While ENR tends to delve into lessons learned stories about projects under construction, over the past 27 years our Best Projects Awards have also highlighted success in your completed projects where there has been exceptional teamwork , exceptional safety and community benefit. From p. 39, you can read about the current crop of national winners.
This year, ENR celebrates 150 years of publication, but several of our regional magazines also have a long history. For example, Southwest Contractor (now ENR Southwest) has been published continuously since the 1930s.
In 1996-97, several of these regional publications, including the Southwest and Mountain States, put out a call for a project-oriented competition to be judged by the shippers’ industry peers. I had started working at Southwest Contractor just before the second year of the contest, and within a few years we were receiving so many entries, the delivery of boxes full of hundreds of physical binders would fill my entire office. The judges would meet in a conference room, pass entries and photos, and reach a consensus during a marathon day.
About 15 years ago, ENR took the competition national by advancing regional winners to new rounds of judging. These days, of course, everything is digital, but the judges still meet in groups via Zoom to deliberate.
Carl Heinlein, senior safety consultant for American Contractors Insurance Group and a longtime judge for the competition’s Safety Excellence Award, says he “learns something every year” by “reading what the shippers are doing” for protect your colleagues and business partners both on and off the job.” Bart Eberwein, retired executive vice president of Hoffman Corp., a judge for five years, says the contest entries are “a treasure trove of stories about determination, creativity and, above all, teamwork.”
In 2012, ENR chose its first Project of the Year, then known as Editors’ Choice. Distinguishing a front page embellishment project among the winners became the only aspect of the contest in which the editors, normally a very impartial group, became involved. That first project was a sustainable data center for Facebook near Prineville, Oregon. It was a pioneer at the time in using evaporative cooling, core batteries and custom servers to reduce cooling requirements. “All of these sustainable features (and more) were openly shared with the industry,” says Eric Lamb, then executive vice president of DPR Construction and now a board member of the contractor, which built the project in partnership with Fortis Construction. . In the dozen years since this knowledge was shared, “there has been a relentless focus on improving designs, reducing energy consumption and developing hardware to maximize what can be achieved in the same building area “.
What can your project teams learn from this year’s winners to improve processes, take safety to the next level, or design and build structures that better serve our communities? Read on to find out!
Scott Blair
Chief Editor
