I’m pleased to announce the winners of ENR’s Best of the Best Projects for 2017. This announcement comes as the culmination of a nearly year-long effort put forth by dozens of industry judges and the ENR editorial team to identify the pinnacle of design and construction achievement in the entire U.S. among projects completed between May 2016 and May 2017.
The competition began last March with a call for entries to the construction industry, which resulted in approximately 700 industry project teams submitting their work to the regional Best Projects competitions. In each of the 10 regions, the editors assembled panels of judges to select the regional winners in 20 categories.
Once the regional winners were chosen, the top winners in each category from each region moved up to the national competition. A brand new set of judges from across the country and from all walks of the industry examined each project in an effort to distinguish the best from the best in terms of teamwork, safety, overcoming challenges, innovation and quality.
For the Excellence in Safety award, a separate panel of industry safety managers and experts reviewed the incident rates, worker hours and safety programs to determine the winner. That winning project is the Yuma Regional Medical Center Emergency Department Expansion.
The projects and judges will be featured in more depth in the March 5, 2018 issue of ENR. Also in that issue, the editors of ENR, in collaboration with the judges, will select one project from the winning projects as the Project of the Year, which won’t be revealed until the issue date. Until then, on behalf of the staff of ENR and all the judges, congratulations to all the winners!
Come celebrate the winners at the Best of the Best Projects Awards Banquet in New York City. The project teams will be honored at the Award of Excellence gala dinner at the New York Hilton Midtown on April 5, and award plaques will be presented to the project teams at a breakfast ceremony on April 6. For more information, visit www.enrawardofexcellence.com/ .
Note: if you have an outstanding project located anywhere in the world, be sure to submit it to ENR’s next competition – Global Best Projects, which will begin accepting entries in a few weeks. At least one project team member firm must be based outside of the country where the project site is located. Check http://www.enr.com/bestprojects/global for general information about the contest. The entry form will go live in mid-February.
The 2018 Regional U.S. Best Projects competition will commence this spring. For more information, visit last year's entry page at www.enr.com/bestprojects/2017 (Entry dates and eligibility will be updated once the call for entries goes live this spring.)
Best of the Best Airport/Transit Project
Second Avenue Subway - Phase 1, located in New York City. Submitted by AECOM to ENR New York
Best of the Best Cultural/Worship Project
Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, located in Miami. Submitted by Skanska USA Building Inc., Hill International Inc. and Radius Track Corp. to ENR Southeast
Best of the Best Energy/Industrial Project
Hazlehurst 72MW Solar Facility, located in Hazlehurst, Ga. Submitted by McCarthy Building Cos. to ENR Southeast
Best of the Best Excellence in Safety Award
Yuma Regional Medical Center Emergency Department Expansion, located in Yuma, Ariz. Submitted by McCarthy Building Cos. to ENR Southwest
Best of the Best Government/Public Building Project
U.S. Courthouse - Los Angeles, located in Los Angeles. Submitted by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), Clark Construction Group LLC and The Conco Cos. to ENR California
Best of the Best Green Project
Arch | Nexus SAC, located in Sacramento. Submitted by Architectural Nexus to ENR California
Best of the Best Health Care Project
University of Utah Health Care Farmington Health Center, located in Farmington, Utah. Submitted by Layton Construction Co. LLC to ENR Mountain States
Best of the Best Higher Education/Research Project
Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building, located in Phoenix. Submitted by DPR Construction to ENR Southwest
Best of the Best Highway/Bridge Project
Elizabeth River Tunnels Project, located in Portsmouth and Norfolk, Va. Submitted by SKW Constructors (a Skanska, Kiewit, Weeks Marine JV) to ENR MidAtlantic
Best of the Best Interior/Tenant Improvement Project
Polsinelli Tenant Improvement, located in Denver. Submitted by JE Dunn Construction to ENR Mountain States
Best of the Best K-12 Education Project
Irvine USD, Portola High School, located in Irvine, Calif. Submitted by C.W. Driver to ENR California
Best of the Best Landscape/Urban Development Project
Chicago Riverwalk, located in Chicago. Submitted by Alfred Benesch & Co. to ENR Midwest
Best of the Best Manufacturing Project
Biogen LSM 3X Capacity Upgrades, located in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Submitted by DPR Construction to ENR Southeast
Best of the Best Office/Retail/Mixed-Use Project
American AgCredit Agricultural Center and Corporate Headquarters, located in Santa Rosa, Calif. Submitted by Jim Murphy & Associates to ENR California
Best of the Best Renovation/Restoration Project
Recreation Pier Sagamore Pendry Hotel, located in Baltimore. Submitted by Whitney Bailey Cox & Magnani LLC to ENR MidAtlantic
Best of the Best Residential/Hospitality Project
56 Leonard, located in New York City. Submitted by Lendlease (US) Construction LMB Inc. to ENR New York
Best of the Best Small Project (under $10 million)
Catwalk Trail Reconstruction Design-Build, located in Glenwood, N.M. Submitted by AUI Inc. to ENR Southwest
Best of the Best Specialty Construction Project
Structural Test Stands at Marshall Space Flight Center, located in Huntsville, Ala. Submitted by Brasfield & Gorrie and Merrick & Co. to ENR Southeast
Best of the Best Sports/Entertainment Project
Odysea Aquarium, located in Scottsdale, Ariz. Submitted by McCarthy Building Cos, Inc. to ENR Southwest
Best of the Best Water/Environment Project
Terminal Island Water Reclamation Plant Advanced Water Purification Facility Expansion, located in Los Angeles. Submitted by Bureau of Engineering to ENR California
