Top Projects

What were the Top Projects of 2017?

Event Date: May 17 at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino
Ticket price: $110.00 per ticket or $1,100 for a Reserved Table of 10

**Open seating unless a table of 10 is reserved

Top Projects is our chance to honor those in the industry — generals, subcontractors, architects, engineers and owners — whose projects met and exceeded expectations in 2017.

In addition to the networking and awards dinner on May 17, 2018, we will celebrate all of our Top Projects winners in a special publication of The Daily Reporter.

THIS YEAR’S WINNING PROJECTS

• 1433 North Water Street
• 25 West Main
• Atelier Third Ward Luxury Lofts
• Aurora Health Center – Oak Creek
• Badger Liquor at Schiltz Park
• Bellin Sports Medicine and Orthopedics Clinic
• BMO Harris Branch, Sherman Park
• Community First Credit Union New Corporate Office
• Encapsys Innovation Headquarters
• ER Wagner Manufacturing
• Freshwater Plaza
• Froedtert & the Medical College of WI – Drexel Town Square Health Center
• Froedtert & the Medical College of WI McKinley Health Center
• Froedtert & the Medical College of WI Sports Science Center
• Germantown I-41 Horizontal Directional Drill
• Historic Garfield School Renovation
• Keystone on Brady
• Kohler – Inn on Woodlake Expansion
• Little Prairie Primary School
• Lodge Kohler
• Lower Yahara River Trail Phase 1
• Marshfield Clinic Cancer Center
• Mayfair Reserve
• Medical College of WI Hub for Collaborative Medicine
• Mid-States Technical College Student Services and Information Center
• Miller Lite Stage Renovation and Lakefront Gateway Project
• Miller Park Concessions
• Milwaukee Tool Phase I Expansion
• Mulva Family Fitness and Sports Center
• Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons
• Oak Creek 9th Grade Center
• Oregon School District
• Pabst Milwaukee Brewery
• Pete’s Fruit Market
• Rhythm Apartments
• Saint Paul University Catholic Center
• St. Augustine Preparatory Academy
• Standard Electric Supply Co. – Corporate Headquarters
• The Corners of Brookfield
• The Lodge II at Walnut Grove
• The Lyric
• The Westin Milwaukee Hotel
• Uline Corporate Building H2
• UnityPoint Health – Meriter Women & Infants Center Expansion
• University of WI-Memorial Union and Alumni Park
• University of WI Oshkosh Reeve Memorial Union Expansion
• University of WI-Marshfield Wood County Everett Roehl Stem Center
• UW River Falls Falcon Center for Health, Education and Wellness
• Veritas Village
• Vonco Products at the Salem Business Park

Questions? Call 414-225-1803 or email Jenny Byington at jbyington@dailyreporter.com.

Top Projects of 2016

The men and women involved with Milwaukee’s Intermodal Station Train Shed and Platforms renovation celebrate their Best in Show win on Tuesday night at the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee. The intermodal group bested 45 other Top Projects for the Best in Show honor. (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)

Nearly 700 of our closest friends were in attendance Tuesday at The Daily Reporter’s Top Projects of 2016 event at the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee.

(Staff photos by Kevin Harnack)

Meet this year’s Top Projects:

Best in Show

Every year, a panel of industry experts along with The Daily Reporter staff selects a Best in Show honoree from among the Top Projects award winners. In keeping with their normal practice, the six judges enlisted for our 2016 contest looked closely at each of the 46 projects that received awards this year. As is almost always true, the competition was fierce this time around, as evidenced by that fact that four projects tied for second place. But once the votes were tallied, it was clear one Top Project stood out from the others

833 East

The 833 East building towers over downtown Milwaukee, just a few blocks from Lake Michigan. It’s a permanent and constant reminder of what construction crews can accomplish.

Acuity Insurance East Galleria

Chris Kyte spent three years building Acuity Insurance’s East Galleria. But when he returned for an open house in February, he struggled to spot where the new construction picked up from the old.

Artist Lofts

If restoration projects are usually meant to make the best of what’s at hand, Manitowoc’s Artist Lofts — completed in June 2016 — presents a shining example of what can be accomplished.

Aurora Health Center Southern Lakes

The Aurora Health Center Southern Lakes center in Burlington embraces its rural setting, incorporating views of a neighboring nature preserve and its tranquil surroundings.

Badger Meter Customer Experience

Badger Meter’s Customer Experience Center project called not only for satisfying an important client, but also building around existing infrastructure and meeting a hard deadline.

CH Coakley Northpark Center

Speed was the driving force behind the transformation of a Kohl’s distribution building into the CH Coakley Northpark Center in Menomonee Falls.

Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin – Mequon Clinic

The team leaders for the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin-Mequon Clinic got an unexpected response when first seeking city approval for the project design.

Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin – Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

With its renovated Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin plans to provide the best possible care to life’s most precious gifts.

Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin – Midtown Clinic

A vacant big-box retail store wasn’t exactly what Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin’s leaders originally envisioned when following through on a promise to put clinics where patients need them.

City of Eau Claire Wastewater Treatment Facility Improvements – Phase 2

Thirty-three years was long enough to wait for the next round of upgrades at Eau Claire’s wastewater treatment facility.

Dickson Hollow Senior Housing Campus

Design, form and function all converge in the Dickson Hollow Senior Housing Campus, a 300,000 square-foot project with 180 units.

Echelon Apartments

The Echelon Apartments in Wauwatosa blends the old with the new, borrowing from the walled gardens of Europe and complementing the Tudor Revival Style of historic buildings with contemporary construction.

Eleven25 at Pabst

Although the former Pabst bottling building is now being used in an entirely different way than it was in the 20th century, it still presents visitors with plenty of reminders of the past.

Emerald Row Apartments

At the Emerald Row Apartments in Oak Creek, tenants enjoy luxury accommodations that introduce certain urban qualities into a suburban environment.

Forest Ridge Elementary School

Wetlands, an endangered bat and limited access turned an ideal site for building the Forest Ridge Elementary School into a challenge.

Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin – Birth Center

Froedtert Hospital’s Birth Center has been born again, thanks to The Boldt Co.

Galaxie

The renters of the 202 luxury apartments in the 14-story Galaxie on East Washington Avenue can get by with having a smaller orbit in their daily lives than most Madison residents.

The Ghost Train

They call it the Ghost Train, but the only thing supernatural about it is the way it won support from almost everyone in the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood from the start.

Grande Cheese Home Office

The Grande Cheese Co. didn’t let state lines get in the way when selecting the team that would assemble the company’s new home office in Fond du Lac.

Henry Vilas Zoo Badger Exhibit

In just over three months in 2016, Milwaukee-based C.G. Schmidt turned a grassy area at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison into an eye-catching year-round exhibit featuring the state animal: the badger.

I-39/90 and WIS 11 (Avalon Road) Interchange

As a way to improve traffic flow and safety at interchanges, diamonds are an engineer’s best friend.

Lakefront Gateway I-794 Ramps at Lincoln Memorial Drive

What’s a better pairing than a recently rehabilitated bridge and a new gateway to the city of Milwaukee’s lakefront?

The Lux

The Lux apartments in Madison give the idea of having your car valet parked an entirely new twist.

Menasha Corporation Corporate Office

When officials at Menasha Corp. sought to rebuild the packaging manufacturer’s 50-year-old global headquarters in Neenah, they took time to ensure the new building would not only meet the needs of a growing workforce but also paid homage to the company’s 167-year-old history.

Metreau Apartments

The Metreau Apartments project in Green Bay, for a short while, picked up the nickname Lake Metreau.

Milwaukee Intermodal Station Train Shed & Platforms Renovation

What better way for Milwaukee — a city in the midst of a building boom — to introduce itself to visitors than with a newly built passenger-train concourse?

Milwaukee TechForce Training Center

It took a remarkable partnership to turn an old, underused building into the Milwaukee TechForce Training Center — a modern space where Milwaukee-area residents can receive the training they need for today’s jobs.

One Menasha Center

The team behind the One Menasha Center was faced with a big challenge: build a modern, eight-floor office building on a tight urban site that was once home to the 109-year-old Hotel Menasha and a First National Bank.

Platteville School District Addition & Renovation

Just as students are starting their summer break, that’s often the time Kraemer Brothers Construction — with its history of completing more than 120 educational projects — can be found getting to work.

Prairie/RiverHeath

Standing on the banks of the Fox River in the new Prairie building — the latest addition to the RiverHeath development in Appleton — residents can catch a glimpse of bald eagles soaring pass their windows.

Racine Unified School District

Thanks to a 15-year, $128 million referendum approved by voters in 2014, orange cones and hardhats are commonplace in the Racine Unified School District these days.

Red Creek Elementary School

After seeing through the adoption of a $22.5 million building referendum for a new elementary school, officials at the Black River Falls School District were anxious to make sure everything associated with the project proceeded as flawlessly as possible.

Ripon Area School District

The Ripon Area School District was at a crossroads three years ago because of long-running trouble with an old middle school and a high school in dire need of repair.

Sage on Prospect

Dominion Properties took on the daunting task last year of turning a former nursing home into a modern, “green” apartment building. The end result — Sage on Prospect — has received the U.S. Green Building Council LEED’s Platinum Certification.

