Star Awards Program

The Star Award represents a symbol of excellence, and someone or something designated a star are thought to be pre-eminent. The award program is to recognize and promote professionalism and excellence in "star quality" projects.

The Star Award honors the chosen project as the most outstanding new construction project in the State of North Carolina, and is selected on the merits and challenges of the project by an objective group of judges. The Star Award represents a symbol of excellence and is the highest achievement in the Design and Construction industry.

Award nominations are open to all CPN members. There are two categories for 2007 - one category for projects under $10 million and one category for projects over $10 million. The award committee will evaluate each project and will consider the following:

2006 Star Award Winners


Explore the Wild -
NC Museum of Life and Science
Durham, NC
(Under $10M Project Winner)

This project involved virtually the re-building of wetlands to recreate a waterfowl environment in an abandoned rock quarry that is a part of the Museum’s 70-acre campus. All work was carefully performed to protect the existing wildlife in the area. The project included constructing a new entrance into the existing museum, new animal exhibit areas, manmade rock and water features, over 30,000 SF of boardwalk and a sailboat pond. The board walk weaves in and out of the cliffs around to the wetlands and through the various exhibits. Building in and around existing animal habitats [bears, wolves, lemurs] for exhibit purposes made this project very unique and challenging. Challenges also included building in an abandoned rock quarry and encountering mammoth rock, and the numerous changes generated by the Owner’s ever growing vision for this learning facility. The Museum remained open the entire time without losing one single day of operation. The construction team was focused on providing a very clean and safe jobsite as visitors were able to view the entire construction site as a learning experience.

This project was extremely complex and challenging. Original budgets were broken down into 18 phases of the GMP. The project also included constructing 100 customized exhibits to include the new black bear exhibit (while Ursela the bear was in residence.) Also included was an expansion to the museum entrance, the construction of a dinosaur trail, expansion of the existing parking areas, and the addition of the Caterpillar Café to the existing museum.

This project also received Carolinas AGC highest honor, the Pinnacle Award for 2006.

	Dave Walters - New Atlantic Contracting, Inc.
	Leo Segasti - BJAC
	Willie Stewart - Stewart Engineering
	David Clem - Senn Dunn
	Ronnie White - Duke Power
	Jay Motsinger - Dixon Hughes
	Holt Gwyn - Conner Gwyn Schenck
	Jade Osborne - Osborne-Brumsey & Associates, Inc.

Client - NC Museum of Life and Science - Roy Griffiths, VP Exhibits and Planning




Piedmont Town Center
Charlotte, NC
(Over $10M Project Winner)

Piedmont Town Center is a mixed-use project located on an 11 acre site in the South Park area of Charlotte, North Carolina. It consists of 2 eight-story pre-cast office buildings totaling 417,000 square feet (one serving as the headquarters of Piedmont Natural Gas), 2 seven-story pre-cast parking decks (each with 1,000 spaces), 179 condominium units and 95,000 square feet of street level retail space. The project’s master schedule dictated that Piedmont Natural Gas Corporate Headquarters building begin first. Foundations and structure followed on the other five buildings on a successive three-week stagger. By June, 2005 thirteen cranes were on site to facilitate structural steel erection, architectural and structural pre-cast erection and concrete construction activities. Coordinated communication between the eleven Shelco Superintendents on site became a premium. Weekly construction meetings with Superintendents and Project Managers were held on Mondays to facilitate and coordinate major concrete pours and deliveries. By mid-August, manpower had peaked with over 1,000 workers on site.

Two pre-cast parking decks are located on each side of Piedmont Row Drive. On three sides of each deck, the ground floor, 2-story retail space and the 5 levels of residential condominiums are supported by a post tension concrete structure. The cast-in-place structure activities were ongoing simultaneously with the structural pre-cast erection activities. Only a 2” expansion joint separated these buildings. Pre-cast hoisting activities and concrete structure activities had to be coordinated and cycled daily to avoid potential safety issues associated with heavy crane lifts in the vicinity of workmen. Crane lift work areas were flagged and monitored to ensure the safety of the workmen.

The focal point of the design of this project is a large 4-way traffic circle bordered by planters, pre-cast walls, urns, pavers and pre-cast steps. The center of this circle features a 50’ diameter fountain with a 30’ high center water jet and 12 smaller jets. Careful detail during the installation was necessary due to the compressed schedule so as not to interfere with the construction of the exterior skin activities of the adjacent residential buildings. The heart of Piedmont Town Center is the central plaza with its roundabout and monumental fountain. Both office towers and the residential crescents on their opposite sides focus on the space and define it. Three nationally known restaurants open onto the plaza with outdoor dining terraces, making the space a visually animated, “people watching” destination.

Piedmont Town Center represents a project incorporating a myriad of complicated facets. Four different building types, three different structural systems all integrated together, a maze of governmental approvals and signoffs, a limited work area and a nearly impossible schedule – a unique story in itself.

Piedmont Town Center with its introduction of high density residential in a highly integrated mixed-use project in the heart of South Park helps establish the next direction of South Park’s transformation into a second urban core for Charlotte.

CPN members involved the project team included: