I got the following news release from the folks at Engineering News Record about the contest I helped judge. It was a fascinating process.

Engineering News-Record (ENR) is pleased to announce the winners of its fourth annual Best of the Best Projects Awards, a national competition that recognizes design and construction excellence based on regional winners of ENR’s seven regional publications’ Best Projects 2011 Awards. Winners will be profiled in the February 13, 2012 issue of ENR.

Out of 119 regional Best Projects winners, an independent jury of design and construction professionals selected 18 winners in categories ranging from green building to transportation. Projects were judged on safety, innovation, contribution to the industry/community, aesthetic and functional quality of design and construction craftsmanship.

One project, to be announced in the February 13, 2012 issue of ENR, will also be selected for the Editor’s Choice Award—a single project that stood out to ENR’s editors as an outstanding achievement in 2011.

ENR’s Best of the Best 2011 Award Winners:

• Best Civil Works/Infrastructure – Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Floodwall, New Orleans, La.; submitted to ENR Texas & Louisiana by Traylor-Massman-Weeks LLC
• Best Cultural/Worship – DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, N.Y.; submitted to ENR New York by H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture
• Best Government/Public Building – Chandler City Hall, Chandler, Ariz.; submitted to ENR Southwest by Sundt Construction Inc.
• Best Green Building – Facebook Data Center, Prineville, Ore.; submitted to ENR California by Facebook
• Best Health Care – Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital, Grand Rapids, Mich.; submitted to ENR Midwest by Turner Construction Co.
• Best Higher Education/Research – Kravis Center-Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, Calif.; submitted to ENR California by Bernards
• Best Industrial/Manufacturing – Merck VBF, Durham, N.C.; submitted to ENR Southeast by Merck
• Best Interior Design/Tenant Improvement – BP Bright Lights, Chicago, Ill.; submitted to ENR Midwest by Lend Lease (formerly Bovis Lend Lease)
• Best K-12 Education – Casey Middle School, Boulder, Colo.; submitted to ENR Mountain States by Weifield Group Contracting
• Best Landscape/Hardscape/Urban Development – Wilmington Waterfront Park, Wilmington/Los Angeles, Calif.; submitted to ENR California by Sasaki Associates Inc.
• Best Multi-Family Residential/Hospitality – Montage Deer Valley, Park City, Utah; submitted to ENR Mountain States by Layton Construction Co. Inc.
• Best Office – United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Headquarters and Global Peacebuilding Center (GPC), Washington, D.C.; submitted to ENR New York by Clark Construction Group LLC
• Best Renovation/Restoration – Jackson Barracks Historical Renovation, New Orleans, La.; submitted to ENR Texas & Louisiana by Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Group LLC
• Best Retail/Mixed-Use Developments – Square 54, Washington, D.C.; submitted to ENR New York by Clark Construction Group LLC
• Best Small Project – St. Mary’s Catholic Church Expansion and Addition, Plantersville, Texas; submitted to ENR Texas & Louisiana by Fretz Construction Co.
• Best Specialty Contracting – MCFM Solar Thermal Installations, Phoenix, Ariz.; submitted to ENR Southwest by Builders Guild Inc.
• Best Sports/Entertainment – Jeld-Wen Field, Portland, Ore.; submitted to ENR California by Turner Construction
• Best Transportation – Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge, San Diego, Calif.; submitted to ENR California by T.Y. Lin International

Best of the Best Panel of Judges:

• Tony Bartolomeo, president/CEO, Pennoni
• Anthony Bouchard, executive vice president, AECOM
• David Bowlin, CEO, Broaddus & Associates
• Marjorie Brown, VP/NW managing principal, HDR Architecture
• Daniel Hogan, director, Office of Construction Management, Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, U.S. Dept. of State
• Cyrus Izzo, co-president, Syska Hennessy Group Inc.
• Stephan Kordt, principal, Halcrow Yolles Structural Engineers
• Michael William Malloy, principal engineer, First Americans LLC, and president-elect of ACEC-NM
• Simin Naaseh, president, Forell/Elsesser Engineers
• Marianne O’Brien, principal, SmithGroup
• Ned Pelger, president, Pelger Engineering & Construction
• George Pontikes, president, Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Inc.
• Tania Salgado, design principal, RNL Design
• Kirk Samuelson, senior vice president operations support, Kiewit
• John Schaufelberger, chair/professor, Dept. of Construction Management, University of Washington
• Cliff Schwinger, vice president, The Harman Group Inc.
• J.J. Suarez, chairman and CEO, CSA Group

For more information, watch for the forthcoming Feb. 13, 2012 issue of ENR, or visit www.enr.com.

My choice for overall winner would be the Merck VBF industrial project. They built a 214,000 sf virus vaccine facility with an amazing level of planning and benchmarking. By utilizing modular mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems built offsite, they shaved the schedule from 46 months to 30 months. They had 1.5M work-hours with no recordable accidents and only 3 minor recordable incidents. They also set diversity goals for bidding opportunity, participation and awards and exceeded government goals by 30%. Overall, my pick for the best project of 2011.