The Midwest construction industry continued to thrive in 2023, bolstered by a steady flow of projects that kept many firms busy producing work that pushed the boundaries of innovation, promoted sustainability and safety, reinvented historic structures and spurred forward-thinking construction solutions.

From a new transit center built on the site of a former dairy barn in Michigan to reimagining the paddocks at Churchill Downs in Kentucky as an entertainment attraction to the conversion of a warehouse into a sports content production hub in Chicago, regional project teams overcame numerous challenges including tight sites, complex geotechnical issues, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages.

A total of 87 projects were submitted to ENR Midwest’s annual Best Projects competition this year, a significant increase in submissions compared with 2023, providing judges with a difficult task in choosing the winners honored in the following pages.

The projects were entered in 22 categories, including safety and sustainability, and had to be completed between May 2023 and May 2024. Despite their differences, they all stood out for one reason: excellence.

The goal of the Ohio Landfills Desulphurization Plant project is to limit emission of sulfur dioxide, which is an acid rain precursor.
Photo courtesy ET Design Build

Judging Criteria

This year, 10 expert industry judges evaluated projects for the main competition, split into two teams to score projects on multiple criteria. Judges evaluated how those teams overcame obstacles, innovated and contributed to the industry and also evaluated the projects for quality and craftsmanship, function and aesthetics. Judges did not vote on projects in which they or their firms were involved.

In choosing the winners, judges made particular note of teams that worked closely together to achieve excellence. One such project was the Jason Hargrove Transit Center in Detroit, which was named Best Project in the airport/transit category. The project involved converting the historic Dairy Cattle Barn at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds into a state-of-the-art transit center.

The plan to adaptively reuse the barn was devised after community members expressed the desire for the city to find a way to preserve this aspect of Michigan’s history.

Adapting the barn also involved removing lead paint and reinforcing or removing dilapidated structural materials.

Commenting on the project, contest judge Vivek Prasad, lead estimator-Americas for Microsoft, said, “The project team displayed exceptional coordination and collaboration, overcoming significant challenges related to the adaptive reuse of a historic structure and ensuring community engagement and satisfaction.”

Another project that rose to the top is the Alliant Solar Energy Project in Wisconsin, which earned kudos from the judges for overcoming various challenges including complex geotechnical issues.

The project, which earned a Best Project award in the energy/industrial category and award of merit in sustainability, entailed building nine utility-scale solar arrays in Wisconsin.

To address challenging subsurface conditions, the team assembled a toolbox of remediation options to tackle various conditions. They also kept safety as a priority, using custom-built trailers to handle cable and pull operations, limiting crew members’ exposure to muscle strains and injuries.

Those safety measures and training were praised by Angelo Arzano, senior principal for HOK, St. Louis, who also noted that the team, in another instance, showed “a great response that saved a person’s life.”

Working together, seven members of the team aided a crew member who experienced chest pains and shortness of breath. He was quickly escorted to the health and safety trailer before losing consciousness and going into cardiac arrest. An external defibrillator restored his heart beat, and he was then transported to a hospital.

The project application noted that “without proper training, the correct resources and the quick thinking of peers and safety professionals, this crew member could have lost his life in minutes.”

The goal of another project, the Ohio Landfills Desulphurization Plant, which won the Excellence in Safety award, was to prevent the emission of sulfur dioxide, which is an acid rain precursor, at two landfills. No recordable safety incidents occurred during construction, which judge Danielle Dy Buncio, founder and CEO of VIATechnik, attributed to thorough planning.

“Short-term, mid-term and long-term impacts were reviewed, and mitigating measures were developed to address each one,” she noted. “Specific crisis management plans were prepared for each site.”

The Bicentennial Unity Plaza, which earned an award of merit in the landscape/urban development category, is an example of another project that required intense planning. It involved building an all-season outdoor plaza on the site of a parking lot at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis. The new space is a community gathering place with a basketball court in the summer and ice skating rink in the winter. A twisting arched metal sculpture that stands 140 ft long and 40 ft high welcomes visitors.

“Creating an all-season outdoor attraction in four-seasoned Indiana is truly a feat,” said judge Brandon Maurisak, transit and rail project manager, HNTB. “During planning, every team member had to consider the natural elements when choosing materials. The large-scale artworks were finalized later in the construction schedule, and the team had to quickly switch gears to prepare for the installation of these one-of-a-kind pieces.”

A project that transformed a 1908-era mansion in Minneapolis received an award of merit in the renovation/restoration category. It is now an institute devoted to preserving Swedish culture and customs and was cited by the judges for its level of detail and teamwork.

The project included upgrading building systems, cleaning and replacing masonry with custom-carved stonework and restoring tile flooring, plaster walls, ceilings and decorative crown molding. It also converted part of a carriage house for use as administrative space. “With the high level of detail throughout the building, every feature had to be coordinated,” Dy Buncio noted.

In addition to Arzano, Prasad, Dy Buncio, and Maurisak, this year’s judges also included: Laura Drescher, sustainability technical service leader, Burns & McDonnell; Marc Hanson, senior director, construction operations, Clayco; Jill Katic, senior director, knowledge management and learning, Barton Malow Holdings; Lynda Leigh, development manager, CedarSt Cos.; Sam Mishelow, director of client development, Mayer Najem; and Steve Zimmerman, JTC director, associate principal, Wiss, Janney Elstner Associates Inc.