Projects in California and Oregon took top honors in the Third Annual Cemex U.S. Building Awards, announced during a March reception at the ConExpo-Con/Agg 2008 trade show in Las Vegas. From a juvenile justice/detention center built to maximize sustainability to a water bypass system geared to improve the downstream migration of salmon, the winning projects executed a high degree of innovation and vision for the environment.

“We are pleased that more and more architects, builders, and contractors are finding ways to not only build their projects better, but also using cement, concrete, and aggregates to build a sustainable future while achieving amazing designs,” said Cemex USA President Gilberto Perez.

The awards recognize the best builders, designers, and architects in four categories covering sustainability, residential, institutional/industrial, and infrastructure. Three winners were chosen from the 19 finalists (one entry took the top prize in two of the four categories) and were highlighted for their use of concrete, execution of the project, architectural design, and concern for the environment. Many of the 73 entries included concrete as a green material used in harmony with the environment. The U.S. winners will later compete against winners from across the globe for the world title at the 17th Cemex International Building Awards in Monterrey, Mexico, held in October.

The Sustainability Category finalists were assessed on their innovative design and construction, effective use of recycled materials, and energy-efficient construction. Judges also considered the project's ability to meet the environmental and economic needs of both present and future generations. In addition, the functional performance of the project was considered — how it leverages productivity, health of the occupants, and flexibility during the project's lifespan.

SUSTAINABILITY AWARD & INSTITUTIONAL/INDUSTRIAL AWARD

Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center, San Leandro, Calif.

Located in the hills of San Leandro, Calif., the 379,000-sq-ft Juvenile Justice Center has set national standards for serving the community's most vulnerable and troubled youth. The center is a state-of-the-art complex, including a 360-bed detention center, along with an integrated courthouse of five courtrooms and offices for the District Attorney; Public Defender; Clerk of the Court; Sheriff; Health Care Services; and County Office of Education, Library, and Probation.

The center is equipped with high-tech security features and incorporates medical exam rooms, dental facilities, and indoor activity spaces. Designed to greatly improve the safety and security of employees and detainees, the facility maximizes sustainability concepts by including a healthy indoor environment with natural light and fresh air and onsite solar power generation capabilities that will save taxpayer dollars through energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste reduction. The contract required the facility to achieve a LEED Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. However, the design-build team exceeded this, making it the first LEED Gold Certified facility of its kind in the United States.

Hensel Phelps Construction Co. was the builder and concrete contractor, and Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum was the architect/engineer on the project.

Sustainability Finalists:

Burkholder Middle School, Henderson, Nev.
Concrete Contractor: Ramco Masonry Inc.

College of San Mateo Science Building & Planetarium, San Mateo, Calif.
Concrete Contractor: McCarthy Building Cos.

John Ross Condominiums, Portland, Ore.
Concrete Contractor: Hoffman Structures

Symantec Research Campus, Culver City, Calif.
Concrete Contractor: Webcor Concrete

Institutional/Industrial Finalists:

AnMed Health Campus, Anderson, S.C.
Concrete Contractor: Cherokee Masonry

Miami Valley Hospital, Bellbrook, Ohio
Concrete Contractor: Dugan and Myers, Danis Building Construction Co.

Progress Energy Plaza, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Concrete Contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC

Renown Regional Medical Center, Reno, Nev.
Concrete Contractor: Clark & Sullivan Constructors

RESIDENTIAL AWARD

Fillmore Heritage Center, San Francisco, Calif.

The Filmore Heritage Project exemplifies the impact that a well-constructed building can have on a community. The project is located in the Fillmore neighborhood of the Western Addition district of San Francisco, which years ago was the center of the West Coast's jazz movement. The project's mission was to re-establish the jazz district and revitalize the area by bringing new economic life into the struggling commercial corridor. The project's building contains 80 new residential condominiums, two restaurants, a new Yoshi's jazz venue, and a museum, all atop underground parking.

Through a five-day pour cycle with a hand-set deck formwork system, the contractor used a waterproofing admixture, Kryton, from the basement through level three to increase the speed of the building's construction. This admixture was used within the Cemex concrete mix for one of the first times in the San Francisco Bay area, and provided a great savings of time and resources.

Webcor Concrete was the concrete contractor, LDA Architects was the architect, and Fillmore Development Associates, LLC, was the developer.

Residential Finalists:

400 Beach Drive Condominiums, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Concrete Contractor: Opus South Contractors

Boca Raton Luxury Condominiums, Las Vegas, Nev.
Concrete Contractor: Martin-Harris Construction

Sandpearl Resort & Hotel, Clearwater Beach, Fla.
Concrete Contractor: Hickman Structures

Turnberry Towers, East & West, Las Vegas, Nev.
Concrete Contractor: Turnberry & Associates

INFRASTRUCTURE AWARD

Willamette Falls Flow Control, Oregon City, Ore.

In an effort to increase the survival rate of juvenile salmon migrating to the Pacific Ocean, PGE has installed a bypass system at the Willamette Falls. This system includes a 200-ft-wide water flow control structure at the top of the falls. The concrete and rubber ramp helps fish avoid the rocks below by guiding tem to the deep water at the base of the falls. To make this possible, three inflatable rubber dams were installed on top of the falls, helping PGE control the flow of water and steer the fish to the safest passage. Some creative techniques of delivering the concrete and mixes had to be devised because of the tough access of the project.

