Boston – Built Environment Plus (BE+) held its 2024 Green Building Showcase Awards Program and Celebration on Oct. 29. It was hosted for a second year by WS Development at One Boston Wharf Road in Boston’s Seaport District, with over 300 in attendance.
“The work we do is really hard, and the Massachusetts green building community sets such an important example for the nation to follow,” said Meredith Elbaum, executive director of BE+. “The thing that got me most excited about this year’s showcase was the way the roadmaps that have been laid out for building decarbonization are starting to take hold in such concrete ways. In addition to dozens of incredible projects that were part of the awards program, the event showcased the Massachusetts Embodied Carbon Challenge case studies; people literally stepped onto the first commercial pour of fossil-free Sublime Cement, and we announced that BE+ was awarded a major grant by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to help decarbonize our existing building stock.”
The Green Building of the Year Award went to Arrowstreet for its Boardwalk Campus project in Acton, Mass. Designed as the first Double Zero school (net zero energy and water) in Massachusetts, Boardwalk Campus is the first all-electric net-zero school, funded by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, at the cost of typical non-net zero schools. According to the judges, “Every community has a school. This demonstrates all that can be achieved within a typical public-school budget and how to fully leverage that investment to benefit the community and generations of learners. Biggest bang for the buck.”
Kate Crosby won the Change Agent of the Year Award
Kate Crosby, energy manager of the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, won the Change Agent of the Year Award for her powerful contributions to the Boardwalk Campus and, by example and active knowledge-sharing, the entire Massachusetts school planning community. “Kate’s work is helping help other school districts feel confident they can succeed in pursuing zero carbon solutions, and in doing so will lead to more net zero buildings in operation and more thought leaders willing to advocate and bring others along. We need leaders who are willing to stake a claim, act on it, lead their project to success, and then, very importantly, talk about it, leveraging experience to get others to act. Kate is doing all of this and more,” said Kimberly Cullinane of Eversource, who nominated her for the award.
With a focus on replicability and maximizing impact, the awards program highlighted projects across Massachusetts and beyond that incorporate best practices on sustainability, health, equity, and resilience. The most competitive award category was Carbon & Energy, which went to Vanderweil Engineers for Cape Cod Community College’s Wilkens Science & Engineering Center, designed by Payette. The judges were impressed with “the project’s integration of multiple solutions to achieve lowered embodied and operating emissions. In particular, the creative approach to integrated passive and active building solutions and the consideration of equipment selections that would align with local labor resources made this our top project.”
The second most competitive category was the Sustainable Building Renovation award. This award went to WinnCompanies, for their innovative transformation of Stone Mill Lofts in Lawrence, Mass. into all-electric affordable housing. According to the judges, “Through an equitable vision and holistic process, Stone Mill Lofts expertly addressed the need for sustainable, beautiful and affordable spaces for everyone.”
The event was capped off with the People’s Choice Award going to WS Development for One Boston Wharf Road, the city’s largest net-zero carbon office facility, the event venue itself, and future home of Amazon’s Boston Tech Hub. The 17-story, 707,000sf, mixed-use building designed by Henning Larsen architects of Copenhagen, Denmark and the Boston office of Gensler, is the latest addition to WS Development’s Seaport project, a 33-acre, 20-block, 7.6 million sq. ft. mixed-use development.
The winners:
Green Building of the Year
Boardwalk Campus, submitted by Arrowstreet
Carbon and Energy Award
Cape Cod Community College, Wilkens Science & Engineering Center, submitted by Vanderweil Engineers
Equity and Inclusion Award
Front Street Affordable Housing Phase 1, submitted by Utile
Health and Wellness Award
Tobin Montessori and Vassal Lane Upper Schools, submitted by Perkins Eastman
Site and Landscape Award
Boston City Hall Plaza
Boston City Hall Plaza Renovation, submitted by Sasaki
Sustainable Building Operations Award
Orchard Gardens: Deep Energy Retrofit, submitted by West Work
Sustainable Building Renovation Award
Stone Mill Lofts, submitted by WinnCompanies
Sustainable Construction Innovation Award
49% Embodied Carbon Reduction in Concrete, submitted by Turner
Sustainable Interior Fit-out Award
CarGurus Boston HQ, submitted by Structure Tone
Student Project of the Year
The New Museum of Architecture and Design, submitted by Ella Schmid & Sofia Nolan (Wentworth Institute of Technology)
People’s Choice Award
One Boston Wharf Road
One Boston Wharf Road, submitted by WS Development
Change Agent of the Year Award
Kate Crosby, energy manager of the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District
