Overall Winner: Guilford Park High School

Construction statistics give a sense of the enormity of the Guilford Park High School project.

Located in Jessup, the new public school measures 289,000 square feet. Its 75-acre site contains football, baseball, softball, field hockey and multipurpose fields, basketball and tennis courts, 14 bioretention ponds, two stormwater management ponds, more than two miles of chain link fence and one mile of new county road that the project team was required to construct. To complete the building itself, crews had to install 720 rooftop solar panels, 9,720 linear feet of concrete pipe and 62,700 square feet of terrazzo floor.

But the numbers only tell part of the story.

Construction of Guilford Park began shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Subcontractors wrestled with supply chain challenges and health-related work restrictions. BGE struggled to secure electrical switch gear, the project’s steel order arrived at the last minute and an acute shortage of roofing insulation threatened to derail the construction schedule.

However, Oak Contracting, the project’s general contractor, and subcontractor Cole Roofing devised a plan to circumvent the shortage, keep construction on schedule and ultimately provide the school system with a superior roof.

Cole’s crew installed a temporary roof. They attached 5/8th-inch plywood on top of the roof’s metal deck then covered the plywood with rolled roofing to make the structure weather-tight, said Wayne Temple, Superintendent with Oak Contracting.

The measure enabled the project team to meet a critical, Christmas 2023 deadline to close in the building. The plan, which was vetted with the roofing supplier to avoid any warranty issues, also spared the project team from a time-consuming removal of the temporary roof.

“We could just build over the temporary roof once the insulation came in,” Temple said. “Everything that was added on top was mechanically fastened down to the metal deck. The whole system was what the project called for and the 5/8th plywood was fire-rated, so it actually benefited the school.”

Completing work inside the school in order to meet its opening date just eight months later required heightened coordination and cooperation, Temple said. Oak arranged for successive trades to begin on the top floor of building and wind their way down, carefully positioning operations to ensure that each trade had needed access and could remain productive.

“The school is all block walls so the mason stayed in front of the window man who stayed in front of the terrazzo guy, and it all worked very well,” he said.

Completing the terrazzo floor in the hallways, lobby, cafeteria and commons area was especially challenging due both to the sheer amount of terrazzo in the design and the complexity of that design. Working a hallway or room at a time, craftsmen meticulously completed layouts, poured the terrazzo and polished the surface.

Outside, one construction professional helped ensure efficient and high-quality completion of site work and outdoor amenities.

“The superintendent from the excavating company stayed on site from day one until the end of the project,” Temple said. “They did all the utility work, the storm drain, the water lines, sewer lines, manholes, roads, curb and gutter. They installed over two miles of fence and one mile of county road that we had to put in. They graded all the tennis courts, basketball courts, baseball, football and other fields. They put in the bleachers and the bioretention structures. They worked on everything as soon as it became available to them. It means a lot to have someone there right through the project who follows the drawings, knows what is done and what has to be done.”

Upon completion of the school, Principal Joshua Wasilewski said the project team’s “expertise and attention to detail ensured that the project was completed to the highest standards, and their dedication to excellence was truly commendable. They treated the project as their first priority and approached it with passion and dedication.”

Overall Winner: Under Armour Track and Field

From a vomitorium gate weighing 4.3 tons to a concrete feature wall meticulously crafted from self-consolidating mix to a field and track infused with technology that can measure athletes’ performance in real time, the Under Armour Track and Field complex was an extraordinary construction project.

The world-class facility at Under Armour’s headquarters on Baltimore Peninsula was designed to both test Under Armour products and host sports competitions. The complex includes an eight-lane, 400-meter track, seating for 1,400 fans and a multi-dimensional field for NCAA matches and high school football, soccer and lacrosse. The project also included unique design features and exceptionally high quality standards.

Excell Concrete Construction was tasked with creating a 300-foot long, 16-foot wide, 25-foot tall cast-in-place, board-formed wall that would be the feature wall for the entire grandstand. Orlando Ruiz and his team soon realized that the specified concrete mix would not create the desired appearance nor meet the exacting specifications for the wall. By completing a series of five mockups, Excell identified a self-consolidating mix as the preferred product for the wall and crafted a meticulous construction process.

Excell, the concrete supplier and a third-party inspector followed an exhaustive quality management protocol that measured the concrete slump, temperature and air content at both the concrete plant and once shipments arrived onsite to avoid any deviations in the mix. Vibrations introduced into pours were strategically planned to prevent over exercising the mix and to limit bug holes. Crews systemically stripped all pours after the same amount of curing time in the formwork to avoid color changes between the 10 pours for the feature wall.

Excell which also constructed architecturally smooth walls in the vomitorium and facing the field, adopted additional processes to ensure a high-quality product. The team preplanned specific locations and finishing processes for tie-holes. To achieve the smooth, 90-degree corners specified in the design, crews also sealed each corner to prevent concrete slurry from leaking through and creating weak points in a pour that could result in chipping or spalling.

Meanwhile, Baltimore Fabrication was tackling the daunting ornamental/miscellaneous metals package for the Under Armour facilty. The project’s complex railing system included mesh between each metal post, multiple plates on each side of the panels and lights running through the entire railing.

The most ambitious metal feature, however, was the rolling, barn door gates, measuring 18 feet high and 31.5 feet wide, that would serve as the entrance to the grandstand seating area. The design called for a seamless butt where the two gates came together and joined two aluminum panels to display the Under Armour logo. The gate would also have to withstand intense winds and seismic loads on the building’s exterior.

The initial design which called for all steel framing and panel members, presented constructability and operational challenges due to the sheer weight of the structure. Scott Foreman and his team at Baltimore Fabrication proposed a value engineering option to use aluminum panels to reduce the weight and allow the manual gate to operate more easily. Even with those changes, the completed gate weighed 4.3 tons. It rides on a 62-foot-long track bolted into concrete and is carried by four, two-ton trolleys.

The project team, led by The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, successfully navigated numerous other challenges.

Supply chain issues created very long lead times for electrical gear procurement and postponed the estimated delivery date for the main distribution panel until after the project’s completion. DEL Electric flagged the problem during the buyout process and arranged to rent temporary gear from Mississippi to support timely installation and operation of all equipment, commissioning activities, building inspections, and on-schedule turnover to Under Armour.

Dust created from site work and construction threatened to compromise the track installation which involves multiple days of layered pours and tacking-up overnight. Whiting-Turner and Gray & Son worked together to provide five water trucks to spray the site continuously during track surfacing and assigned additional laborers to use hoses to dampen areas that the trucks could not reach.

Throughout the project, an aggressive schedule and tight logistical work areas required intense planning and collaboration. Whiting-Turner held daily huddles with onsite foremen and weekly project manager meetings to ensure that trades were aware of each other’s activities and could coordinate efficiently. That heightened communication also enabled project partners to respond to challenges as they surfaced. For example, designation of the concrete walls as critical path items for the project convinced Excell Concrete that they would need substantially more manpower than was available inhouse. Excell collaborated with Whiting-Turner to secure additional labor.

Overall Winner: UMUCH Bel Air Bed Tower

The renovation of the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health (UMUCH) facility in Bel Air was nothing short of massive.

The 2.5 year, $62 million project included construction of a three-story, 78,000-square-foot addition on top of an existing, active cancer treatment center, installation of new equipment and piping in the 20,000-square-foot central utility plant, and a 36,000-square-foot expansion and phased renovation of the hospital’s garden level to improve the emergency department, kitchen, dining room and support services area. And all of that construction had to be completed without disrupting hospital operations.

To avoid any disruptions, the project team headed by Wohlsen Construction held weekly design team meetings with the owner to coordinate all activities. Wohlsen which assigned four superintendents to the project and multiple project managers and project engineers, also sustained ongoing, detailed communications with representatives of project team members, ranging from vice presidents, project executives, project managers and engineers through to superintendents, foremen, craftspeople and laborers.

Team members repeatedly improved sequencing and phasing plans to best support hospital operations. The decision to add extra phases to the garden-level renovation, for example, ensured that the kitchen could remain open at all times to serve patients, staff and others.
Faced with a complex job in a sensitive environment, superintendents frequently wrote their own requests for information and simultaneously offered potential solutions that would help with constructability and ensure an excellent finished product.

Erecting the three-story bed tower on top of the Kaufman Cancer Center presented a huge challenge. After placing two cranes on site, crews worked nights to erect the steel structure and pour concrete slabs. The team also planned and timed especially noisy work – such as tying into existing rebar, stairwells and elevator shafts – to minimize impact on the hospital.

Upgrades to the central utility plant posed other challenges. The MEP scope included installing 21 pumps, 17 supply and exhaust fans, four air curtains, four split systems, a cabinet unit heater, approximately 90 VFCs, three air handlers, four cooling towers, two boilers and two chillers.