Sendik’s Corporate Office

The most notable thing about the transformation of Sendik’s Corporate Office in Milwaukee is the glass.

Skyward World Headquarters

What does reaching Skyward look like? How about like a 192,000-square-foot headquarters housing nearly 1,000 employees on a 40-acre Stevens Point site next to Highway 30.

St. Cecilia Catholic Church

Standing 92 feet tall, the St. Cecilia Catholic Church belfry signals the completion of a project that has contributed to both the Wisconsin Dells’ skyline and the prosperity of its own parish.

Thedacare Regional Cancer Center

Welcoming. That was the essential word driving the design and construction of the ThedaCare Regional Cancer Center in Appleton.

Uline Distribution Center W2

Uline’s new distribution center in Pleasant Prairie is big, taking up 1.1 million square feet and housing 270 loading docks, office space and shipping and receiving offices.

Uncommon

The neighbors of the Uncommon Madison apartment project in the city’s downtown need do no more than look at the building to see how they influenced its design.

UW Health Union Corners

The UW Health Union Corners Clinic was designed with patients in mind.

Waunakee Intermediate School

Students at the new Waunakee Intermediate School are learning in a completely upgraded environment, thanks to the work of J.H. Findorff & Son, Eppstein Uhen Architects and many other construction counterparts.

Wgetthta Renovation at WGEMA Campus

Working on the Wgetthta renovation at the Wgema Campus in Milwaukee kept Mike Timmers and his crews on their toes.

Williams Bay School District

After a failed referendum in 2010, the Williams Bay School District went back to the drawing board with Milwaukee-based Eppstein Uhen Architects for almost two years to encourage community participation and dialogue.

Zoo Interchange Phase 1

After years of construction, drivers may look at the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee County almost as a concrete jungle, especially amid the changes they witness almost every day travelling through the state’s busiest interchange.

Zurn Industries

One of the largest obstacles Fond du Lac-based C.D. Smith Construction faced while building the Zurn Industries headquarters in Milwaukee had little to do with actual construction.

Nearly 750 of the construction industry’s leaders were in attendance Thursday night in Milwaukee for The Daily Reporter’s 17th annual Top Projects of 2015 event.

Forty projects from around the state were honored, including the massive Zoo Interchange project, the Hoan Bridge, the Cana Island Light Station in Door County and an addition and a renovation of the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Top Projects of 2015 – Best in Show

This year’s Top Projects of 2015 Best in Show award goes to the Advanced Care Center at Froedtert Hospital & the Medical College of Wisconsin.

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Beaumont Place development turns into ‘a cool thing’

The chance to work on a residential redevelopment in Whitefish Bay and do some infill construction in the village all proved to be too much of an opportunity to pass up for Greenfire Management Services.

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Restoration guides Cana lighthouse through shoals of disrepair

Perched near the tip of Door County, the Cana Island Lighthouse has helped guide ships from its perch near the tip of Door County since being built in 1869.

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Carthage’s Straz Center earns an ‘A’

For Riley Construction project manager Paul Miller, it’s the details — whether they’re the light fixtures that resemble molecules or the DNA-like pattern on the carpet — that set apart the remodeling and expansion project at Carthage College’s David A. Straz Center for the Natural Sciences.

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Century City development replaces century-old parking lot

Although once home to industry giants A.O. Smith and Tower Automotive, the site of the new Century City 1 industrial development had been a parking lot for nearly 100 years.

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Teamwork, communication help massive project come together quickly

Justin Gelhausen of Wall-tech is still amazed at just how quickly the enormous Christian Education Leadership Academy came together.

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Time flies for Dane County airport project

Expansions of parking structures tend to be straight-forward projects.

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Hematology, oncology center gives patients a non-hospital feel

The new Fox Valley Hematology & Oncology Center was built as a one-stop home away from home for those in need of cancer and blood-disorder treatments.

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Froedtert Advanced Care Center overcomes plan changes, weather

Change might be a good thing. But that doesn’t mean it’s not difficult.

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For C.D. Smith, baggage claim rebuild is in the bag

There’s working in phases. And then there’s working in phases within phases — a lesson Dane Bernau and his crew learned when they remodeled the General Mitchell International Airport baggage claim.

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Urban look, challenging site sets HarborChase apart

HarborChase of Shorewood doesn’t look like the typical assisted-living and memory-care clinic … and that’s exactly the point.

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Hilldale Shopping Center project kept business moving

Maintaining access to businesses was one of the biggest tasks for the contractors working on the Hilldale Shopping Center redevelopment project in Madison.

