DBIA Announces Award Winners

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Design-Build Institute of America recently announced the winners of its National Design-Build Project Awards. The 2012 awards program was the most competitive to date and this year's submissions were rigorously judged by a distinguished panel composed exclusively of owners and DBIAâ„¢ professionals.

The awards competition recognizes the achievements of owners and design-build teams in 10 categories, including the healthcare sector. To be considered for a prize, a project must have been completed on time and on budget. The jury examined each submission for demonstrated use of DBIA best practices. DBIA best practices include flexibility in blending experience and work procedures and shared motivations and incentives for a high level of performance.

Receiving a Design-Build Merit Award in the Healthcare Facilities category is the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The center is one of the military's flagship healthcare facilities and consolidated the National Naval Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center on the grounds of the former NNMC campus. Design-build provided the Naval Facilities Engineering Command with the schedule and budget certainty this Base Realignment and Closure project demanded. Design-builder, Clark/Balfour Beatty, A Joint Venture, provided a scope of work that included the new 560,000-square-foot America Building, the military health system's largest ambulatory building; the Arrowhead Building, a 165,000-square-foot in-patient addition to an existing hospital; 450,000-square-feet of renovations to existing medical facilities and significant traffic and infrastructure improvements.

Design-Build Honor Award goes to the University of California, Irvine, Medical Center Clinical Laboratory in Orange, California. Hensel Phelps Construction Company provided design-build services for this iconic edifice that communicates its important role as a regional reference laboratory. The building's cast-in-place concrete frame and envelope provide an enduring structure. The deep canopy covering the plaza and the monumental concrete and glass stair create a dramatic entry portal where scientists interact. The university received extraordinary value. Delivered two months ahead of schedule, this technically challenging LEED Gold certified building provides laboratories infused with northern light and views.

Accepting DBIA highest honor in the healthcare facilities category, the National Design-Build Award, is design-builder Mortenson Construction. The firm's work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Warrior in Transition Barracks, at Fort Carson, Colorado Springs, Colo., provides housing for soldiers while recuperating from injuries sustained during service. The Army intends these facilities to provide the best accommodations possible, in gratitude for the soldiers’ service and sacrifice. A Warrior in Transition Barracks incorporates special features to account for burn, behavioral health disorders and traumatic brain injury victims, amputees and visually or hearing impaired soldiers. The Fort Carson healthcare facility provides 160 beds in a 96,400-square-foot, four-story building.

View all winners at http://www.dbia.org/about/awards/national/2012winners.htm.