Our call for nominations for USGBC National Capital Region's 2018 Community Leader Awards is currently open. These prestigious awards annually recognize excellence in sustainable design, environmental stewardship and community impact and highlight the green building initiatives and achievements of USGBC-NCR projects, businesses and individual members. The winners will be announced during a special ceremony at our A Midsummer Night's Green celebration on Thursday, July 19 at the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.
As we look forward to honoring this year's winners, we'd like to take a moment to once again congratulate the exceptional projects and people we recognized last year.
Three awards were given to LEED projects in the National Capital Region that exemplify green building practices and principles:
Innovative Project of the Year—New Construction was presented to Mundo Verde Public Charter School, nominated by Studio Twenty Seven Architecture.
Innovative Project of the Year—Interior Design was presented to Nixon-Peabody, LLP, nominated by Perkins + Will.
Innovative Project of the Year—Existing Building Performance was presented to 650 Massachusetts Avenue, nominated by Sustainable Building Partners.
Although only one winner was chosen in each of these categories, because of the strengths of the projects that applied, our judges decided to name two honorable mentions. MGM Grand National Harbor, nominated by SmithGroupJJR, was given an honorable mention in the category of Innovative Project of the Year—New Construction. SmithGroupJJR was the architect of record for MGM Grand, and HKS was the design architect. American University/WAMU, nominated by AU Design and Construction, was given honorable mention in the category of Innovative Project of the Year—Interior Design.
Last year, for the first time, USGBC National Capital Region recognized a project for advanced commitment to health and wellness in the built environment. The award for Innovative Project of the Year—Health and Wellness in the Built Environment went to the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) (below), which has achieved both LEED and WELL Platinum certification, and was nominated by Perkins + Will and rand* construction.
Our final category for project awards recognizes outstanding projects that either are certified under a GBCI rating system other than LEED or do not have a third-party certification. Because we had two standout projects apply in this category, our judges decided to name two winners. Innovative Project of the Year—Responsible Design was awarded to Intelligence Community Campus in Bethesda, Maryland (below left;), nominated by AECOM, and to Bunny Mellon Healing Garden (below right), nominated by DAVIS Construction.
USGBC National Capital Region recognizes inspiring individuals who are helping make sustainable communities a reality for the D.C. metro area with our Leadership Awards. In 2017, award winners were named in the three categories below:
The Award for Leadership in Government, Advocacy or Policy recognizes an individual who has worked to make real and meaningful change on the local level. In 2017, the award went to Patrick Kunze, GHT Limited.
The Award for Leadership in Health and Wellness recognizes an individual who has worked to advance awareness and implementation of standards, principles or policies that improve human health and well-being through the built environment. Last year's award went to Rachel Cowen and Andrea Swiatocha, Hord Coplan Macht.
Every year we recognize our most energetic, engaged and supportive individual local community members with an award for Member of the Year. Last year's award went to Julia Craighill, Ensight Consulting and Sarah Rentfro, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc.
This year, we are again offering two types of awards, each of which has several categories: Project Awards, which honor exceptional high-performance buildings, and Leadership Awards, which recognize individuals and organizations. Nominations for this year's awards are due Friday, June 1 by 5:00 pm EDT.
We hope you will join us at the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater when we announce and celebrate our 2018 winners at A Midsummer Night's Green! You can learn more and register for that event here.