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Crews hone skills on Hoan Bridge project

The finished Interstate 794 Lake Freeway, including a renovated Hoan Bridge, is the result of more than 1 million hours of labor, nearly 900 bidding opportunities and almost 3,200 pages of plans.

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Renovation project brings it all together for Kohl’s

As part of an effort to centralize a large number of staff members working in various offices, Menomonee Falls-based Kohl’s Corp. looked to an existing manufacturing building and began drafting plans to renovate it.

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Writing’s on the wall at Kromrey Middle School

When community members of the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District approved a referendum that called for putting $50 million toward addition and renovation work, they knew they’d essentially be getting a new Kromrey Middle School.

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Crews deliver on-time arrival for La Crosse airport renovation

Construction crews are always up against a few obstacles when they are asked to overhaul a commercial building while its owners work to keep everything humming away inside.

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Norwegian Heritage Center embraces both modern, traditional look

For the architect Kirk Lundgren, designing Livsreise: Norwegian Heritage Center in downtown Stoughton was a journey.

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MACC Fund Center project a breath of fresh air

There was a big to-do list at the MACC Fund Center, which treats children suffering from cancer and blood disorders.

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Museum redo, addition is a piece of art

Take a proposed addition, plans for a renovation, two immediately recognizable existing buildings and add water.

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Summerfest comes out of shadows with new administration building

With the reconstruction of Interstate 794 getting underway above them, officials at Milwaukee World Festival Inc. decided to break ground on a project of their own.

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Here’s the church, here’s the new addition

Northbrook Church in the village of Richfield doesn’t look like what many would picture as a typical building of worship.

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Drexel Town Square work proceeds above remnants of old buildings

Kevin Day and his crew weren’t about to let a little buried concrete bother them when working on Oak Creek’s Drexel Town Square development.

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PSG Inc. delivers on WVA Inc.’s headquarters

Officials at the optical-supply distributor WVA Inc. presented PSG Inc. with quite the challenge for their new headquarters.

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Palace Cinema provides model for future Marcus theaters

With the Palace Cinema, film fans got more than the latest and greatest in movie-going accommodations.

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Posner Building renovations hit home

Renovations at the former Posner Building offered more than an opportunity to spruce up a prime example of historic architecture.

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Kraemer Bros. pulls out all stops for biochemistry ‘mega’ project

Their mission — and the Kraemer Brothers team gladly accepted it — was to build a 100,000-square-foot distribution center for a leader in the biochemistry and molecular-biology industries.

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Rogers Memorial Hospital design creates healing environment

When Rogers Memorial Hospital looked to renovate an existing structure and open a new acute-care center in Brown Deer, it sought to remove the building’s institutional look and create a soothing, healing environment.

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Sojourner Family Peace Center about more than a building

The Sojourner Family Peace Center proved that a construction project is sometimes about more than a building.

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St. Ann Center project includes it all, even kitchen sink

When talking about the new St. Ann Center Integrational Care Bucyrus campus, it’s easier to list what didn’t go into the project.

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Candy factory sweet spot for Brix Apartment project

When crews arrived at the Brix Apartment site, they weren’t exactly sure what they might find — or what they might want to keep from the former candy factory.

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Molasses doesn’t slow work on The Charmant

From trading post to candy factory to furniture store and, now, boutique hotel —The Charmant Hotel in La Crosse has seen a lot of life since being built in 1898.

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Domain apartments could have sunk, instead soars

Code conflicts led to some clever redesigning of The Domain apartment complex in Madison.

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ThedaCare project just what the doctor ordered

It’s not often that construction crews have to worry about shaking up an operating room.

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Check it out: Tippecanoe library renovation incorporates latest technology

Simultaneous exterior and interior construction complicated staging for the first major renovation of the Milwaukee Public Library System’s Tippecanoe Branch since it was built in 1969.

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Kenwood complex gives UWM flair for dramatics

David Albrecht never guessed that a greenhouse could determine the course of construction at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s new Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex.

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ProHealth Care project brings it all under one roof

As part of ProHealth Care’s work to improve the health of its patients in Waukesha and surrounding places, the company pursued a new outpatient cancer center that would bring its various services under one roof.

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UW Health breaks mold with American Center campus

UW Health at The American Center isn’t a hospital.

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Pritzlaff building proves to be historic challenge

It wasn’t easy to resurrect the boarded-up relic crews inherited with the Ward 4 project.

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West Allis industrial project satisfies pent-up demand for space

The redevelopment of the former Yellow Freight site in West Allis was so successful, crewmembers began working on an expansion as soon as their initial work on the building was finished.

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Zoo Interchange crews drive project home, even during harsh winter

The Watertown Plank Road interchange is just a piece of the massive puzzle that is the Zoo Interchange overhaul.

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