Photo courtesy ACI
The American Concrete Institute (ACI) announced the winners of the 2020 Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards. They were honored during the institute’s virtual concrete convention.
The highest honor, the Overall Excellence award, was presented to the Kennedy Center Expansion Project, Washington, D.C. The project, known as the REACH, consists of three new buildings—the Welcome, Skylight, and River Pavilions—situated on the 1.9-ha (4.6-acre) campus along the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Each structure features titanium-white board-formed concrete, sweeping curves, and crisp clean lines complementing the existing monument.
The Welcome, Skylight, and River Pavilions are all interconnected below-grade under a green roof where visitors can meander through the labyrinth of concrete curves. Multiple board form patterns and custom ‘crinkle’ form liners add to the texture of the architectural concrete both above and below-grade. While the ‘crinkle’ concrete creates an acoustic effect in the performance and rehearsal rooms and creates a stunning visual effect.
The ACI Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards were created to honor the visions of the most creative projects in the concrete industry, while providing a platform to recognize concrete innovation, technology, and excellence across the globe. To be eligible for participation in the awards, projects needed to be nominated by an ACI chapter or international partner.
An independent panel of industry professionals judged projects and selected winners based on architectural and engineering merit, creativity, innovative construction techniques or solutions, innovative use of materials, ingenuity, sustainability, resilience, and functionality.
Additional winning projects were selected from several possible categories, and included the following.
High-rise Buildings
- 1st place: Hudson Commons/441 Ninth Avenue, New York; and
- 2nd place: W Hotel Tower, Washington.
Mid-rise Buildings
- 1st place: Science Complex—Campus MIL, Québec, Canada; and
- 2nd place: 725 Ponce, Georgia.
Low-rise Buildings
- 1st place: Kennedy Center Expansion Project, Washington, D.C.; and
- 2nd place: Amélioration des infrastructures de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec, Québec, Canada.
Decorative Concrete
- 1st place: King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Saudi Arabia; and
- 2nd place: SSENSE MONTRÉAL, Québec, Canada.
Infrastructure
- 1st place: Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program, State Route 99 Tunnel, Washington; and
- 2nd place: Samuel de Champlain Bridge, Québec, Canada.
Repair and Restoration
- 1st place: Conococheague Aqueduct Rehabilitation, Maryland; and
- 2nd place: Berri-Sherbrooke Underpass Rehabilitation, Québec, Canada.
Click here to find more details on the winning projects.