In addition to managing major installations and limiting outages in an active hospital, the project team also had to overcome the extraordinary challenge of connecting new piping systems to the cooling towers.

“We had main supply and return pipes about 20 inches in diameter, but no valves that would allow us to shut them off,” said Joseph Fries, Project Manager with Wohlsen Construction.

Consequently, connecting the new equipment would have required the team “to shut down the whole system and drain it,” Fries said. “But to drain hundreds of thousands of gallons of refrigerant would have taken days.”

The project’s MEP coordinator and mechanical subcontractor, James Craft & Son, warned that process raised the potential of leaving the hospital campus without a cooling system for weeks. So, the MEP professionals proposed an alternate and uncommon path, namely freezing the supply and return pipes before working on them.

“We brought in a tractor trailer of liquid nitrogen, put a metal jacket around the pipes and ran liquid nitrogen around the pipes to freeze them to about negative 80 degress Fahrenheit,” Fries said. “Once they were frozen, we welded in some values that we could use to connect to the new system. We still had to shut down the entire cooling system but it was only a one-day outage and the guys worked their tails off to get it done as quickly as possible. Nobody wanted to see what might happen if we ran out of liquid nitrogen before the work was done.”

Not only did the project team deliver an extremely complex project on schedule without interrupting hospital operations, they also kept the quality of work extremely high, even in places where it couldn’t be seen.

“A sign of good craftsmanship is how the piping and ductwork is installed,” said Andrew Hooker, Project Executive at Wohlsen Construction. The crew from James Craft & Son, which won a Craftsmanship Award for their work on UMUCH, “did beautiful work, regardless of whether or not it was going to remain exposed. The work was exemplary even above existing ceilings and mechanical space that obviously had tighter restrictions.”

Overall Winner: St. Joseph Parish

The renovation of St. Joseph Parish required craftsmen to both execute massive structural changes and deliver immaculate architectural features.

The 11-month, $4.9 million project included two small additions to create an expanded sanctuary with better sightlines as well as a complete renovation of the existing, 12,000-square-foot, 1852 church.

The project team, led by CAM Construction, had to shore up the original structure, remove two transept walls, build out the additions and seamlessly integrate the new structure with historic stone, slate roof, copper gutters and downspouts.

“Some of the original, exterior walls had stones that were 18 inches thick,” said John Speights, Vice President of CAM Construction and Project Manager for the St. Joseph’s project. “Some of them didn’t fit back into the rebuilt walls so we shipped them out to Hilgartner Stone to be cut so we could reuse them.”

Crews had to work around immoveable obstructions, including large foundation rocks, that were pervasive onsite and forced changes to plans for the basement and some building systems. The roofing crew had to replace the steel that permeated the existing roof structure. MEP contractors had to carefully work around historic wood roof trusses to deftly install new equipment, ductwork, piping and wiring within the ceiling then precisely coordinate penetrations through new coffers to provide seamless connections with lighting, audio/visual and other systems.

“We also had to remove the entire slab,” Speights said. “That presented us with a surprise.”

An undocumented heating system was buried beneath the slab.

“Also, the slab sloped about 12 inches from the east to west side of the church, so we had to take out 18 inches of grade and replace the heating system,” Speights said.

Meanwhile, craftsmen tackled the challenges of creating multiple, extraordinary design features within the sanctuary.

The crew from J.A. Argetakis was tasked with creating a 30-foot-diameter dome ceiling with a stained-glass oculus. They also had to create a coffered ceiling system with continuous, radiused cornice along the sanctuary’s perimeter. Craftsmen installed 80 curved, metal studs to support the dome. Using specialty equipment, they bent each lengthy stud onsite to achieve perfect and consistent angles. The team then delivered a Level 5 drywall finish to serve as a base for a hand-painted, angelic mural on the ceiling. Creating the radiused cornice involved installing three layers of quarter-inch drywall on a suspended ceiling system that also included continuous painted wood trim and a concealed cove with lighting mounts.

On an extremely tight schedule, the team from O Squared executed a complex tiling design with extremely tight tolerances throughout 95 percent of the church. Craftsmen leveled the irregular substrate and covered the sanctuary floor in a pattern that interspersed large-format tiles with laser-cut medallions. Mindful of the parish’s desire for flooring that looking smooth and continuous, they created low-profile grout joints and buttered each tile to avoid future cracks.

Around the altar — which sits on a raised, radiused, platform — they cut tiles by hand to perfectly integrate them with the wooden stair treads.

