MSU, Camp Wakonda team take home construction honors

Projects built on collaboration garnered top awards during last night’s 2014 Salute to Design and Construction awards banquet at the Ramada Plaza Hotel & Oasis Convention Center.

Missouri State University took home top honors as Developer of the Year after completing 75 projects valued at over $53 million in the last 12 months. Camp Wakonda Shower House contractors received the night’s other top honor as Project Team of the Year.

With the award presented for MSU’s partnership between the administration, student body and office of planning, design and construction, school President Clif Smart said the university’s new athletic field system has transformed the campus.

“It’s created an awareness of the Missouri State brand and an excitement on campus,” he said to the room of roughly 340 industry leaders who turned out for the 30th annual event. “The good news is, we are not done. We fully expect to be back next year as we continue work on buildings like Sunvilla, Hill and Glass Hall, which will become a signature building on our campus.”

Collaboration also was the name of the game for the Project Team of the Year, with donated time and equipment to construct the roughly 1,600-square-foot shower house for the Ozarks Regional YMCA.

“I’m not sure these builders understand what a difference they have made in the lives of these children,” said YMCA District Director of Operations Gordon Brown. “I met a 13-year-old girl at the start of camp this year who didn’t want to be there. … By the end, she didn’t want to leave.

“These improvements made a difference for her, and builders make a difference in people’s lives every day.”

Other honorees of the night were Brent Cruse of DeWitt & Associates Inc., who received the Superintendent of the Year award from the American Institute of Architects for his work on CoxHealth’s Ozarks Dialysis clinic. Randy Martin of St. Louis-based Byrne & Jones Construction was named AIA Craftsman of the Year for his dirt work on the MSU athletic field improvements.

The Southwest Missouri Chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction also honored two females in the trade. Cheryl Griffeth, an estimator at Killian Construction Co., took home the Vesta honor, given to a woman with over 10 years of construction experience. The Rosebud award, which honors a woman with under 10 years of construction experience, went to interior designer Brandi Bailey of Buxton Kubik Dodd Creative.

The 2014 ceremony was organized by the Salute to Design and Construction Council, which represents 26 organizations including the Springfield Contractors Association, Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, the AIA, NAWIC and several unions.

Reporter Brian Brown contributed to this article.[[In-content Ad]]