After much deliberation and discussion, industry judges have chosen the 20 winners of ENR’s annual Best of the Best Projects competition. The announcement is the culmination of a year-long effort put forth by nearly 100 members of the construction industry selected by ENR editors to judge the various stages of the contest. The projects listed below represent the pinnacle of design and construction achievement in their respective categories from across the U.S. among those completed between May 2018 and May 2019.
The competition began last March with a call for entries for the construction industry that resulted in 918 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 winners in 20 categories organized by market sector.
After the regional winners were chosen, the regional first-place winners in each category moved up to the national competition—around 200 projects in total. An entirely new group of 14 judges from across the country and from all walks of the industry examined each project to determine the best of the best in terms of teamwork, safety, overcoming challenges, innovation and quality.
For the Excellence in Safety award, a separate panel of two industry safety experts reviewed the incident rates, worker hours and safety programs to determine the winner.
The judges and winning projects will be featured in more depth in the March 23 issue of ENR. Also in that issue, the editors of ENR, in collaboration with the judges, will select three Project of the Year Finalists, which will be revealed in the coming weeks. One of those honorees will be deemed the Project of the Year and revealed in the March 23 issue.
Come celebrate the winners in New York City on April 2-3! The project teams will first be honored as a group during ENR's 55th Annual Award of Excellence Black-Tie Gala on April 2 at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers in New York City, which also honors ENR’s Top 25 Newsmakers and the Award of Excellence winner. Then, each winning team will receive its award and have an opportunity to speak at the Best of the Best Projects breakfast ceremony on August 5. For more information, visit enr.com/enr-award-of-excellence
The 2020 regional Best Projects competition will commence this spring. For more information, visit last year's entry page at enr.com/bestprojects/ (Entry dates and eligibility will be updated once the call for entries goes live this spring.)
Also, 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 next month. At least one project team member firm must be based outside of the country where the project site is located. Check enr.com/bestprojects/global for general information about the contest.
Airport/Transit
M-Line (The Hop), located in Milwaukee. Originally submitted by HNTB Corp. to ENR Midwest
Cultural/Worship
Museum at the Gateway Arch, located in St. Louis. Originally submitted by IMEG Corp. to ENR Midwest
Energy/Industrial
Denny Substation, located in Seattle. Originally submitted by POWER Engineers Inc. to ENR Northwest
Excellence in Safety
Lackawanna Energy Center, located in Jessup, Penn. Originally submitted by Kiewit to ENR MidAtlantic
Government/Public Building
Salt Lake City Fire Station No 14, located in Salt Lake City. Originally submitted by Blalock & Partners to ENR Mountain States
Green Project
Unisphere, located in Silver Spring, Md. Originally submitted by EwingCole to ENR MidAtlantic
Health Care
The Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Pavilion, located in New York City. Originally submitted by Turner Construction Co. to ENR New York
Higher Education/Research
Vanderbilt University E. Bronson Ingram College, located in Nashville. Originally submitted by R.C. Mathews Contractor LLC to ENR Southeast
Landscape/Urban Development
41st Street Pedestrian Arch Bridge, located in Chicago. Originally submitted by AECOM and F.H. Paschen to ENR Midwest
Highway/Bridge
Sarah Mildred Long Bridge Replacement, located in Kittery, Maine. Originally submitted by Cianbro to ENR New England
Interior/Tenant Improvement
Agri-Industrial Tech Campus Renovation, located in Sunnyvale, Calif. Originally submitted by XL Construction to ENR California
K-12 Education
Greenwich Country Day Middle School, located in Greenwich, Conn. Originally submitted by Turner Construction Co. to ENR New England
Manufacturing
BioLegend | Campus Expansion, located in San Diego. Originally submitted by DPR Construction to ENR California
Office/Retail/Mixed-Use
First Tech Federal Credit Union Oregon Corporate Office, located in Hillsboro, Ore. Originally submitted by Swinerton to ENR Northwest
Renovation/Restoration
St. Stephen Church Historical Renovation, located in New Orleans. Originally submitted by DonahueFavret Contractors Inc. to ENR Texas & Louisiana
Residential/Hospitality
One Thousand Museum, located in Miami. Originally submitted by DeSimone Consulting Engineers and Plaza Construction to ENR Southeast
Small Project (under $10 million)
Victory Pointe Park, located in Clermont, Fla. Originally submitted by GAI Consultants Inc. to ENR Southeast
Specialty Construction
Ameren Missouri Bagnell Dam Stabilization Project, located in Lake Ozark, Mo. Originally submitted by MC Industrial, a McCarthy Holdings Co. to ENR Midwest
Sports/Entertainment
City of Aurora Central Recreation Center, located in Aurora, Colo. Originally submitted by Adolfson & Peterson Construction to ENR Mountain States
Water/Environment
Haiwee Power Plant Penstock Replacement Project, located in Olancha, Calif. Originally submitted by Barnard Construction Co. Inc. to ENR California
