Nationwide Competition Reveals Pinnacles of Design, Construction
After countless hours of review, discussion and debate, industry judges have arrived at the 20 winners of ENR’s Best of the Best Projects competition. This announcement culminates a nearly year-long effort put forth by hundreds of project teams and more than 100 members of the construction industry selected by ENR editors to judge the various stages of the contest. The projects listed below represent the highest achievement in design and construction excellence in their respective categories from across the U.S. among projects completed between May 2024 and May 2025.
The competition began last March with a call for entries to the construction industry, which resulted in more than 800 project teams submitting their best work to the regional Best Projects competitions. In each of the 10 regions, the editors assembled a panel of judges to select the winners in 18 categories—from highway/bridge to residential/hospitality—in that region. Two additional special awards were also selected: Excellence in Safety and Excellence in Sustainability, each representing an additional 200-plus entries.
Once the regional winners were chosen, the top winners in each category from each region moved up to the national competition – more than 200 projects in total. A new group of 21 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.
The judges were Eva Bauer-Furbush, Bauer-Furbush Engineering & Management Advisory; Dan Clevinger, DLR Group; Nicholas DeNichilo, Mott MacDonald (retired); Bart Eberwein, Hoffman Corp. (retired); Ginger Evans, Tower Consult; Camilo Garcia, DPR; Mike Headrick, PCL; Sam Hassoun, GLA Corp.; Randy Iwasaki, Iwasaki Consulting Services; Kai Kaoni, Northern Arizona University; Parham Khoshkbari, Google; Manish Kothari, Sheladia Associates Inc.; David Miles, Kiewit; Rachel Rasmussen, Architekton; John Schaufelberger, University of Washington; Cliff Schexnayder, Arizona State University; Tom Smith, ASCE; Claire Weisz, WXY Studio; Edgar Westerhof, Arcadis.
For the Excellence in Safety award, safety experts Heath Wilson with Brasfield & Gorrie and Carl Heinlein with American Contractors Insurance Group reviewed the incident rates, worker hours and innovation in safety programs to determine the winner.
Kaoni and Westerhof did double duty and also evaluated the nominees for Excellence in Sustainability. examining how innovative and intensive the sustainability strategy was on the project, and how successful its outcome.
The judges and winning projects will be featured in more depth in the March 16 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, which will be revealed in the March 16 issue.
Come celebrate the winners in New York City on March 26. The project teams will receive their awards at a brunch that day at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers, and then will don their formal wear and be celebrated again along with the Top 25 Newsmakers and the Award of Excellence winner during ENR’s Annual Award of Excellence Gala that evening, also at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers in New York City. For more information, visit enr.com/AOE.
We are just a few months from launching the call for entries for our 2025 Regional U.S. Best Projects competition. For more information, visit last year’s entry page at www.enr.com/bestprojects/ (Entry dates and eligibility will be updated once the call for entries goes live this spring.)
Note: Links are provided to the previous articles published when the project won in its ENR regional publication.
Airport/Transit
Delta Air Lines, Inc. LGA Airfield Reconfiguration Program, located in East Elmhurst, N.Y. Originally submitted by Turner Construction Co. to ENR East
Cultural/Worship
Museum of Natural History – Commons, located in Los Angeles. Originally submitted by MATT Construction to ENR West
Energy/Industrial
Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Landfalls and Trenchless Crossing, located in Virginia Beach, Va. Originally submitted by Michels Corporation to ENR East
Government/Public Building
South Airfield Military Construction (MILCON) Projects, Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake, located in Ridegecrest, Calif. Originally submitted by ECC to ENR West
Health Care
Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital, located in Wheat Ridge, Colo. Originally submitted by Barton Malow | Haselden to ENR Mountain States & Southwest
Higher Education/Research
Westminster University L.S. Skaggs Integrated Wellness Center, located in Salt Lake City. Originally submitted by Jacobsen Construction to ENR Mountain States & Southwest
Highway/Bridge
Hurricane Ian Sanibel Access Project, located in Sanibel, Fla. Originally submitted by Superior-de Moya Joint Venture Team to ENR Texas & Southeast
Interior/Tenant Improvement
Atlantic Council Relocation, located in Washington, D.C. Originally submitted by DAVIS Construction to ENR East
K-12 Education
Emma Willard School, Alice Dodge Wallace ’38 Center for the Performing Arts, located in Troy, N.Y. Originally submitted by Consigli Construction Co. to ENR East
Landscape/Urban Development
Parklane Park, located in Portland, Ore. Originally submitted by Stacy Witbeck to ENR West
Manufacturing
Ford BlueOval City, located in Stanton, Tenn. Originally submitted by Walbridge to ENR Texas & Southeast
Office/Retail/Mixed-Use
T3 RiNo, located in Denver. Originally submitted by Pickard Chilton to ENR Mountain States & Southwest
Renovation/Restoration
Hotel Del Coronado Victorian Building Renovation, located in Coronado, Calif. Originally submitted by Swinerton Builders to ENR West
Residential/Hospitality
First Light, located in Seattle. Originally submitted by MG2 to ENR West
Safety
Fab 52 (Project Eagle), located in Chandler, Ariz. Originally submitted by Hoffman Construction to ENR Mountain States & Southwest
Small Project
Thomas Brook Rail Bridge Replacement, located in Oakfield, Maine. Originally submitted by Sargent Corp. to ENR East
Specialty Construction
Populus Hotel, located in Denver. Originally submitted by Hunt Electric Inc. to ENR Mountain States & Southwest
Sports/Entertainment
Intuit Dome, located in Inglewood, Calif. Originally submitted by AECOM Hunt – Turner JV to ENR West
Sustainability
NYCHA Eastchester and Jackson Houses – Geothermal DHW and Heating Upgrade, located in Bronx, N.Y. Originally submitted by CSA Group to ENR East
Water/Environment
Klamath River Renewal Project, located in Hornbrook, Calif. Originally submitted by Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. to ENR West
The post "Nationwide Competition Reveals Pinnacles of Design, Construction" appeared first on Consulting-Specifying Engineer