Southeast Construction's Best of 2006

The magazine presents the winners of its sixth annual "Best Of" competition, honoring excellence in construction and design within the four-state region of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

By Scott Judy

Southeast Construction presents its sixth annual Best of 2006 awards this month to honor the "best" construction and design efforts completed between Sept. 1, 2005, and Sept. 1, 2006.

As we have done in the past, the magazine first solicited entries from contractors, designers and other firms from throughout the four-state area for the projects they thought merited consideration for a "Best Of" award.

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This year, 74 construction or design entities submitted a total of 138 project entries, the greatest amount of submissions the magazine has ever experienced. This year, awards were presented in the following 24 categories: Private Building; Public Building; Public Building Addition/Expansion; Hospitality; High-Rise Residential; Residential; Health Care; Health Care Addition/Expansion; K-12 Schools; College/University; Industrial; Governmental; Parks/Recreation; Renovation/Restoration; Retail; Civil Construction; Transportation; Transportation Building; Specialty Construction; Concrete; Private Design; Public Design; Residential Design; and Engineering.

After the entry deadline, an independent group of judges was selected. Representing various segments of the Southeast's construction industry, the group gathered Sept. 20 at McGraw-Hill's offices in Lake Mary, Fla. Judges was chosen based on their industry knowledge and expertise, and for their independence from firms submitting entries. If any judge had a perceived conflict of interest with any particular project, he or she abstained from voting and an average score was substituted for calculation purposes. The group of judges included:

• Ken Cristol, owner and president of Cristol Marketing Co., Longwood, Fla.;
• Jim Croson, chairman of the board of J.A. Croson LLC, Sorrento, Fla.;
  
• Susan Pendergrass, business development/transportation services manager with Ardaman & Associates, Orlando
  
• Ken Petterson, manager of preconstruction services with Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Orlando; and,
  
• Matt Stevens, president of the Stevens Construction Institute in Winter Park, Fla.

The panel was directed to rate the project entries on the following criteria:

• Solutions to construction or design challenges
• Project management
• Construction or design innovation
• Client service
• Safety (construction entries)
  
• Design unity (design entries)

As long as there was a minimum of three entries in a category, the highest-scoring entry in a category would win the "Best Of" award for that group. Based on those criteria, 24 projects qualified for these major awards.

A project entry could also win an "Award of Excellence" or, below that, an "Award of Merit." This year, 15 entries scored high enough to win an Award of Excellence, while 37 entries earned scores for an Award of Merit.

In addition to rating each project entry, as has been done in previous years, the judges were also asked to select the best overall project for the "Judges' Award." This year, this award was presented to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention's Building 18 project in Atlanta, submitted by McCarthy. This project took top honors in the Health Care category and also was the highest-scoring entry overall.

We invite you to read on for more information on this year's winning projects.

Click here for the Best of 2006 Slideshow

Click here for the Awards of Excellence 2006 Slideshow

Click here for the Awards of Excellence list

Click here for the Awards of Merit list

Click here for the Judges' Award