New York Construction's Best of 2004 Awards

The projects came in from all over the tri-state area, producing an impressive array of construction, architectural, and engineering feats built on tight city blocks, over tunnels, in historic settings, around wetlands, and even on the water. Read about the 46 winners that our jury of industry professionals has chosen to honor with Best of 2004 awards in the pages that follow.

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It was a proud year for construction industry firms across the tri-state region, at least judging from the flood of entries to the Best of 2004 Awards competition. The more than 150 entries - our most ever - gave our 11-member jury plenty to weigh during a lively and productive awards review session in mid-September.

The roster had it all - striking "temporary" structures, complex adaptive reuse projects, challenging public infrastructure jobs, fine restoration work, and exotic interiors from across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The giant collection of candidates kept our jury both busy and enthralled - they read submission texts, scanned photographs, and bantered about what impressed them through a long morning and afternoon.

As expected, firms from across the construction, design, engineering, and real estate industries submitted their prize projects for consideration, and nearly all got kudos in some form or another from our jury. But the jury set aside 46 of them for special honors, deciding by majority vote, with abstentions from members whose firms had worked on particular projects. Overall, the jury selected 11 submissions for Project of the Year honors by category and 34 for Award of Merit honors by category, as well as one overall Project of the Year - the FDR Drive Outboard Detour Roadway.

The jury kept a very open mind about projects, honoring some for how they overcame technical challenges, several for inspiring innovative engineering solutions, a few for their snazzy looks and fine detail, and yet others for their success in engaging the community and even critics. It was clear throughout that the jury valued teamwork, sound planning, the ability to overcome unexpected challenges, and the smooth blend of design and construction efforts to create a successful final product.

The jury recognized projects in 21 categories overall, including several new designations it created - higher education, K-12 schools, cultural, health care, and municipal - by breaking up the "institutional" projects category. It also shifted projects from one category to another based on their determination of which one best reflected each submission's strengths.

The final tally resulted in winners for the adaptive reuse, airport facility, bridges, cultural, environmental, higher education, highway, hospitality, industrial, interior fit-out, K-12 school, mixed use, office, rehabilitation, renovation, restoration, retail, site and landscaping, small project, sports and entertainment, and transit categories. The jury did not come up with majorities to award winners in the high-rise residential, health care, and municipal project categories.

The members of our awards jury included contractor, architectural, engineering, regulatory, and industry association leaders. They are:

• Jim Abadie, principal in charge, Bovis Lend Lease
  
• Ron Berger, executive director, Subcontractors Trade Association, Inc.
  
• Joan Blumenfeld, principal, Swanke Hayden Connell Architects
  
• Aine Brazil, managing principal, Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers
  
• David Burney, commissioner, City of New York Department of Design and Construction
  
• David Horowitz, first vice president, Tishman Construction Corporation
  
• Greg Kelly, district manager and senior project manager, Parsons Brinckerhoff
  
• Frank Lupo, AIA, senior associate, Fox & Fowle Architects
  
• Frank McArdle, managing director, General Contractors Association of New York, Inc.
  
• Jay Shapiro, president, Jay Shapiro & Associates, and
  
• Jeff Zogg, executive director, General Building Contractors of New York State.

This year's winners will gather to accept their honors at New York Construction's Best of 2004 Awards breakfast, to be held on Dec. 8 at the Marriot Marquis Hotel at 1535 Broadway, New York, N.Y. The event begins at 7 a.m.