Behind the altar, craftsmen created a focal point of the new sanctuary. Representatives of Hilgartner Stone and other members of the project team individually selected stones from Texas quarry, the source of the church’s exterior stone in 1852. Hilgartner cut the stones to create an arch that would surround a large crucifix. O Squared then installed the stones on the structure and filled the background behind the crucifix with gold tile sourced from Syria.

Throughout the project, team members worked to ensure costs did not exceed the church’s budget. On several occasions, CAM saw opportunities to save the owner money through value engineering, including changes to the heating system and lighting fixtures. In total CAM was able to generate more than $100,000 in cost savings for the parish.

Despite a tight, 11-month work schedule, a two-month construction setback due to the discovery of the undocumented heating system and other challenges with sourcing materials, the project team achieved the project’s goal of reopening the church in time for Holy Week in March 2024.

Future Craftsmen already pursuing construction careers

From learning the multi-disciplinary aspects of HVAC to designing a tiny house to leveraging a passion for masonry to grow a landscaping/hardscaping business, the winners of the 2024 BC&E Foundation Future Craftsman & Design Awards are already clearly showing the passion, the skills, the discipline and the drive to pursue careers in the construction industry.

Aidan Johnson
HVAC
Francis Scott Key High School

An HVAC student at CCCTC and the son of an HVAC company owner, Aidan Johnson has come to truly love the trade.

“I am in this program because it is kind of an all-encompassing trade,” Johnson said. “It includes a lot of different aspects – some plumbing, some electrician work. Most of the time when you see these contractors at your house, it looks like menial work, but it is actually very involved.”

In the HVAC program, “Aidan has achieved high academic grades and has also demonstrated to be an outstanding leader in his abilities and his accomplishments. I have seen Aidan demonstrate a great work ethic, proving himself responsible, showing initiative,” said HVAC Instructor Kent Shamer.

Johnson – who is a varsity wrestler and an active volunteer in church activities – including community cleanups, elderly home visits, missionary work, junior counselling and Vacation Bible School – has already started performing some work in his father’s HVAC company. He is excitedly looking forward to one day taking over the company and immersing himself in the service aspect of HVAC.

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Kali Oltman
Drafting
Francis Scott Key High School

An A student in drafting at CCCTC, Kali Oltman has always had a passion for drawing and designing houses.

In her junior year in the program, she learned the fundamentals of AutoCAD by completing technical, mechanical and architectural CAD activities and projects, including designing her first house – a single story, three-bedroom rancher.

This fall, she started acquiring more advanced skills in AutoCAD and the basics of Revit in order to create complete sets of house plans along with a site/grading plan and a 3D model.

To date, Oltman’s work in the program “truly shows her passion and commitment to building the skills needed in the industry,” said Cathy Lee Frock, Drafting Instructor. “In addition, Kali has created a tiny house model to be used in the future manufacturing of tiny houses in collaboration with the carpentry class here at CCCTC.”

She is also part of a team that will create plans for the African American History Museum in Carroll County.

Oltman, who plans to study drafting at community college and then continue those studies at a four-year university, also loves the hands-on aspects of construction.

“I volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and I helped build the townhouses on East Baltimore Street” in Taneytown, she said. “I got to learn how to do siding and framework and it was fun.”

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Kristopher Miller
Masonry
Francis Scott Key High School

A masonry student at Carroll County Career and Technology Center (CCCTC), Kristopher Miller has already launched his career in the construction industry.

“For me, masonry is rewarding,” Miller said. “I really just love taking nothing and making it into something amazing. Working with my hands has always been a better way of learning for me.”

Miller has completed a variety of class and extracurricular projects, including the class block foundation project, concrete reef balls for oyster revitalization in the Chesapeake Bay, a backyard pool at his house and a concrete-and-paver patio at his grandmother’s house. He was also put in charge of the demolition and remodeling of CCCTC’s courtyard.

Even though Miller works nearly every afternoon and weekend and serves as a volunteer firefighter in Taneytown, Masonry Instructor Michael Campanile describes Miller as “the hardest working student in my class with a drive to learn that is unmatched.”

A landscaper and foreman with a local landscaping company since 2021, Miller has also formed his own landscaping company and plans to leverage his masonry training to provide a full range of landscaping and hardscaping services to his customers.

“My father once told me something that will always stick with me,” Miller said. “You don’t get anywhere in life without trying. You need to work harder than everyone else in the room and you will go places.”

