Dallas Opera House Named Best Construction Project of 2009, 14 Other Projects Selected As Aon Build America Award Winners

In addition to Grand Award, Linbeck Group of Houston Wins Award for Best Construction Management of a Project Last Year

Houston-based Linbeck Group completed 2009’s top construction project for its work building Dallas’ new Winspear Opera House, the Associated General Contractors of America announced today. Linbeck was among 15 companies to receive Aon Build America Awards, an annual ranking of the nation’s most significant construction projects.

“These are the projects that redefine communities, reinvent neighborhoods and remind us that anything is possible given the right mix of craft, skill and commitment,” said J. Doug Pruitt, the association’s president. “Despite the toughest conditions in decades, these companies found ways to awe and amaze.”

Pruitt said Linbeck was named both the Construction Management New and the Grand Award winner for its work on the new opera house. The building is wrapped in a red glass enclosure and covered by a three-acre, aluminum-clad, steel solar canopy. As important, the finished structure, which will seat 2,200 and accommodate opera, musical theater, ballet and dance programs, exceeded original acoustical performance goals.

“Linbeck is honored to be acknowledged by our peers in receiving this prestigious award for the construction of the Winspear Opera House,” said Paul Sipes, vice president of the Linbeck Group. “We want to acknowledge the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation for making this project possible and all collaborators who have made it a success.”

Other winners were Texas Division of McCarthy Building Companies for construction of that Dallas’ AT&T Performance Arts Center Wyly Theatre; Chicago’s Pepper Construction Group for converting Chicago’s Power House building into the Charles H. Shaw Technology & Learning Center; Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Jans Corporation for building the Sioux Falls Seminary; Walsh Brothers Incorporated of Boston for renovating the Grand Dome of MIT’s Building 10; and St. Louis, Missouri’s BSI Constructors Inc. for building that city’s new Citygarden complex.

Additional companies awarded for their work included: Anderson Construction Company of Fort Gaines, Georgia for renovating Alabama’s Lakepoint State Park Lodge & Guest Wings; New Orleans’ Boh Bros. Construction for building that city’s Harvey Canal Sector Gate Complex; Orlando’s Hensel Phelps Construction Co. for converting a 40-year old NASA Kennedy Space Center structure into the new Orion Space Capsule Operations and Checkout Building; and Slayden Construction Group of Stayton, Oregon for replacing five bridges along Oregon Highway 38.

These companies also were awarded: Pittsfield, Maine-headquartered Cianbro Corporation for renovating Amtrak’s Thames River Bridge in Connecticut; Secaucus, New Jersey-based Schiavone Construction Co., Inc. & Granite Halmar Construction Company, Inc. for building the new South Ferry Terminal Subway Structural Box; Atlanta’s Ruby-Collins, Inc. for completing that city’s Greensferry Basin Sewer Separation Project; Indianapolis-based Bowen Engineering for construction of Indiana’s Meadow Lake Wind Farm; and Tetra Tech of Alexandria, Virginia for construction and renovation work at 29 police stations in war-torn Iraq.

In addition to this year’s winners, the association singled out several other nominated projects for its Merit Awards. Those were Pepper Construction Group’s Harrah’s Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana; Appleton, Wisconsin-based Hoffman LLC’s Holy Wisdom Monastery in Madison; Milford, Massachusetts-based Consigli Construction’s Cambridge Public Library expansion and restoration; and Chantilly, Virginia’s Hensel Phelps for the renovation of, and addition to, the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Other Merit Award winners included Indianapolis-based Hunt Construction Group for its management of that city’s Lucas Oil Stadium project; San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corporation for its work on the San Antonio River Improvement project; Spokane’s Max J. Kuney Company for construction of Oregon’s Sauvie Island Bridge; and Omaha, Nebraska-based Kiewit Construction and Tempe, Arizona-based Sundt Construction, Inc. for their joint venture to reconstruct Tucson’s Interstate 10.