In celebration of Colorado Engineers Week (Feb.19-25), the American Council of Engineering Companies of Colorado (ACEC Colorado) is announcing this year’s Colorado Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) recipients that include 24 design and research projects completed by 19 different Colorado consulting engineering firms.
ACEC Colorado’s EEA competition is annually held between June to October to recognize Colorado consulting engineering firms for engineering design and research that demonstrate an exceptional degree of innovation, complexity, achievement and value. Eligible projects include those delivered to public or private clients for a range of consulting engineering services, including transportation, structural systems, water resources, building technology systems, environmental consulting, studies and energy. This state competition closely follows entry guidelines established by ACEC National, which invites recipients of Colorado’s Grand Conceptor and Excellence Awards to enter the EEA competition, held in June in Washington D.C.
The 2023 Grand Conceptor Award, representing the highest honor, was awarded to ME Engineers (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) for the Climate Pledge Arena (Seattle). This is the first all-electric sports arena made possible, in part, because of Seattle’s clean electric grid, which utilizes mostly hydro power. In addition to the electrification of the building, ME Engineers devised a novel way for natural air to circulate through the subterranean arena. The innovative solution was the design of massive “snorkels” through which fresh air was piped in from the outside.
The competition’s next highest honors, Excellence Awards, were presented to:
- Anschutz Health Sciences Building (Denver) by Martin/Martin, Inc. (Lakewood, Colo.);
- Aspen City Hall (Aspen, Colo.) by IMEG Corp. (Greenwood Village, Colo.);
- Clear Creek Canyon Park, Gateway Segment (Golden, Colo.) by Muller Engineering Company (Lakewood, Colo.);
- Denver Art Museum Martin Building Renovation and Sie Welcome Center (Denver) by Martin/Martin, Inc. (Lakewood, Colo.);
- Great Dharma Chan Monastery for the Chung Tai Zen (Boulder, Colo.) by JVA, Inc. (Boulder, Colo.); and
- Meow Wolf Denver (Denver) by KL&A Engineers & Builders (Golden, Colo.).
Next, Honor Awards were presented to:
- Big Dry Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility Solids Dewatering & Campus Wide Improvements Project (Westminster, Colo.) by HDR (Denver);
- Block 162 (Denver, Colo.) by ME Engineers (Denver);
- CDOT I-70 Bridge Replacement of F-13-S_Minor (Silverthorne, Colo.) by Ulteig (Greenwood Village, Colo.);
- Children’s Hospital Colorado North Expansion (Broomfield, Colo.) by The RMH Group (Lakewood, Colo.);
- I-25 South Gap (Denver South of Castle Rock to Monument, Colo.) by Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. (Greenwood Village, Colo.);
- McGregor Square Passive Groundwater Management System (Denver) by CTL|Thompson
(Colorado Springs, Colo.); and - Sky Ridge Bridge Emergency Repairs (Lone Tree, Colo.) by Alfred Benesch & Company (Denver)
Merit Awards were presented to:
- Big Dry Creek Lift Station & Force Main (Thornton, Colo.) by Providence Infrastructure Consultants (Highlands Ranch, Colo.);
- Cheyenne Ridge Wind (Cheyenne and Kit Carson Counties, Colo.) by Ulteig (Greenwood Village, Colo.);
- CO 52 PEL Study and ACP from CO 119 to CO 79 (Boulder, Erie, Dacono, Frederick, Keenesburg, Fort Lupton and Hudson, Colo.) by Muller Engineering Company (Lakewood, Colo.);
- I-25 & Powers Interchange (Colorado Springs, Colo.) by Felsburg Holt & Ullevig (Greenwood Village, Colo.);
- Lemay Realignment Over Vine and BNSF (Fort Collins, Colo.) by AECOM Technical Services, Inc. (Denver);
- Minturn Mobility Improvements (Minturn, Colo.) by Stolfus & Associates, Inc. (Greenwood Village, Colo.);
- Montrose Sunset Water Tank & Pump Station Design (Montrose, Colo.) by Farnsworth Group (Greenwood Village, Colo.);
- West 8th Avenue Over South Platte River Bridge Replacement Project (Denver) by David Evans and Associates, Inc. (Denver);
- Western Spirit Wind (Guadalupe, Lincoln & Torrance Counties, N.M.) by Ulteig (Greenwood Village, Colo.); and
- Willow Ranch Bridge Design-Build (Monument, Colo.) by EST, Inc. (Denver).
Finally, Muller Engineering Company (Lakewood, Colo.) was honored with an additional Outstanding Project Board Award for graphic design of the display board representing its work on Clear Creek Canyon Park, Gateway Segment (Golden, Colo.).
For more than 50 years, Colorado firms have entered their most innovative design and research projects into the ACEC Colorado EEA competition. This year’s awards judges included representatives from architecture, engineering, construction, education and an industry-related nonprofit. On Nov. 11, nearly 200 guests attended an awards ceremony in Golden, Colo., when the award winners were initially announced. A video about each project is viewable on ACEC Colorado’s YouTube Channel at bit.ly/acec-co-eea23videos and more details about the competition are available at acec-co.org/eea.