2024 Craftsmen’s skills shine

From building a massive, high-tech manufacturing plant, grand staircases in corporate offices and expansive wetlands on a school site to perfectly restoring historic churches, schools and Baltimore’s iconic Penn Station, the winners of the 2024 Craftsmanship Awards delivered the extraordinary.

Ambitious new-builds

Moving a manufacturing plant to a new location is an enormous, complex and intensely time-sensitive process.

For the Hughes Network project, craftsmen from Windsor Electric completed all the electrical components of the ground-up construction and fitout of a 155,000-square-foot, high-tech manufacturing facility in Germantown. That included installing a 4,000-amperage utility service, a 1,000-kilowatt generator and 250-kilowatt UPS system. The manufacturing floor included 5,000 feet of cable tray, 38 busduct systems, more than 25,000 pieces of hardware and more than 700 equipment connections.

The most challenging part of the project, however, occurred during the final phase when Windsor’s team had to provide power, data pathways, equipment terminations and commissioning support as Hughes Network moved its manufacturing lines from its old plant to the new one.

The manufacturer, which had to continue supplying products to its customers during the transition, had worked out a plan with the project team to begin moving a production line a day to the new site.

“There were 37 lines plus a few major, specialty [manufacturing] rooms and a lot of people involved with each line,” said Kristopher Parker, Vice President and Director of Field Operations at Windsor Electric.

Each transfer would involve large and complex rigging operations, correct sequencing to ensure that the installation of one production line did not block the installation of another line, and close coordination with “equipment manufacturing reps, which Hughes brought in from across the country, to break down the systems, set them back up and recalibrate them because a lot of this equipment is laser driven,” Parker said.

It also required workers to adjust to sudden changes in the plan.

“Sometimes, it was an hour-by-hour adventure,” Parker said. “Our team leaders had to know everything about all the lines so when they had to suddenly pivot and move a different line, they knew what to do. They would not have time to figure it out.”

For the construction of The Church of the Resurrection, Snap-Wall was tasked with manufacturing and installing very large, custom ceiling clouds in the nave, organ loft and gathering space. It was the most extensive, custom system the company had ever been asked to deliver. And that opportunity came with a problem.

“The original specifications called for specific, prefabricated systems,” said Shane Wilson, Vice President. “We reached out to all our manufacturers who do that type of system or something similar. No one said they could put together the product specified or a solution.”

So, Snap-Wall partnered with Walls & Ceilings to develop their own solution. Working on scaffolding 30 to 40 feet above the floor, Walls & Ceilings built the support structure for the acoustic clouds, including the huge, barrel-shaped installations in the sanctuary. Snap-Wall’s crew then stretched custom-printed, acoustical fabric over them.

That custom solution, Wilson said, actually lowered the price of the installation and delivered a superior product that had fewer visible seams and was constructed onsite to perfectly match as-built conditions.

On two office projects, the team at Baltimore Fabrication channeled their expertise into creating complex, custom, feature staircases.

At CareFirst’s new headquarters in Canton, the stairway from the 15th to 17th levels was to be the focal point of the space. The design seamlessly blended glass panels, wood treads, metal rails and stringers to create the illusion that the treads were floating.

To execute that vision and ensure the stairway was constructible and safe, the Baltimore Fabrication team coordinated with the engineer, design team, general contractor, glass and wood tread manufacturers, and the existing structure. That process showed that a custom cover plate would be essential to create the floating stairs.

The Bank of America – Merrill facility included a main staircase with stand-out metal features. The design included a landing that was curved to match the stairway opening, handrails made of solid steel and a unique rail design with large, square pickets, thick posts and spherical ends. After researching pre-made materials, the team concluded the rail would have to be fabricated from custom-cut plates and some plates would have to be crafted to look like rolled channel steel.

For both stairways, the size and weight of components made installation challenging. At CareFirst, craftsmen craned components through a 15th-story window with minimal clearances then used chain falls and carts to move each piece into place. The team employed the same process at Bank of America – Merrill, but had to cut stair rails into sections in order to bring them up in an elevator.

At Red House Run Elementary School, the team from Gray & Son faced a very different challenge. With less than eight weeks to complete their work and zero time for rework, craftsmen converted six bioretention ponds and a submerged gravel wetland to create more than 12,000 square feet of stormwater management facilities. The submerged gravel wetlands were especially difficult as crews had to use wooden forms to install 270 feet of pea gravel then immediately install wetland plantings.

However, Gray & Son’s work at Red House Run, which also included grading, helped Baltimore County create a highly sustainable school with beautiful wetlands and outdoor sports facilities.

