Best of 2005 Awards

Jury Names Projects of the Year

by Tom Stabile

A host of complex, unique, and compelling projects finished this year across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, fueling an intriguing slate of candidates for our Best of 2005 competition - and a lively awards voting session.

The Best of 2005 judges had reviewed nearly 130 projects submitted for consideration, but by the end of a long September day, they still faced a difficult decision: selecting one as the top development effort of the year in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

As the votes narrowed the list to five construction projects - a swing-span bridge, an innovative ferry terminal, a massive cultural institution renovation, a concrete-superstructure office building, and the reconstruction of an urban traffic circle - it was clear that each one had strong support, but that two were rising to the top.

When the judges finally had to choose between the Pierpont Morgan Library renovation and expansion and the reconstruction of Manhattan's Columbus Circle, they engaged in a lively back-and-forth discussion about the complexities, challenges, and ultimately the lasting impact of the two projects.

And in the end, the project with the smallest budget out of all the finalists - the $21 million Columbus Circle reconstruction - came out in the lead. Among the factors that put it on top was the jury's appreciation of how the project vastly reshaped what had been a dead intersection into a grand public space that was drawing crowds even before the work was finished.

The rigorous discussion underscored the care with which the judges had evaluated the submissions throughout that week, reviewing the accomplishments of companies across the region's building industry. Their votes resulted in 13 Project of the Year Award winners and another 32 Award of Merit winners across 24 categories overall. The jury chose each winner by majority vote, with abstentions from members whose firms had worked on particular projects.

The jury weighed how each project fit into a specific category, and on various occasions it moved submissions into more appropriate pools. Along the way, the jury created four new categories - assisted living, health care, research facility, and systems - and didn't choose any winners for the airport, sports, and sustainable design categories.

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The judges also deliberated how to handle several projects that they admired greatly for the final product, but which they also knew had long and unflattering histories involving political wrangling, corruption, or other problems. They decided to bestow awards of merit - and not "Project of the Year" awards - to two projects in order to recognize the successful efforts of the design and contractor teams in the face of otherwise difficult development conditions.

The final lineup of categories was: adaptive reuse; assisted living facilities; bridges; cultural; environmental; health care and hospitals; high-rise residential; higher education; highway and roadway; hospitality; industrial; interior fit-out; marine; mass transit; office; park-site-landscaping; public works and facilities; rehabilitation and restoration; renovation; research facility; retail; schools (pre-K to 12); small projects (under $10 million); and systems and technology.

Our judges came from throughout the region and across the industry, representing contractors, design firms, developers, and associations. They are:

• Peter Davoren, president and CEO of Turner Construction, a construction management company based in New York
  
  
• Maryanne Gridley, executive director of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York in Albany, which finances and develops public projects across the state
  
  
• Michael Kazan, principal at Gruzen Samton, an architectural firm based in New York
  
  
• Susan Labas, a member of the board of directors of the Connecticut Building Congress, and associate and director of marketing at van Zelm Heywood & Shadford Engineers of West Hartford, Conn.
  
  
• Ken Levien, president of Levien and Co., an owner's representative firm in New York
  
  
• Joe Mannarino, senior vice president and project executive at LPCiminelli, a construction manager based in Buffalo, N.Y.
  
  
• Frank McArdle, who was managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York until last month and now is a member of the federal government's National Transportation Commission
  
  
• Kevin McMahon, chairman and CEO of Edwards and Kelcey, an engineering design firm based in Morristown, N.J.
  
  
• Angela Morello Lange, treasurer of the American Subcontractors Association of New Jersey and president of Landmark Fire Protection in Pine Brook, N.J.
  
  
• and Lawrence Ng, associate principal at Cesar Pelli & Associates, an architectural firm based in New Haven, Conn.

This year's winners will gather to accept their honors at New York Construction's Best of 2005 Awards breakfast, to be held on Dec. 15 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel at 1535 Broadway in Manhattan. The event begins at 7 a.m.