy savings. Major sustainability designations such as LEED and WELL were preferable but not required for recognition in the sustainability category.

New York’s Excellence in Sustainability winner this year was the Newark Liberty International Airport New Terminal A in Newark, N.J. An award of merit winner in the airport/transit category, the project featured sustainability solutions that include a cool-roof coating and light-colored pavements to reduce heat gain and heat-island effect.

Selected for a New England region sustainability merit award was the St. Therese project in Everett, Mass., which has advanced energy-efficient systems and high-performance insulation.

Best of the Best

One project in both regions also took the grand prize: Project of the Year.

In New York, that distinction goes to the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in New York City. The only house of worship destroyed during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the iconic religious site was redesigned by world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava and rebuilt in lower Manhattan. It is located in Liberty Park, overlooking the National September 11 Memorial & Museum near its former location.

New England’s Project of the Year was the C. Gerald Lucey Building that is located in Brockton, Mass.—the state’s first publicly funded project of its scale that is constructed using mass timber.

Keep reading to learn more about all of this year’s winners.