To deliver the concrete, a high lead system was installed between the island and the top of the hill. This line was approximately 1,000 feet in length and moved more than 2,000 yards of concrete for the entire job in 2-yd increments. The concrete was delivered to the top of the hill, unloaded into a 2-yd bucket, transported over the river to a line pump, then placed more than 200 feet away. Special concrete mix designs were used to extend the cure and increase the workability. The project was successfully completed in the face of many challenges: rising waters, heavy rains, difficult accessibility to the site, and the need to keep all construction materials and debris from having any negative environmental impact. The project is already improving the success of downstream migration of juvenile salmon. The goal is to increase the survival rate of 98% of all migrating salmon going over the falls.

Baseline Industrial was the general contractor, and the engineer was David Bungi and Associates.

Infrastructure Finalists:

Chapman University Sports Complex Parking Structure, Orange, Calif.
Concrete Contractor: Bomel Construction

Nevada Department of Transportation-Blue Diamond Interchange, Las Vegas, Nev.
Concrete Contractor: Las Vegas Paving Corp.

Peace River Water Plant Expansion, Arcadia, Fla.
Concrete Contractor: Encore Construction

Port of Houston Bayport Container Yard, La Porte, Texas
Concrete Contractor: Zachary Construction

JURY PANELISTS

Dr. Harvey Bryan

Harvey Bryan, a specialist in building technology, has been involved in sustainable and renewable design concerns for more than 30 years. He has previously taught at MIT and Harvard, and is currently a full professor at Arizona State University (ASU).

Active in several professional and technical societies, Dr. Bryan has served on the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) committee responsible for developing the National Energy Standard; is presently serving on ASHRAE TC 2.8 Environmental Impacts and Sustainability; ASHRAE SPC189, which is developing a National Green Building Standard; and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment. He is a member of the State of Arizona's Solar Energy Advisory Council and is certified in both BREEAM (a rating system widely used in Europe and Canada) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). He is on the Board of Directors of the Green Building Initiative, serves on the Portland Cement Association's Sustainable Advisory Council, and was chair of the American Solar Energy Society's Solar Buildings Division.

Dr. Bryan has a bachelor's degree in Architecture from ASU, a Master of Architecture, M.S. and a Ph.D., all from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a Fulbright Fellow, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and a Fellow of the American Solar Energy Society.

Marley Carroll

Marley Carroll is a returning jury member from the 2006 and 2007 Cemex Building Awards. Carroll is an AIA Fellow with experience in educational, institutional, and commercial architecture and is the Senior Principal at Odell Associates, Inc. in Charlotte, N.C.

Carroll attended Davidson College and received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from North Carolina State University. At the School of Design, he received the North Carolina AIA Award for the outstanding designer in his class. He has taught at the UNNCC College of Architecture in 1975-76 and has reviewed student projects at UNCC/COA and at NCSU/COD throughout his career.

In 1979, he was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, which is a lifetime honor. Carroll received the 1994 Kamphoefner Prize for career development of the modern movement in architecture. He received the Wings-On-Wings award on the 50th anniversary of MCSU School of Design and received the Gold Medal form the North Carolina AIA for distinguished work in architecture.

Marcos F. Ibargüen

As Senior Architect/Senior Project Manager, Ibargüen leads the Commercial Architecture program in the Tampa, Fla., office of Reynolds, Smith and Hills, a nationwide engineering and design firm. In his 24 years of practice, he has designed churches, office buildings, high-rise condominiums, and a variety of other projects.

A graduate of the University of Florida and North Carolina State University, Ibargüen is a licensed Architect in Nevada and Florida and also a LEED Accredited Professional.

Derek Vander Ploeg

Derek Vander Ploeg has 37 years of experience in planning, building design, construction, and entrepreneurial real estate development for public and private sectors. As a third-generation Floridian and representing the second generation of architects in his family, he is the Principal directing his firm Vander Ploeg & Associates, Inc., Boca Raton, Fla. He has worked in the design of more than 300 retail centers, office buildings, specialty buildings like golf course clubhouses, banks, adaptive re-use of existing buildings, the Mission Bay Aquatic Training Center (training center for the 1988 U.S. Olympic and Pan American swimming and diving teams), corporate headquarter buildings, condominiums, hotels, and other projects.

An AIA member, Vander Ploeg served on the Board of Directors for the Broward Chapter, and is an active member of the Urban Land Institute, the International Council of Shopping Centers, and the CSI. He served on the City of Fort Lauderdale's Planning and Zoning Board for their Zoning Re-Write Committee, the Boca Raton Visions 90 Committee, and was appointed to the new Boca Raton Downtown Advisory Board and Transportation Task force. He also served as Chairman of the Fort Lauderdale Riverwalk Development Committee and participated in several R.U.D.A.T. Urban/Community Planning Teams.

Following graduation from the University of Miami, he attended the Taliesin Fellowship and the University of Pittsburgh, where he studied urban planning and business administration.

Jerry Regenbogen

Jerry Regenbogen is a returning jury member from the 2006 and 2007 CEMEX U.S. Building Awards, and served as a jury panelist at the 2007 CEMEX International Awards. A registered landscape architect, Regenbogen is a Principal with Stantec Consulting Ltd., a multi-disciplinary design firm with offices in the United States and Canada. Located in Charlotte, N.C., he is responsible for Planning and Landscape Architecture for the southeastern U.S.

With more than 36 years experience, Regenbogen has master planned and designed state, county and city recreational and urban parks, provided site designs for civic and cultural centers, corporate offices and headquarters for nationally known corporations, mixed-use urban centers, medical and educational facilities, single and multi-family housing developments, hotels and airport terminals.

Among Regenbogen's specialized capabilities are computer-generated, photo-realistic images of proposed designs. He is noted for his functional, innovative, cost-effective design; strong project leadership in management; a unique client analysis approach to the design process; and a strong business approach to all services.