The Southeast construction industry is not only busy, it’s producing exceptional work that’s pushing the envelope on a range of projects, from highways in Puerto Rico to universities in North Carolina.
More than 120 projects were submitted to ENR Southeast’s annual Best Projects competition this year, approximately a 50% increase in submissions compared to 2023, leaving the judges with a difficult task to choose the 37 award winners on the following pages. Many of the winning projects, which were due to be completed between May 2023 and May 2024, were affected by the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic to supply chains and on-site work. Long lead times and delays in deliveries were almost ubiquitous challenges that teams had to overcome.
Many of this year’s winners required intense coordination between project teams to navigate tight sites or utility conflicts. All winning projects came out on the other side of these challenges to deliver world-class projects.
View from the top
This year’s Project of the Year finalists, chosen by jurors as the best they assessed across multiple categories, include a glass-clad mixed-use urban complex, a new-floor rail project and a sustainable, turnkey warehouse for the future They are all different projects with one big thing in common: they were exceptionally well managed and well built.
In Atlanta, Brasfield & Gorrie’s Midtown Union required the coordination of a symphony of aerial cranes on a gated Atlanta site just 5 feet from a daycare center. The project also took home the award for Excellence in Security. The three-tower complex was completed under budget and ahead of schedule.
The new Brightline rail line to Orlando International Airport threaded a needle on existing infrastructure and utilities, an HNTB project that will have a $6.4 billion impact on the state’s economy. Crews innovated across the state, including designing and installing precast concrete tunnels in a way never seen before in North America.
In North Carolina, biotech company United Therapeutics’ new warehouse was built by DPR Construction to exacting standards to meet required 24-hour temperature control and a zero-carbon design.
Marie Selby Botanic Garden’s Living Energy Access Facility was designed around an 80-foot bunya-bunya tree.
Photo by Ryan Gamma Photography
Safety, brilliant sustainability
Safety is the most important part of any project, and this year’s safety award winners went above and beyond to keep their workers safe.
Midtown Union will take home the Safety Excellence Award due in part to the project’s crane choreography and the anticipated implosion of an existing structure a few feet from neighbors.
The safety merit award went to another Brightline project, a 129-mile high-speed rail line capable of carrying trains up to 125 miles per hour. The team moved 400,000 cubic yards of soil and placed more than 400,000 ties and 456,000 feet of continuously welded rail while logging more than 4.7 million man hours and recording an OSHA recordable incident rate of 1.12 and a lost time accident rate of 0.21.
And as homeowners place more importance on sustainability, South East businesses are rising to the challenge, with this year’s winners delivering cutting-edge work. The Excellence in Sustainability Award winner was for the central power plant and other site work at Wake Technical Community College in North Carolina. The Skanska team dug nearly 300 500-foot-deep wells and laid nearly 56 miles of pipe.
Award of Merit winner Marie Selby’s Living Energy Access Installation at a Botanical Garden in Florida has the environment at the center in more ways than one, as it is designed around an 80-foot tree. Extensive sustainability initiatives have earned the project Living Building Challenge recognition, exceeding LEED requirements.
Finalist for Project of the Year, Midtown Union in Atlanta features a German glass curtain wall assembled off-site in Orlando and Baltimore before being shipped to the project site.
Photo by Katie Bricker
Meet the judges
This year, nine expert judges from the industry evaluated the projects for the main competition, divided into three teams to score the projects against various criteria. Judges assessed how these teams overcame challenges, innovated and contributed to the industry, and also assessed projects for quality and craftsmanship, function and aesthetics. The judges did not vote on projects in which they or their companies were involved.
The judges were: Stuart Bruening, Senior Vice President, Atlanta Office Leader, JE Dunn; Keith Douglas, executive vice president of Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.; Roy Garcia, senior vice president of architecture, Goodwyn Mills Cawood; Kathy Leo, Vice President, Business Sector Leader, Community Infrastructure, GAI Consultants; Eric Lindstrom, Owner/Designer, SFL+A Architects; Ron Osterloh, vice president and director of Georgia operations, Moffatt & Nichol; Ray Riddle, vice president of Holder Construction; Shirshant Sharma, Senior Project Manager, Charlotte Office Leader, AtkinsRealis; and Ron Whalen, vice president of Roger B. Kennedy Construction.
The safety competition was judged by David Dickson, Director of Health, Safety and Environment, Dewberry, and Steve Sawyer, Director of Safety Operations, Brasfield & Gorrie. Sustainability judges were Cy Reichert, Senior Director of Environmental Projects, VRX Inc., and Jacqui Hart, Director of Sustainability, Goodwyn Mills Cawood.
All winning projects, as well as the ENR Southeast Businesses of the Year and the Legacy Award winner, will be honored in Orlando on October 29 at the Marriott Orlando Downtown during the ENR Regional Best Projects Awards event Southeast. Read on to see which projects are the best in the Southeast.
