The American Concrete Institute (ACI), located in Farmington Hills, Michigan, has announced the winners of the 2019 Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards. The winners were honored at a gala event during the institute's Concrete Convention & Exposition Oct. 21 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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 winners at a local ACI chapter level and submitted by that chapter or chosen by one of ACI's international partners.
An independent panel of esteemed 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.
The highest honor was presented to the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, located in Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia.
Also known as Ithra, the Arabic word for "enrichment," the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture is an 85,000-square-meter (914,930-square-foot) building surrounded by a 2.4 million-square-foot “knowledge park,” built as a space to inspire the imagination. Construction was completed in the fall of 2017.
Features of the structure include post-tensioned slabs spanning 52 feet, sloped concrete walls and ramps, and twisted and inclined reinforced concrete columns with decorative concrete finish. The building is 295 feet tall and is supported on a 10-foot-thick raft foundation. Stability is provided through a reinforced concrete core acting as a propped cantilever. The columns supporting the elevated slabs are inclined and result in horizontal thrust forces at the head and base of each column lift. The post-tensioned slabs act as structural diaphragms to carry these forces back to the core.
Additional winning projects were selected from among several possible categories and included:
Decorative concrete
1st place: Qatar National Library, Doha, Qatar. General contractor: Multiplex Construction WLL; Concrete contractor: Readymix Qatar LLC.
2nd place: Metro State University of Denver–Aerospace & Engineering Building, Denver. Concrete contractor: GH Phipps Construction Companies.
High-rise buildings
1st place: Generali Tower, Milano, Italy. General contractor: CMB Cooperativa Muratori e Braccianti di Carpi; Concrete contractor: Ricca Costruzioni.
2nd place: Statue of Unity, Gujarat, India. General/concrete contractor and supplier: L&T Construction – Buildings & Factories.
Infrastructure
1st place: I-91 Brattleboro Bridge–Concrete Bridges to Nature, Brattleboro, Vermont. General contractor: PCL Civil Constructors.
2nd place: Goethals Bridge Replacement Project: Elizabeth, New Jersey. General contractor: Kiewit-Weeks-Massman, AJV; Concrete contractor: Berto Construction Inc. (barrier concrete subcontractor).
Low-rise buildings
1st place: Hamad Port Project–Design and Build of Visitors Centre, Doha Port, Doha, Qatar. General Contractor: Al Jaber Trading & Contracting Co.; Concrete contractor: Rabban Readymix WLL.
2nd place: Anastasis Church, Ille-et-Vilaine, France. General and concrete contractor: Léon Grosse.
Mid-rise buildings
1st place: King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (ITHRA), Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Concrete/general contractor: Saudi Oger Ltd.
2nd place: MGM National Harbor, Oxon Hill, Maryland, United States. General contractor: Whiting-Turner; Concrete contractor: DGS Construction.
Repair and restoration
1st place: Palais d'Iéna (Restoration of the Façades), Paris, France. General contractor: Pierrenoël; Concrete contractor: Freyssinet.
2nd place: Lake Peachtree Spillway Replacement: Peachtree, Georgia. Concrete contractor: North Georgia Concrete Inc.