What Last Year’s Award Winners Reveal About Design-Build Excellence

Looking across last year’s Project/Team Award winners, a clear pattern emerges. The projects that stood out combined strong Owner leadership, meaningful community engagement and disciplined collaboration applied decisively across a wide range of conditions, project types and delivery contexts.

Spanning major transportation infrastructure, emergency response and civic facilities, the projects recognized in 2025 illustrate how design-build excellence takes shape in practice. Together, they offer a clear signal of what the industry’s highest-performing teams look like as the 2026 Design-Build Project/Team Awards cycle begins.

2026 Award Submissions Are Now Open!

This year’s application process is more streamlined and flexible than ever, making it easier to tell your project’s story and highlight what truly sets it apart.

Winning teams and projects will be honored at this year’s Awards Ceremony at the Design-Build Conference & Expo in Cleveland, Ohio in November.

The submission deadline is Monday, June 1, 2026 (there will no extended deadline). Please review our FAQs and Submission Guidelines before starting the application process.

Excellence Grounded in Real-World Impact

Two very different DBIA award-winning projects in 2025 — one a major aviation hub, the other an emergency response effort — illustrate how design-build excellence shows up across scale, sector and circumstance.

The Kansas City International Airport New Single Terminal and Garage project demonstrated how large, complex infrastructure can extend beyond efficient construction to fundamentally improve the passenger experience. As the city’s largest-ever infrastructure investment, the $1.5 billion Progressive Design-Build effort replaced three aging terminals with a single, modern facility delivered 60 days early and $45 million under budget. From intuitive wayfinding and open sightlines to accessible connections, quiet rooms and sensory spaces, the team focused on how people actually move through and experience the airport, creating a terminal that feels calm and welcoming while remaining easy to navigate even at peak demand.

The Hurricane Ian Sanibel Island Access project showed design-build excellence under entirely different conditions. When Hurricane Ian severed the only connection between the mainland and the islands of Sanibel and Captiva, the design-build team mobilized within days under extreme constraints to restore emergency access and chart a path to permanent repairs. Through close coordination with state leaders, emergency responders and local stakeholders, the team reestablished critical connectivity, supported community recovery and delivered a resilient new causeway months ahead of schedule, demonstrating how collaboration can provide both immediate relief and long-term protection.

In both cases, success was measured by outcomes that mattered to the people who depended on the infrastructure, including reliable service, long-term performance and resilience.

Owner Leadership Sets the Tone

Several award-winning projects underscored the role of strong Owner leadership in shaping successful outcomes.

New York City’s Orchard Beach Maintenance and Operations Building was notable not just for the facility itself, but for what it represented: a clear commitment to collaborative delivery and a broader shift in how the Owner approached capital projects. As the NYC Department of Design and Construction’s first project delivered under the 2019 Public Works Investment Act, Orchard Beach helped catalyze a broader cultural shift across city agencies and partners. The Owner established a dedicated Design-Build Unit, invested in DBIA professional certification and training for more than 150 staff and extended that training to partner agencies. That approach laid the groundwork for design-build’s long-term success citywide.

The Clackamas County Circuit Courthouse reflected similar principles, grounded in a deliberate shift away from an outdated facility toward a civic landmark built on transparency, security and public trust. As a first-time design-build Owner, Clackamas County prioritized long-term value and operational performance, bringing designers, builders and operators into early alignment through a “One Team” approach. Delivered through Oregon’s first courthouse public-private partnership, the project pairs collaborative governance with an all-electric design that supports long-term sustainability and public confidence.

These projects reinforced a simple truth: when Owners lead with clarity and intent, design-build teams are better positioned to deliver meaningful results.

Community Engagement Strengthens Outcomes

Another defining characteristic across last year’s top projects was meaningful engagement with the communities these projects were built to serve.

At Kansas City International Airport, the design-build team prioritized passenger experience and local identity alongside technical delivery, making Kansas City itself visible throughout the terminal. The team partnered with local artists, makers and vendors, embedding regional culture into the passenger experience while engaging stakeholders to ensure the new terminal reflected how people actually move through and experience the airport every day.

That commitment extended to economic participation. The team set an ambitious goal of 35% utilization of underutilized business enterprises (UBEs) for professional and construction services. Ultimately, contracts were awarded to 133 minority- and women-owned Kansas City–based firms totaling more than $320 million, exceeding the city’s workforce participation goals and delivering lasting regional economic benefits. The result was infrastructure that felt intuitive, welcoming and distinctly connected to the community it serves.

Down in Sanibel, community engagement took on a different urgency. When the storm severed the only connection between the mainland and the islands of Sanibel and Captiva, coordination with local officials, emergency responders and residents became mission-critical. With power out, infrastructure damaged and no roadway access, the design-build team mobilized within days, working under austere conditions to restore emergency access and establish a clear path to permanent repairs. Frequent, direct communication, often conducted in real time as conditions shifted, helped align expectations and prioritize lifesaving access while laying the foundation for long-term resilience.

Civic projects reinforced the same lesson. The Orchard Beach Maintenance and Operations Building reflected New York City’s attention to neighborhood context and workforce needs, while the Clackamas County Circuit Courthouse team engaged stakeholders to shape a facility designed for long-term public use and trust. In each case, early and sustained engagement reduced friction, informed better decisions and strengthened public confidence in the outcome.

Carrying the Standard Forward

Together, last year’s award winners offer a clear picture of what excellence in design-build looks like today. It is collaborative, disciplined and grounded in outcomes that serve Owners, users and communities alike.

These are the qualities the 2026 Design-Build Project and Team Awards are designed to recognize. And this year, we are looking for projects that raise the bar even higher. Submissions are now open for teams whose work demonstrates strong leadership, collaborative delivery and results aligned with Design-Build Done Right®.

So ask the harder question: Does your project exceed these standards? Did your team push collaboration further, deliver greater value or set a new benchmark for what design-build can achieve? If so, we want to see it.

Awards are given to projects that exemplify the principles of Design-Build Done Right®, including:

Design-Build Awards of Merit
Design-Build Awards of Excellence
Best In Awards
Specialty Owner Awards
Trailblazer in Inclusive Growth Award
Project of the Year

The submission deadline is Monday, June 1 (there will be no submission extension deadline).

Stay tuned for an upcoming episode of the Design-Build Delivers Podcast for tips and helpful advice that will help you craft the most effective awards submission possible.