Exquisite restorations

Other Craftsmanship Award winners delivered stunning restorations of historic buildings.

When a thunderstorm rolled through Washington, DC in 2023, strong winds and torrential rain uprooted a large tree and brought it crashing down onto the Little Sanctuary at St. Albans School.

Craftsmen from Worcester Eisenbrandt were tasked with addressing widespread damage to the building and restoring multiple components, including the historic roof structure, interior roof purlins, tongue-and-grove roof sheathing, structural masonry on the tower, decorative stucco on the parapets, and metal copings and cornices. In addition, the fallen tree had damaged only portions of the building so all repairs had to closely match existing materials.

One material, in particular, presented the craftsmen with an intricate challenge. The building’s exterior was covered with an exposed-aggregate, pebble-dash-style stucco that had been heavily textured by exposure to the elements.

After carefully cleaning the façade to reveal its true color, craftsmen took samples of the broken stucco back to the Worcester Eisenbrandt workshop to figure out how to replicate it. They analyzed the color and texture of the cement and the color, size, shape and composition of the embedded pebbles. They collected zip lock bags of stone samples from various suppliers and began testing.

“They did about four weeks of trial and error, mixing up many different batches of stucco and making small sample boards until they got a good match,” said Peter Gambardella, Project Manager.

But that was only half of the stucco challenge.

“Next, they had to figure out how to apply that material onto the walls so that it would blend seamlessly with the historic material,” Gambardella said. “They tried different application tools and different steps to get the right amount of the outer layer of cement to wash away so that the right amount of aggregate was showing. They came up with a unique process just for this project.”

Meanwhile at St. Ignatius, Worcester Eisenbrandt craftsmen tackled major structural and restoration challenges. Failed maintenance, wood rot and insects had caused extensive damage, including deterioration of framing members, structural columns, sill plates and exterior paint. Furthermore, the bell tower was pulling away from the church building.

Working carefully with their scaffolding/shoring subcontractor, the team shored the tower and inserted needle beams to support each floor. Worcester Eisenbrandt carpenters removed portions of the sheathing and secured new sill plates, columns and beams to correct the tower’s lean.

Meanwhile in the workshop, craftsmen painstakingly rebuilt and restored salvaged components from the church’s exterior by utilizing epoxy and dutchmen repair methods. In total, they repaired and restored 2,000 linear feet of historic materials and replicated another 2,500 linear feet of components to match historic profiles.

At Baltimore’s Penn Station, the team from Coastal Exteriors tackled a project that required close attention to both historic restoration and modern commuters. Their scope of work on the six-story, 1911 building included cleaning and point-up of the granite façade and brick masonry walls, resetting granite stones and restoring terra cotta.

Midway through the project, the team was also tasked with “bringing in a crane and pulling 1,200-pound pieces of stone from the building 80 feet above ground,” said Ted Wolf, President.

Scaffolding, netting and overhead barriers protected the public from construction debris. However, those measures couldn’t keep pedestrians dry when crews washed down the façade.

To provide that protection and to safely dispose of cleaning chemicals, “we had to build ponds at the base of the building which were basically wood frame boxes with plastic liners, to capture all the water running down the building,” Wolf said. “We would then pump that wastewater into holding tanks to be treated.”

In total, the Coastal Exteriors team worked more than 13,000 hours to restore 50,000 square feet of façade.

At 7 East Redwood Street in Baltimore, craftsmen from Structural executed an urgent and massive repair when pieces of terra cotta began falling from the building. Correcting the problem required removing and replacing all structural steel supporting the terra cotta façade.

John Hooper of Structural generated measurements for more than 200 linear feet of replacement steel and a plan to anchor the new steel to the building at more than 800 locations. Hooper helped create shop drawings to replace the damaged terra cotta with cast cotta. He then managed an 18-person crew that replaced more than 600 square feet of terra cotta 20 stories above the street and completed the job with zero quality issues.

At Booker T. Washington Middle School, Ruff Roofers was challenged to replace a complex roof on an 1896 building.

The roof measured 26,000 square feet, contained 50,000 pieces of field slate and included multiple steep plains. A four-sided turret had a 30/12 pitch and the bell tower was topped with a tall, domed roof.

The Ruff Roofers team hand cut each piece of field slate that went on top of the bell tower to perfectly fit its curves. In addition to installing the slate roof, they replaced 550 linear feet of gutter with new, 20-ounce copper gutter liner and fabricated the new system in 10-foot lengths to match the shape of the historic building.

Building Congress & Exchange 2024 Craftsmanship Award Winners

86th ANNUAL CRAFTSMANSHIP AWARD WINNERS

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OVERALL BUILDING AWARD WINNERS

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FUTURE CRAFTSMAN & DESIGN AWARD WINNERS

Students of Francis Scott Key High School at Carroll County Career and Technology Center

Building Congress & Exchange 2023 Craftsmanship Award Winners

85th ANNUAL CRAFTSMANSHIP AWARD WINNERS

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OVERALL BUILDING AWARD WINNERS

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FUTURE CRAFTSMAN & DESIGN AWARD WINNERS

Building Congress & Exchange 2022 Craftsmanship Award Winners

84th ANNUAL CRAFTSMANSHIP AWARD WINNERS

CRAFTSMANSHIP AWARD WINNERS

LOYOLA BLAKEFIELD ST. IGNATIUS HALL
Flooring
Hyun Kweon and Robert Connor of Floors Etc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

Stone Masonry
David Contrino of Henry J. Knott Masonry, Inc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

Windows and Curtain Walls
Manny Lopez of Caplan Bros. Glass
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

HAMPTON MANSION CUPOLA RESTORATION
Architectural Millwork
WEI Hampton Team of Worcester Eisenbrandt Inc.
General Contractor: Ritz Construction

ANNE ARUNDEL COMMUNITY COLLEGE HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING
Architectural Suspended Wood Ceilings
Larry Walter of Walls & Ceilings, Inc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

Specialty Finishes
The Team at Snap-Wall, Inc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

Architectural Millwork
The ISEC HLSB Team at ISEC, Inc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

ROLAND WATER TOWER
Exterior Stone
Sammy Gutierrez of Worcester Eisenbrandt Inc.
General Contractor: Lewis Contractors

ROBERTA’S HOUSE
Ornamental Metal
The Team at Hanover Ironworks
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

AVALONBAY HARBOR EAST
Sitework
The Commercial Production Team at Live Green Landscape Associates, LLC
General Contractor: AvalonBay Communities, Inc.

KAISER PERMANENTE NORTH BALTIMORE HUB
HVAC
Jason Fischer of J. F. Fischer, Inc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

HOWARD COUNTY CIRCUIT COURTHOUSE
Curtain Walls
The Team at Physical Security
General Contractor: Clark Construction

Security, Telecommunications Systems and Audio/Visual
The Team at S2N Technology Group, LLC
General Contractor: Clark Construction

TOWSON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE COMPLEX
Ornamental Metal and Fabrication
The Team at Baltimore Fabrication
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY FERNANDEZ CENTER FOR INNOVATION AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
Masonry
Karl Kress of Henry J. Knott Masonry, Inc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

BALTIMORE PENN STATION HEADHOUSE REHABILITATION
Scaffolding & Rigging
Walter Aristondo & Mike Velez of JD Belfield Enterprises
General Contractor: Wohlsen Construction Company

BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART CENTER FOR PRINTS, DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS AND THE CENTER FOR MATISSE STUDIES
Masonry
Tom Doyle Jr and Jose Ramirez of Hilgartner Natural Stone Company, Inc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

Architectural Millwork / Casework and Laminates
The Team at G.T. Brothers, Inc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

Drywall
Chris Leuba of Avena Contracting LLC
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

PROLOGIS FITOUT
Architectural Millwork
The Team at Hayford Builders
General Contractor: Partner Contracting

OVERALL BUILDING AWARD WINNERS

HOWARD COUNTY CIRCUIT COURTHOUSE
General Contractor: Clark Construction Group

ANNE ARUNDEL COMMUNITY COLLEGE HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING
General Contractor: Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

FUTURE CRAFTSMAN & DESIGN AWARD WINNERS

Logan Bankert, Francis Scott Key High School (Welding Technology)

Colton Hardisty, South Carroll High School (HVAC)

Tyler Knox, Severna Park High School (Electrical)

Building Congress & Exchange Honors Baltimore’s Award-Winning Craftsmen

The Building Congress & Exchange honored more than 50 talented craftsmen within 11 categories at the 83^rd Annual Craftsmanship Awards held October 14 at the Mt. Washington Mill Dye House. The winners represented 19 companies in the Baltimore Metropolitan area.

The Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant and Sheppard Pratt Health System Behavioral Health each won an Overall Building Award honoring general contractors Clark/Ulliman Schutte and Lewis Contractors respectively.

In addition, the BC&E Foundation awarded $1,000 scholarships to four promising high school students who are pursuing careers, training or degrees in the construction and design fields. This year’s winners are from different high schools but all are honing their skills at the Carroll County Career and Technology Center.

The Craftsmanship Awards have been a long-standing tradition honoring and recognizing exemplary craftsmanship within the construction industry.

This year, BC&E received 40 nominations, which were each carefully reviewed by our 11-person Craftsmanship Committee. The winners were determined based on quality of work, the complexity of both technical and design challenges and the level of difficulty from certain conditions.

A complete list of winners is down below.

83rd ANNUAL CRAFTSMANSHIP AWARD WINNERS

CRAFTSMANSHIP AWARD WINNERS

SUBURBAN HOSPITAL PHASE 2 CAMPUS ENHANCEMENT

Power Generation, Distribution and Switchgear
The Team at Windsor Electric
General Contractor: Clark Construction Group, LLC

LAWYER’S MALL

Cast-in-place Concrete
Juan Garcia of Chevy Chase Contractors LLC
General Contractor: North Point Builders of Maryland, LLC

Exterior Stone
Michael Geisler and Aldolfo Martinez of Rugo Stone, LLC
General Contractor: North Point Builders of Maryland, LLC

THE BACK RIVER WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT

Unit Masonry
The Team at KaRon Masonry
General Contractor: Clark/Ulliman Schutte

Cast-in-Place Concrete
The Team at Clark Concrete
General Contractor: Clark/Ulliman Schutte

Process Mechanical
The Team at Ulliman Schutte
General Contractor: Clark/Ulliman Schutte

THE OLNEY THEATRE BLACK BOX ADDITION/RENOVATION

Lighting Systems
Mike Bickford of Hirsch Electric, LLC.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

Architectural Millwork
The Team at JPK & Associates, Inc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

6721 LOBBY RENOVATION

Metal Fabrication, Drywall, Rough Carpentry
Russ Colwell of Avena Contracting, LLC.
General Contractor: Plano-Coudon Construction

JHU STIEFF SILVER MATERIAL CHARACTERIZATION & PROCESSING FACILITY

Power generation, Distribution and Switchgear
The Team at Windsor Electric
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

SHEPPARD PRATT HEALTH SYSTEM BEHAVIORAL HEALTH FACILITY

Flooring
Michael Beasley Corridor Flooring Associates
General Contractor: Lewis Contractors

HVAC and Plumbing
Troy Hood of EMJAY Engineering & Construction Co., Inc.
General Contractor: Lewis Contractors

Power Generation, Distribution and Switchgear
Mike Demario and Jeremy Johnston of DEL Electric
General Contractor: Lewis Contractors

Drywall and Acoustical Ceilings
Luis Caballero of HDL Construction, Inc.
General Contractor: Lewis Contractors

Unit Masonry and exterior stone
Shawn Collins of Henry J. Knott Masonry, Inc.
General Contractor: Lewis Contractors

ANNAPOLIS POST OFFICE

Architectural Millwork
Jeff Batleman of Montgomery Refinishing Service, Inc.
General Contractor: North Point Builders of Maryland, LLC

Plaster
Donnell McLeod and Sandro Camargo of Hayles and Howe, Inc.
General Contractor: North Point Builders of Maryland, LLC

Interior Stone and Marble
Jose Alonzo Ramirez and Thomas Doyle, Jr, of HILGARTNER Natural Stone Company, Inc.
General Contractor: North Point Builders of Maryland, LLC

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CAPITAL REGION MEDICAL CENTER

Flooring
Mike Tufaro and Jose Sanchez of Source One Flooring
General Contractor: Construction Group, LLC

ANNE ARUNDEL COMMUNITY COLLEGE – HEALTH & LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING

Curtainwall, Storefront, Sunshades, Metal Panels, & Terra Cotta
The Team at Alliance Exterior Construction, Inc.
General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

OVERALL BUILDING AWARD WINNERS

THE BACK RIVER WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT

General Contractor: Clark/Ulliman Schutte

SHEPPARD PRATT HEALTH SYSTEM BEHAVIORAL HEALTH FACILITY

General Contractor: Lewis Contractors

FUTURE CRAFTSMAN & DESIGN AWARD WINNERS

John Alcorn, Winters Mill High School (Welding)

Spencer Armitage, Winters Mill High School (Electrical Construction)

Justin Pfoutz, Manchester Valley High School (Masonry)

Emma Santoro, Century High School (Drafting)