The best of the best

The hardest part of our annual Top Projects competition is picking the Top Projects.

For the second straight year, the construction industry sent us more than 100 projects from which to choose. It wasn't lost on the judges that each of those jobs was a source of pride for the companies involved. You wouldn't have taken the time to send them in if you didn't think they deserved recognition.

Every one of those projects had a moment of greatness, a feat of ingenuity, a challenge that stretched the imagination of the construction team.

How could you not admire the creativity of CG Schmidt Inc. during its church project at St. Martin of Tours in Franklin? The Milwaukee contractor had to put part of the project on hold as bats in the belfry caused a three-week delay.

When the bats flew the coop, pigeons came home to roost, leaving their mark on anything and anyone below. So the project superintendent used silicone and eight-penny nails to create a picket fence on the building to ward off the pigeons.

How could you not feel for the project team working on the Fox River Mall amenities project in Appleton? Not only were they forced to work at night after the mall closed, but workers also had to ride bikes from one end of the mall to the other. From end to end around each corridor, those workers were riding about a mile through the mall. They used the bikes and a three-wheeler to transport materials.

Potter Lawson Inc. designed a renovation and addition for the Mazzuchelli Center on the Edgewood College campus in Madison that included wall panels made from sunflower seeds and wheat fiber.

Miron Construction Co. Inc.'s crew on the University of Wisconsin-Madison Crew House project couldn't start work until 8 a.m. each day because college students were sleeping nearby. Those restrictions got even tighter during finals week.

You won't find these projects in the following pages, but in no way does that diminish their achievements.

No project is as easy as it might look on paper. Every job requires that the construction team string together a chain of small miracles to achieve the stated goal.

Twenty projects earned top honors in this magazine, but all 103 demanded our respect.

- Chris Thompson